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Your nonprofit & nonpartisan state newsroom dedicated to explaining how government impacts our lives.
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Senate Bill 43, signed into law in 2023, broadened a nearly 60-year-old framework known as the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act for determining when someone is so “gravely disabled” that they can no longer care for themselves.
The new law allows more people to qualify for involuntary treatment. “Gravely disabled” used to mean someone could not provide for their basic needs of food, clothing or shelter due to severe mental illness or chronic alcoholism. Now, it also includes people who cannot provide for their safety or medical care, as well as people who are incapacitated due to severe substance use disorder.
📷 Pablo Unzueta
13 Nov 2026
These professors aren’t breaking any rules. In fact, there are no rules that prevent community college adjuncts from teaching at more than one district.
Professor Thien-Huong Ninh Villarreal has at least two tenured, full-time community college jobs, plus recurring part-time gigs over the past 12 months at UC Berkeley, Cal State Sacramento, and seven other community colleges. This fall, she’s teaching 30 sociology, ethnic studies and business classes to about 1,100 students.
In 2024, with roughly the same courseload, she made nearly $800,000, according to public payroll records.
Here’s how she did it. Read more of our investigation at the link.
🎨 Adriana Heldiz
📷 Larry Valenzuela, Lauren Justice
12 Nov 2026
In this commentary for CalMatters, Voices editor Yousef Baig writes that even without the billionaire tax, California already pays a price for its wealth.
"California voters have done right by their local billionaires," Baig writes. "They rejected the wealth tax."
"With The Associated Press announcing it failed nearly one week after Election Day, a political fight that garnered national attention has reached an unsatisfactory end for many Californians. In a moment of deep economic angst, as a populist backlash against tech companies and widening inequality grew louder, the ultrarich in California have won — again."
📷 Manuel Orbegozo
10 Nov 2026
It's official. Voters rejected Proposition 40, a proposal to tax billionaires based on their net worth and financial holdings, by 52.8% to 47.2%, according to The Associated Press Monday. The measure had trailed behind for days before The Associated Press confirmed results.
From the outset, Prop. 40 revealed divisions among the Democratic Party and galvanized some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest executives to spend hundreds of millions to defeat it.
Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
09 Nov 2026
Warning: this carousel contains descriptions of sexual violence.
In one of his final acts as governor, Gavin Newsom commuted the death sentences to life in prison for each of the 548 murderers on death row, despite California voters repeatedly reaffirming their support for the death penalty over the past 50 years.
Newsom in an open letter about the commutations said the decision was among the most difficult of his career, “not because I doubt its necessity for our state but because I know its announcement may surface excruciating memories for victims’ families.”
📷 Rich Pedroncelli, AP; Sandy Friend, Francine Orr-Pool
09 Nov 2026
Jane Kim declared victory in the California insurance commissioner race on Friday, capping off what she called “the first unabashed and unapologetic populist progressive campaign.”
The former San Francisco supervisor is ahead of fellow Democrat state Sen. Ben Allen with 65% of ballots counted as of midday Friday, 53% to 47%. The Associated Press has not called the race yet.
Allen, who has termed out of the state Legislature, called Kim and congratulated her Friday morning. He said in a text message to CalMatters that he wishes Kim the best.
Photo by Beth LaBerge, KQED
06 Nov 2026
Democrats notched big wins across the country, even in deep red districts that Republicans in Texas, Florida and North Carolina had gerrymandered to benefit their own party. That begs the question — did California really need to toss aside its independent redistricting commission?
📷 Luke Johnson
06 Nov 2026
Gov. Gavin Newsom is commuting the death sentences of 548 state prisoners, saying “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values.” Victims rights advocates criticized his decision.
Since 2024, death row has been a metaphorical place. The male prisoners were cleared out of their individual cells in San Quentin State Prison and distributed among other 24 facilities. Twenty female prisoners condemned to death were moved to general population at the Central California Women’s Facility that year.
Even before Newsom’s 2019 moratorium, it had been more than a decade since the state performed an execution.
📸 Martin do Nascimento
05 Nov 2026
Xavier Becerra is California’s next governor after easily securing a victory that ensures Democrats continue their 16-year streak controlling the state.
He will be the first Latino to serve as governor in a century and a half, and the first to be elected to the seat. In a jubilant election night speech to supporters in West Sacramento, he told the crowd that his Mexican immigrant parents came to California with $12.
“A construction worker and a clerical worker earned every dollar, saved every penny,” he said of his parents. “I didn’t run to make history. I ran to make a difference … for the next construction worker and clerical worker who want to buy their own home.”
Voters across the working class Latino hub of Boyle Heights shared what the Becerra era means for them, including representation and their hope that he puts up a firm fight against ICE raids that have hit the community hard.
Audio: Mexican Rice
Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters
04 Nov 2026
California Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra will take the reins during a delicate time for California.
He faces the prospect of deeper federal healthcare cuts, skyrocketing wildfire costs and a persistent cost-of-living crisis. But many of the specifics of his policies are still unknown after he ran a quiet race as a Democrat in a safe blue state, promoting few programs and avoiding making commitments.
📷 Fred Greaves, Greg Nash-Pool
04 Nov 2026
In this commentary for CalMatters, Dan Walters writes that the most fundamental duty of a California governor is to manage the state budget.
“Newsom leaves the state with what Gabe Petek, the Legislature’s budget analyst, describes as a $29 billion ‘wall of debt’ that must eventually be repaid, echoing a term that former Gov. Jerry Brown coined in 2010,” writes Walters. “Becerra faces a stark choice.”
Photo by Fred Greaves
04 Nov 2026
As of Nov. 4, 12:56 a.m., Prop. 40 appears headed for defeat.
The proposal to levy a first-of-its-kind tax on billionaires faced steep odds with polls in recent days, forecasting voter approval well below the threshold for passage.
📸 Manuel Orbegozo
04 Nov 2026
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