CalMatters

Nine years ago today, CalMatters started publishing journalism to hold officials accountable, reveal unseen community issues and empower Californians. Our nonprofit newsroom has grown steadily over time, but this year has been especially unique: We added The Markup’s tech-focused team, hosted the inaugural CalMatters Ideas Festival in Sacramento, debuted the government transparency tool Digital Democracy, and started airing on California TV five nights a week through PBS SoCal. https://cal.news/3WafKT9 📝 Sonya Quick 📸 Larry Valenzuela

As the Supreme Court gives cities more power to ban sleeping outside, homeless Californians face a crucial decision: Try to get into a shelter, or risk going to jail. The shelters — a fallback in a state that has long resisted building costly new housing, but where officials are under intense pressure to vanquish tents — are often rife with violence, theft, disease and vermin, according to lawsuits, advocacy reports and interviews. A recent state effort to reform them is largely being ignored, public records requested by CalMatters show. Read Lauren Hepler's investigation: https://cal.news/4fljCd1 📸 Kristian Carreon #CA #California #CalMatters #homelessness #housing

Our 9-year anniversary fundraising drive starts today. Californians deserve unbiased, independent news. Please give what you can to support our mission today → https://cal.news/4cIMPga

CalMatters journalists took home the top two investigative awards, along with first place for in-depth reporting and first place for an email newsletter, at this weekend’s California Journalism Awards. Byrhonda L. won first place for her investigative reporting on California’s parolee rehabilitation failures, which triggered statewide impact. Robert Lewis and Wendy Fry won first place for environmental reporting for exposing the ways California dumps toxic waste across state borders. Lauren Hepler won first place for in-depth reporting for her four-part series dissecting the pandemic fiasco in the state’s unemployment system. Lynn La won first place in newsletter writing for the weekday WhatMatters email newsletter. Read more about the awards and our other honors: https://cal.news/4f1G2j7 📝 Sonya Quick 📸 Rahul Lal #CA #California #CalMatters #nonprofitnews #journalism

Gains in public-sector and other jobs largely supported by public money have cloaked a dismal California labor market, which has seen a big decline of private-industry jobs since their post-pandemic peak, a new analysis shows. The state Legislative Analyst’s Office looked at employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through April, and concluded that private-sector industries in California, including tech and finance, have lost a total of 340,000 jobs since reaching their peak a couple of years ago. https://cal.news/3XUrRWU 📝 Levi Sumagaysay 📸 Amir Aziz #CA #California #CalMatters #cajobs #caeconomy #techlayoffs

Inside the newsroom: CalMatters’ Digital Democracy initiative is already making an impact shortly after its debut. CalMatters teamed up with CBS-TV to show how advocates for fentanyl legislation were upset to learn from Digital Democracy that their bills died when legislators declined to vote. “I personally am insulted,” said the mother of a young person who died from a fentanyl overdose. “That is what they signed up for, to represent us.” And more than half of state lawmakers have been featured in CalMatters’ reporting, thanks to the artificial intelligence built into Digital Democracy that scans government data and spotlights story ideas for reporters. https://cal.news/4eYOO1t 📝 Sonya Quick 📸 Fred Greaves #CA #California #CalMatters #CAleg #digitaldemocracy

“Despite identifying 1,053 violations in employee housing facilities in 2022, the last year for which data is available — including electrical hazards and exposed wiring, mold, living rooms with more than seven beds, missing fire extinguishers and windows that didn’t open — the department did not issue a single citation.” State inspectors are supposed to visit all farmworker housing to ensure its safety. Some used FaceTime instead. Story via Felicia Mello , me, Data journalist Erica Yee and huge thanks Nicole Foy Alejandra Reyes-Velarde for helping us get it started many many months ago. And huge thanks to Andy Donohue. 🙏🏽 https://lnkd.in/gXgmzQ76

When Antonio Bravo stepped into the Salinas hotel in May 2020, he first noticed a foul smell. Then he saw the bare metal cot with no mattress that his employer, which supplied workers to pick strawberries for brands like Driscoll’s, had given him to sleep on after long days in the fields. When he and his roommates asked a supervisor to eradicate the bedbugs in their room, they say he told them to buy their own insecticide. Through an attorney, several workers complained to state regulators, who visited the hotel in the summer of 2020 but said in inspection records they found no violations of state law. As the number of agricultural guest workers like Bravo has risen dramatically in California, the episode highlights how state regulators have struggled to ensure that farms are providing safe housing to their workers. 🔗 Read Felicia Mello's investigation: https://cal.news/3xE5Aly 📸 Enrique Castro #CA #California #CalMatters #agriculture #guestworker

🎉 👏 CalMatters journalists were honored Thursday night with awards for “deep” and “compelling” coverage in the Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego awards contest. Kervy Justo Robles and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde were awarded first place for feature reporting on a serious subject for their story, “Border Patrol dropped 42,000 migrants on San Diego streets. Now county, groups are seeking help.” Alejandro Lazo was awarded first place for reporting on housing and development for his story, “Corporate landlord’s California buying spree alarms tenants: ‘I only earn enough to pay the rent.’” And Kristian Carreon, a freelance photojournalist for CalMatters, was awarded second place for a feature photo on the story, “California child welfare agencies under fire for pocketing foster kids’ Social Security money.” More info: https://cal.news/3XIMOnR 📸 Ariana Drehsler for CalMatters

For decades, the California Legislature has wrestled with how to fix workers’ comp — in some recent years, lawmakers proposed nearly two dozen bills. In 2020 lawmakers took a major step, adding a legal shortcut or “presumption” to the state labor code, stipulating that firefighters and other first responders are considered at high risk for PTSD in the course of doing their job. In practice, experts say that, despite the law, proving a mental health claim is still as difficult to overcome as the psychological injury itself. Break a leg while fighting a wildfire, and, when it’s backed up with x-rays, claims are approved. But break your mind after decades of exposure to on-the-job trauma? Prepare for battle. Read Julie Cart's story: https://cal.news/3RICMit 📸 Loren Elliott #CA #California #CalMatters #CalFire #CAMentalHealth #CaliforniaFireFighters #PSTD #FireFightersMentalHealth