Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking a well-deserved holiday break and will return to your inboxes on Monday, Jan. 6.

For California nurses seeking help with alcohol or drug abuse, the road to recovery through a program managed by their licensing board can be fraught, writes CalMatters health reporter Kristen Hwang.

Research shows that at least 1 in 10 health care workers will develop a substance use disorder during their career. To protect patients, California passed a law in 2008 creating standards for each state licensing board detailing how they should manage workers dealing with addiction. These regulations include drug testing, restricting travel and psychiatric evaluations.

Some nurses say the rules are too harsh. That includes Bobbie Sage, who has never been diagnosed as an alcoholic but was charged with a misdemeanor in 2014 for driving under the influence. After completing three years of criminal probation without incident, her licensing board ordered her to complete an additional probation program.

Unable to afford the monthly drug tests or fine, Sage ultimately dropped out of the program. She surrendered her license in 2019.

• Sage: “I haven’t been a perfect person in my life, but I’ve been a good person. I’ve taken full responsibility, and I don’t believe we should keep punishing someone for a misdemeanor that happened 10 years ago.”

What about medical doctors? The recovery program has never included doctors, but the state board that licenses most doctors plans to push for one that focuses on early intervention and is disconnected from its disciplinary power.

Learn more about the changes nurses are demanding for their recovery program and the proposal for doctors to have their own program in Kristen’s stories.

Speaking of health care: It’s been two months since Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Southern California began their strike. As Democratic legislative leaders put pressure on Kaiser to end the labor dispute, patients are having a hard time finding adequate care during the walkout. Read more from CalMatters local news fellow Joe Garcia.

Today state and federal officials are announcing new operating arrangements for delivering water sourced from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The plan will direct exports of water from two major systems (the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project) that together serve 29.5 million people and 3.7 million acres of farmland. 

The announcement follows the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation final review of several options for operating the water projects, which it released in November. Ironing out the plan over the years has been highly contentious: In 2020, California sued to block rules from the Donald Trump administration that regulated the state’s allocation of Delta water, arguing the rules threatened endangered fish. In response, the president-elect has warned he’ll withhold federal wildfire aid (prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to draft a back-up funding plan).

But environmentalists aren’t too thrilled about the alternate proposal developed by the Biden and Newsom administrations either. They argue that plan could be more harmful for fish migrating through the Delta — including Chinook salmon, which have been declining for decades. Cities, however, as well as urban and farm water supply groups, support the plan.

Let’s dive into some employment news:

• Building bikes, careers: A state grant program is helping to fund a San Jose nonprofit that helps veterans, formerly unhoused people and those who had run-ins with the law learn how to manage a business. Participants rotate jobs within a bike repair shop — gaining experience in accounting and marketing — and have the opportunity to work 40-hour work weeks. But like all grant programs, future funding is hazy. Said the director of the state’s workforce development board: “We can’t lobby, we can’t ask the Legislature for money, we can’t do any of that.” Read more from Zayna Syed.

• Jobs in the rural north: In the northernmost part of California, known as the Redwood Curtain, there is no shortage of natural beauty. But for the people living in counties including Del Norte, Humboldt and Shasta, there are fewer educational opportunities and high-paying jobs. One association, backed by the federal Department of Labor, is trying to boost employment opportunities by providing one-on-one mentoring, training supplies and even money for work clothes. Read more from Fiona Kelliher.

Declining enrollment and the end of pandemic aid have left schools in financial peril. CalMatters K-12 education reporter Carolyn Jones and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on Carolyn’s story on the challenges districts face when shutting down schools as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

And check out Robert’s video on a measure Los Angeles voters passed to expand their county’s five-member board of supervisors, which supporters say is a step toward better representation. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

For nearly three years, bird flu has devastated poultry farms across the U.S. and California. The virus has since spread among cattle and there have been 34 confirmed human cases in the state — mostly among poultry and dairy workers — since the spring. 

While there have been no known cases of human-to-human transmission so far, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday issued an emergency proclamation to combat the spread of the virus and provide state and local agencies “additional flexibility around staffing, contracting, and other rules to support California’s evolving response.”

• Newsom, in a statement: “Building on California’s testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information.”

In California most of the outbreak has been concentrated in Tulare County, the nation’s biggest milk producer, where there have been 18 human bird flu cases. In a statement, Republican Assemblymember Alexandra Macedo, a Visalia Republican who represents parts of Tulare, blasted Newsom for his “inaction” and failure to fund adequate testing. The virus has also shown up in at least 17 wastewater systems. 

Farmworkers have reported flu-like symptoms and pink eye, and one Alameda County child had mild upper respiratory symptoms. Local health departments and farms have responded by distributing personal protective equipment, but worker advocates argue the state isn’t doing enough and testing for infected cattle has been slow.

But even if you don’t work near livestock, the bird flu could still affect your life. Maurice Pitesky, an associate professor at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, says the outbreak could have huge ramifications “when it comes to food security.”

• Pitesky: “Egg prices are near historic highs. … This ultimately affects the animal protein we can produce, and the ability of these farmers to survive. This is historic, we never had anything like this before.”

Pitesky also cited a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in Science earlier this month that found that a single mutation of the virus could lead to a much more infectious variant among humans.

To protect yourself, Pitesky suggests avoiding drinking raw milk. And if you raise chickens in your backyard (there’s an estimated 100,000 “backyard poultry premises” in the state), you should wash your hands regularly and have dedicated clothing that is only worn outside.

The Biden administration on Wednesday gave the green light to California’s mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars — but this will likely face challenges under the incoming Donald Trump presidency, writes CalMatters climate reporter Alejandro Lazo.

For over 50 years, the federal Clean Air Act has included carve outs for California to set its own stricter auto emissions standards — a vital arrangement that enables the state to combat air pollution. These exclusions are authorized by federal waivers and are required before California can begin implementing each of its own standards. 

The latest waiver allows the state to proceed with its requirement that 35% of new 2026 model cars sold in California be zero-emissions, and 100% in 2035. Nearly all zero-emission cars are electric.

In addition to challenging other California environmental policies, Trump is expected to deny or revoke the state’s emissions waivers. He tried to do this during his first term, and in October said no state would be allowed to ban gas-powered cars under his presidency.

Learn more about the electric car mandate in Alejandro’s story.

Let’s get into some education news:

• Civics education: This year, the Legislature failed to pass two bills aimed at strengthening student civic engagement. Schools serving low-income students are less likely to offer a robust civics education because they typically do not have the resources to support extracurricular activities that reinforce civics education, such as student councils and school newspapers. Read more from CalMatters K-12 education reporter Carolyn Jones.

• Campus protests: Fallout from spring demonstrations and pro-Palestinian encampments that erupted on campuses in protest of the Gaza war continues. In September, lawmakers passed a measure requiring the University of California and California State University to create training so that students know “what constitutes violent, harassing, intimidating, or discriminatory conduct…” Meanwhile, some of the roughly 560 students and faculty who faced discipline or were arrested are still facing charges or are suing their campuses. Read more from June Hsu and Lizzy Rager of CalMatters’ College Journalism Network.

Californians purchasing a faulty car will have to navigate an updated version of the state’s “lemon law” beginning Jan. 1. But lawmakers are already working on a proposal to allow car companies to opt out of the new rules. Find out why from CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow.

From CalMatters’ Wendy Fry: 

As California’s “Trump-proofing” efforts continue, Attorney General Rob Bonta was in Los Angeles Tuesday, issuing new “Know Your Rights” guidance for immigrant communities and warning people about notario fraud. 

Bonta reminded immigrants of their rights to an attorney; to access their police report; to apply for secure housing without sharing their immigration status; and to access emergency medical care. Immigrants, regardless of their legal status, have a right to a workplace free of harassment and discrimination, said Bonta. 

• Bonta: “Your employer cannot threaten to call immigration authorities as retaliation against you.”

Typically held by immigrant rights organizations, “Know Your Rights” workshops aim to offer immigrants tools for protecting their rights and to alleviate community fears about President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to conduct mass deportations. 

Tuesday’s event, held at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, was the first in a series of statewide sessions and a signal of how hard California officials plan to push back. 

Both Bonta and other immigrant advocates have warned people to be careful about the legal help they seek and to only use qualified and licensed immigration attorneys. Scams offering fake immigration services or extorting payments by threatening deportation target vulnerable communities, especially in Los Angeles. Experts believe the scams are vastly underreported.

“Now is not the time to go to a notario, even if it feels urgent, even if it seems cheap,” said Gina Amato Lough, the directing attorney of the Immigrants’ Rights Project at Los Angeles-based Public Counsel, a nonprofit civil rights law firm. 

Bonta advised people to find legal aid through LawHelpCA.org. Amato Lough said people should always request receipts; request documents be translated into their first language; and make sure they carefully review any documents they sign.

A handful of California community colleges are piloting a new model for education that focuses on skills rather than grades. But some faculty members at Madera Community College argue that the experiment is doing too much, too soon, writes CalMatters community college reporter Adam Echelman.

In 2021, state lawmakers allocated more than $4 million to expand competency-based learning at eight community colleges, including Madera. Under this model, some schools offer no grades nor lectures, but do provide students materials to teach themselves. Students then must prove they have the relevant skills or “competency” through exams. The pilot is geared toward working adults, many of whom left community college during the pandemic, and have obligations outside of school.

But designing a degree program with this model is a tall order: It often means changing a college’s accreditation, its employee contracts and its financial aid system. Faculty at Madera said the college should opt out of the pilot — going against the college’s leadership, business community members and other local officials who stand by the program.

Read more about the debate dividing Madera’s campus in Adam’s story.

To boost California’s workforce and connect underrepresented populations — such as veterans, people with disabilities and immigrants — with jobs, the state has awarded over $52 million to various workforce development programs since 2014.

But how well is this effort, known as the Workforce Accelerator Fund, going? Zayna Syed looks into one apprenticeship that helps child care center employees work while they earn teaching permits in early childhood education. Other fund projects include building career pipelines in the hotel and wastewater industries.

Developed by the Service Employees International Union and its partner organizations, such as the YMCA of the East Bay, this child care apprenticeship serves mostly women — many of whom are low-income and immigrants.

But the fund program does have some shortfalls: Because it is intentionally broad and has funded various organizations, it’s difficult to measure the fund’s impact. Tracking systemic changes and past grantees also require time and money. 

Learn more about the Workforce Accelerator Fund in Zayna’s story.

In CalMatters’ latest installment of our series about new laws taking effect Jan. 1: State-licensed treatment centers for children and youth are required to be more transparent over their use of restraints and seclusion rooms. Find out how and why media personality Paris Hilton is involved.

Public frustrations about organized retail theft and drug crimes galvanized California voters to overwhelmingly pass Proposition 36 in November. But the measure may invite another consequence, writes CalMatters criminal justice reporter Nigel Duara: More deaths in California jails.

Championed by law enforcement groups, Republican legislators and some Democrats, Prop. 36 increases penalties for certain crimes and allows district attorneys to charge some misdemeanors as felonies. 

It will also likely increase populations in county jails, state prisons and private detention centers, though experts are split on how much. An analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that Prop. 36 would increase the populations of county jails and those under community supervision (which together is roughly 250,000) by “a few thousand.” But an analysis by Californians for Safety and Justice, which opposed Prop. 36, estimates it would add more than 130,000 people in jail each year.

This has advocates, academics and families of people who died in jail worried: Over the last 10 years, the number of people dying in jails has increased, even though California has been locking up fewer people. Jails in Tulare, San Diego and Riverside counties have some of the highest jail death rates in the state. 

A rise in overdoses is partly the reason why deaths are increasing, as well as suicide and other “natural causes.” Jails are responsible for inmates’ health care, but with more people behind bars — including those with complex mental health needs — the facilities could become more strained, says Yusef Miller, who leads a group of San Diego families whose relatives died in jails.

• Miller: “We’ve been claiming that Prop. 36 is going to increase the jail population, of course, but they’re increasing it into an already failed and broken system where people’s lives are lost from neglect. If you put more pressure and more activity on this, it’s going to fail even more.”

But Don Barnes, Orange County’s sheriff and president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association, argues that the increase of in-custody deaths isn’t necessarily tied with issues directly “related to the jail.”

• Barnes: “Saying people died in jails is a little bit of a misnomer. People who are dying in our care, and I can’t say this any other way, they’re not dying because they’re in jail. They are dying from things that are life choices, narcotics issues, poor health, cancer, other things.” 

In recent years, the Board of State and Community Corrections began conducting more unannounced jail inspections after receiving pressure from the public and state officials to improve quality of care. The new director overseeing in-custody death reviews is also embarking on a listening tour in at least two cities. But when asked about Prop. 36, a spokesperson for the corrections board told CalMatters it has not carried out a “formal analysis for impact.”

Read more about Prop. 36’s potential impact on jail deaths in Nigel’s story.

From CalMatters community college reporter Adam Echelman:

More than 7 million adults in California lack a college degree — and they typically make less money as a result. On Monday, standing in a welding classroom at Shasta College, a community college in Redding, Gov. Gavin Newsom presented an outline of the state’s Master Plan for Career Education. He said the plan will overhaul the state’s convoluted job training programs. 

One focus of the new plan is on translating students’ work experience into college credits. It’s already a priority for California’s 116 community colleges, which have a goal to provide at least 250,000 students with college credits for certain kinds of work experience.

In a press release, Newsom said the state would put more money into this goal and that he would roll out a new kind of transcript to help workers showcase both their academic and professional know-how. The new “Career Passports” would also help increase the number of apprentices — a key goal of his administration — according to the press release.

Research shows these adults often have the right skills, even if they lack the right diploma. In an executive order last August, Newsom asked the California Department of Human Resources to move faster — catching up with efforts that other states have already made.

Starting Jan. 1, a number of new labor laws will go into effect, potentially benefiting millions of workers and their employers statewide. 

One of the most notable of these new laws bans employers from forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings, writes CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang. Though the National Labor Relations Board has allowed these “captive audience” meetings for decades, the board under President Joe Biden has argued they are often used to intimidate employees. 

The federal board also ruled in November that the meetings violate federal law by infringing on workers’ right to unionize. Once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, however, that decision could be overturned, labor experts say. If that happens, California’s law is still applicable.

Other legislation kicking in on Jan. 1 includes enabling farmworkers to accrue paid sick leave to avoid working outside during natural disasters, and allowing workers to use sick leave when serving on a jury.

Learn more about California’s new labor laws in Jeanne’s story.

California’s public school students have improved their standardized test scores. CalMatters K-12 education reporter Carolyn Jones and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on Carolyn’s story on how schools’ investments, such as tutoring, are paying off, as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

The holidays may be coming up fast (have you finished all your gift shopping yet?) but one thing that took its time was California’s final election results. On Friday, 38 days after Election Day, Secretary of State Shirley Weber certified the results of the November election.

Some key takeaways: More than 16.1 million Californians voted, with 71% of registered voters casting ballots. And nearly 60% of all eligible voters in the state voted. Of the votes cast, roughly 81% were by mail, while 19% were in-person. (In 2020, 43% of voters nationwide cast mail-in ballots, according to the U.S. Census.)

Compared to the last presidential election, which had an especially high voter turnout, voter turnout this year fell: In 2020, more than 17.7 million Californians voted in the election between President Joe Biden and then-incumbent Donald Trump, and the turnout rates of both registered and eligible voters were about 10 percentage points higher than in 2024. 

And while there were more voters this year compared to when Trump was first elected in 2016 and both of Barack Obama’s victories in 2012 and 2008, this year saw a lower turnout rate of registered voters compared to all those three elections. That’s partly because while California added a lot more new registered voters in recent years through its automatic voter registration system, these residents may be less likely to vote regularly.

Nationally, though Trump won the presidency and nabbed the popular vote, he didn’t win by the “unprecedented and powerful mandate” that he described in his victory speech, and failed to capture the majority vote. In California, where no Republican presidential candidate has won since 1988, Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump handily, capturing over 9.2 million votes, or 58.5%, compared to Trump’s 6 million, or 38.3%. Harris also outperformed Democrat Adam Schiff of Burbank, who received 9 million votes in his U.S. Senate race against Republican candidate Steve Garvey.

But compared to Biden, who received 11.1 million votes, or 63.5%, in 2020, Harris did not do as well. She lost vote share in all but one of the state’s 58 counties. Trump also gained a larger share of the vote in most of the state’s Latino-majority counties compared to his results in 2020.

On Tuesday, California’s 54 members of the Electoral College will gather at the state Capitol to cast their vote for Harris. The nationwide Electoral College results in Trump’s favor will then be certified by Congress on Jan. 6. 

As for the 10 ballot propositions, the anti-crime measure, Proposition 36, and Prop. 35 to make a tax on managed care health insurance plans permanent, were the most popular measures, both passing with more than 67% of the vote. Prop. 33 to expand rent control was the least popular proposal with only 40% voter approval.

Days before California’s certification, Weber said the long vote count ensures that the final results are accurate. But what’s viewed by many as a notoriously slow process — due in part to the popularity of mail-in voting — invites doubt and mistrust. Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Palo Alto Democrat and former chairperson of the Assembly Elections Committee, is introducing legislation to help counties speed up the counting process.

From CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay:

A key part of the California Insurance Department’s plan to get companies to resume writing policies in the state is now in effect.

Insurers have long wanted the state to allow them to use catastrophe modeling — which they say will let them incorporate projected wildfire risk and losses — in setting their rates. The new regulation, which the Office of Administrative Law filed with the Secretary of State on Friday, will allow the companies to do so if they commit to writing more policies in more high-risk areas. The models are also supposed to take into account spending by property owners and communities to prevent wildfires. 

Insurance companies can start submitting catastrophe models to the department on Jan. 2. Once a model is approved, insurers can submit rate reviews based on the new regulations. The department is expecting to finalize its last new regulation, which would allow insurers to also factor their costs of reinsuring risk into their rates, by the end of this year.

Department spokesperson Michael Soller pointed to news last week that Farmers Insurance plans to start writing policies in the state again after a pause of more than a year as a sign that Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s overall plan to fix the insurance crisis is going to work. “Companies are clearly watching this,” Soller said.

But consumer advocates aren’t sold, warning of higher premiums for homeowners.

• Carmen Balber, Consumer Watchdog executive director, in a statement: “The rule will let insurance companies raise rates based on secret algorithms but not expand coverage as promised.” 

She has criticized Lara for originally promising to require insurers to cover 85% of their market share in distressed areas but then releasing a regulation that allows some companies to choose a 5% option.

Electric cars: For over 50 years, the federal Clean Air Act has included a carve-out for California to set its own stricter auto emissions standards. This exclusion, authorized by a federal waiver, has been a vital part of California’s efforts to reduce its air pollution. But on Friday the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will review whether the oil industry has the standing to try to overturn that provision. 

However, the court also rejected the industry’s broader request to look at whether it was unlawful for the Biden administration to grant California the federal waiver altogether.

The case originates from a 2019 dispute, when Trump, during his first administration, revoked a waiver that the Obama administration granted California for its 2012 zero-emission car mandate. The Biden administration reinstated the waiver in 2022, prompting oil companies and Republican-led states to sue the Environmental Protection Agency. Read more from CalMatters climate reporter Alejandro Lazo.

Delta salmon: California officials are praising a set of proposed state rules that the Newsom administration says would require water users to help restore rivers, floodplains and tidal marshes from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The plan also seeks to increase Chinook salmon populations, which have plummeted to levels so low that salmon fishing has been banned for two years in a row (and may continue this year).

But environmental groups are slamming the proposal. They argue that it allows cities and farms to draw so much water from the threatened Delta — which provides water to 30 million residents and millions of acres of farmland — that salmon runs “could potentially be extinct.” Their preferred solution to guarantee fuller rivers is one that city water managers say would result in not enough water for the state’s farmers and residents. Meanwhile, representatives of Native American tribes in California, for whom the Chinook have cultural and dietary significance, also say they have been excluded from these policy discussions.

A public hearing and vote to approve these rules by the state’s Water Resources Control Board could occur in 2025. Read more from CalMatters’ Alastair Bland.

Starting with the new year, the impact of what California lawmakers did this year will start really hitting you. 

Each year, legislators introduce about 2,000 bills, but many get shelved. This year, legislators passed about 1,200 measures, but then Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed nearly 200. Of the ones he signed, many are technical or narrow in scope. But there are some that affect lots of Californians.

Today, CalMatters starts publishing a series of stories on new laws that take effect Jan. 1. The first, from former politics intern Jenna Peterson, is about giving cannabis lounges permission to serve food and allowing more public drinking in “entertainment zones.”

Jerry Brown, California’s longest-serving governor (1975-83, 2011-2019), had a lot to say Thursday.

In an hour-long conversation hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California, Brown was typically blunt on a wide range of topics:

The American Dream: In response to a PPIC poll that found most Californians do not believe that hard work will get you ahead, Brown said that the world has changed dramatically since his time as Secretary of State (1971-75) when he was able to buy a $75,000 home on a $35,000 annual salary. But people all over the world, Brown said, have economic and financial fears — not just Californians.

• Brown: “There’s cause for anxiety and there’s a lot of it. How do you navigate all that? I think it’s going to take real talent and … luck.”

Donald Trump: Brown anticipates that the incoming president’s pledges to dismantle environmental policies will, “in a very paradoxical way,” help climate change efforts by galvanizing both advocates and those who may not yet prioritize environmental issues.

• Brown: “He’s going to prove the environment is really important. … It’s called reductio ad absurdum — take something far enough, you demonstrate it’s absurd and people want the opposite.” 

To prepare the state Department of Justice for potential legal battles with the Trump administration on the environment, health care and other policies, legislators on Jan. 6 will reconvene the special session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom to consider allocating funds for litigation. Assembly Democrats plan to focus the session just on that request and wrap it up before Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20, according to a Thursday memo.

Prop. 36: Though Brown did not reveal whether he voted for the anti-crime measure that overwhelmingly passed in November, he did say he did not support 2014’s Proposition 47, which Prop. 36 seeks to overhaul. Brown acknowledged that voters are frustrated with drug crime and retail theft, but added that more rehabilitation is also needed.

• Brown: Prop. 36 “brought back a little bit of the hammer and hopefully we’re going to still extend the hand because a lot of people don’t have what they need to overcome the terrible situation they’re in.”

About a month before Gov. Newsom unveils his initial state budget proposal, Sen. Roger Niello, a Roseville Republican, sent a letter to Newsom Thursday urging him to allocate sufficient funding to implement Prop. 36 and to “uphold the will of the voters.”

State budget: Brown pointed out how voters often blame governors for budget shortfalls, even though the economy is influenced by factors outside of what governors or even U.S. presidents control. Regardless, hammering out a budget plan is no easy task.

• Brown: “Most of what government does is good. So if you want to cut budgets, you’re going to cut ‘good.’ That’s the dilemma.”

Though Brown said he remains hopeful about the future, he also said that some issues — such as poverty and crime — should be considered more like “conditions” that continue in perpetuity, instead of “problems” to be solved.

• Brown: “You got to work to make it better. But it’s really not going to get better. It’s going to reoccur — and you’re going to die anyway.”

If you miss Brown’s unsparing opinions and philosophical musings, watch the entire event here.

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff:

Beverly Hills officials are celebrating this week after a judge tossed most of a lawsuit alleging that the city colluded with anti-abortion protestors and pressured a local landlord to keep out an all-trimester abortion clinic.

DuPont Clinic — a Washington, D.C.-based provider that performs abortions into the third trimester and sought to open a clinic in Beverly Hills — sued the city last year after DuPont’s landlord canceled its lease.

The city sought a dismissal on free speech grounds. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Shultz largely agreed, ruling Tuesday that many of the actions by Beverly Hills officials cited in evidence by DuPont were protected, including communicating with anti-abortion protestors and drafting a safety letter for other building tenants that DuPont alleged was intended to stir up fear over the planned clinic.

“We are pleased that the Court has vindicated the City’s position through a neutral evaluation of the evidence,” Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman said in a statement. “As the City has indicated time and again, it vigorously supports a woman’s right to choose and the decision to rescind DuPont Clinic’s lease was not made by the City of Beverly Hills.”

The city added that it would seek to have DuPont cover its attorney’s fees.

In October, a California Department of Justice investigation came to a different conclusion, holding Beverly Hills responsible for “illegally interfering” with abortion access. The city admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, which requires it to conduct comprehensive training for employees about state and federal abortion protections and develop a procedure for reporting potential future violations to the state.

“DuPont is very disappointed with the Court’s ruling today, especially in light of the Complaint filed by the California Attorney General that points to clear wrongdoing on the part of the City of Beverly Hills,” attorney Jessica Corpuz said in a statement. “DuPont remains committed to its claims against the City of Beverly Hills and believes that the merits of its case will ultimately prevail.”

A separate lawsuit against the landlord that rescinded its lease is ongoing.

Extreme weather events, such as wildfires and floods, can devastate California communities — leaving death and financial losses in their wake. Disaster aid, including federal grants to temporarily hire residents for debris and damage cleanup, can provide some relief.

But as CalMatters’ Adam Echelman explains, the jobs are physically intensive and managing the grants can be difficult for agencies, resulting in some local governments leaving money on the table.

One federal workforce grant program has provided California with $170 million since 2017, following floods, wildfires and the pandemic. But a CalMatters analysis found that the state failed to use about 20% of the money. 

In Merced County, rainstorms flooded the Latino-majority town of Planada in January 2023. The state gave $20 million in relief (though only about $4 million has been spent so far). And of the federal money designated for disaster-relief jobs, the county spent $165,000 of the grant, or about 16%. 

The rest won’t be claimed by the county, said Erick Serrato, Merced County’s director of workforce investment. That’s because when the county received the money — in May 2023, five months after the initial flooding — waters had receded and the public parks where temporary workers would have been assigned were already repaired.

• Serrato: “When you have to wait five months to receive the support you need right in the aftermath, it makes it difficult to put those resources to work.”

Learn more about California disaster relief jobs in Adam’s story.

Trump is threatening to increase tariffs on imports from Mexico and China. CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on Levi’s story on how these tariffs could impact California’s economy as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

California’s 2024 election will finally, officially be done by Friday, when the Secretary of State’s office certifies the results.

Leading up to that, Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Wednesday acknowledged concerns about the slow vote count in California, but stressed the need to ensure an accurate and transparent ballot counting process, reports CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu.

The process has come under fire in recent weeks, as newly-elected state legislators were sworn in even when counties were still counting ballots. One leading candidate for state Assembly was sworn in before her race was even called. 

• Weber, in a call with reporters: “It’s not the first time that’s happened. That’s … one of the ongoing challenges we are dealing with.”

Speed must be balanced with election security and voter access, she said. “If we decided not to verify ballots and not to look at signatures, then we’d have all of those who claim we are letting any and everybody vote raising hell about voting.” 

“It’s a challenge that we face and we will continue to face it and we continue to work on it,” she said, adding: “If those of you have any good ideas and we can look at and match it with this complex system, please let us know.” 

The very last congressional contest in the country to be called, on Dec. 3, was the 13th District in California, where Democrat Adam Gray ousted Republican Rep. John Duarte. 

How close was it? Election expert Rob Pyers figured out that Gray’s margin of victory came in one precinct — at UC Merced — where he won by 220 votes just among those who registered there on Election Day on Nov. 5. 

Meanwhile, the first state contests of 2025 are already set. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared two specials, with the primaries on Feb. 25 and the elections on April 29: One is in Senate District 36, where Republican Janet Nguyen has resigned to join the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The second is in Assembly District 32, where new GOP Rep. Vince Fong was re-elected because it was too late to take his name off the ballot. It’s complicated, not to mention costly, and legislators had to pass a law to fix it.

President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House is intensifying fears that information included in federal college financial aid forms will be used to assist with mass deportations — a pledge Trump has repeatedly said he’ll carry out.

As CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn explains, researchers and advocates report that students whose parents are undocumented are worried that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will use personal information from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for immigration enforcement.

Given the risks of exposing their family to immigration agents, some students may choose not to fill out the form — and miss out on thousands of dollars in aid.

Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education does not provide student aid information to any federal immigration agency. But that could change under Trump: As one senior education official during the Obama administration put it, it’s “not much of a firewall, it is more like a picket fence.” 

While federal law also limits what the education department can share with law enforcement agencies, if it’s served a subpoena for information, it’s unclear how aggressively the department could challenge that. 

Roughly 3.3 million Californians live in mixed-status households, including 1 in 5 children under 18. For California students seeking aid for 2025-26, advocates suggest either applying for state aid first (which is due in March) and then wait and see what the Trump administration does before applying for federal aid — or forgoing federal aid altogether.

Read more about the student aid fears in Mikhail’s story.

Speaking of what changes Trump might bring, a big question mark is looming over the future of a state program that provides Medi-Cal patients with broader health services, writes CalMatters homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall.

Launched in 2022 as one of Gov. Newsom’s signature initiatives, CalAIM connects low-income Californians with behavioral health and supportive housing services. In 2023, more than 68,600 people used CalAIM to find, stay in and partly pay for housing.

But because states aren’t typically allowed to spend federal Medicaid dollars on non-traditional medical services, California needs to have federal waivers to carry out CalAIM programs — which expire at the end of 2026.

Though nothing is likely to change until then, some health care organizations and homeless service providers worry that Trump could decide to terminate the program when it’s time to renew the waivers, pare it down or cut off people from some benefits.

• Tommy Newman, vice president of public affairs for United Way of Greater Los Angeles: “CalAIM has been one of the most important and, I think, under-appreciated policies of the Newsom administration. … And the risk of going backwards on that is scary.”

Learn more about how CalAIM could change under Trump in Marisa’s story.

Biden money: Amid Trump’s pledges to claw back unspent funds authorized by 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration on Wednesday awarded California $135 million to replace diesel and gas-powered buses and trucks with electric models, writes CalMatters climate reporter Alejandro Lazo.

The money will enable 13 applicants to obtain 455 heavy-duty, zero-emission vehicles, advancing the state’s goal to ban the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036. The South Coast Air Quality Management District received the largest chunk of money — nearly $59 million to electrify school buses and replace work trucks. Read more.

More grants for climate change: The California Energy Commission is also awarding $42 million to a Pennsylvania-based renewable energy company to build a battery storage project at a San Diego County marine base. The project is expected to be up and running by 2027 and is intended to provide electricity to the state’s power grid and backup power to the base for up to 14 days during an outage.

After record-high deaths inside California jails, the state’s new director overseeing in-custody death reviews is embarking on a “listening tour.” Find out where she’s heading first from CalMatters criminal justice reporter Nigel Duara.

For the first time in years, some California cities are seeing a decline in fatal drug overdoses. And some prosecutors are getting more aggressive charging drug dealers with murder if their buyers overdose. 

But a rise in fatal drug overdoses at work has public health experts, union leaders and employers sounding the alarm, write CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang and data reporter Jeremia Kimelman.

In 2021, a flooring installer who had stepped out for a short break died at a Temecula construction site from a fentanyl overdose. In Fremont, a manager found a night-shift janitor dead in the bathroom, overdosed on fentanyl. And in Livermore this year, a driver died from fentanyl and was found in his parked semi-truck as he waited to make a delivery.

The sharp increase in workplace overdose fatalities has stalled a decline in overall workplace deaths in California. In 2022, more than 110 workers died from overdoses, about 18% of all workplace fatalities.

Studies have shown that the problem hits certain industries harder, particularly with jobs involving manual labor and a high number of injuries, such as construction, trucking and warehousing.

The crisis has prompted labor groups to promote drug safety programs and to push back against the stigma of opioid addiction.

• Robert Williams, business manager of District Council 16 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades: “If there’s a death on a job site because of a safety hazard, it’s front-page news. But if there’s death by an overdose or death by suicide of a construction worker when they go home, nobody talks about that.”

Meanwhile, policymakers have been slow to address the issue. The state Department of Public Health says it is considering a study. A law passed in September also directs Cal/OSHA to draft workplace rules for the overdose reversal drug naloxone by December 2027, but no advisory committee has met so far.

Cal/OSHA refused to make an official available for an interview, and in an email to CalMatters, pointed to the broader national opioid crisis. 

• Erika Monterroza, Cal/OSHA spokesperson: “California had more than 7,000 people die from opioid-related overdose deaths in 2022. Unfortunately, these deaths happen all over our state, including in our workplaces.” 

Learn more about workplace overdose deaths in Jeanne and Jeremia’s story. And check out CalMatters’ explainer on the state’s opioid crisis.

From CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay:

As Gov. Gavin Newsom stopped by Colusa County on Tuesday on his tour touting his region-focused jobs strategy, a new poll reinforced that Californians have mixed feelings about the economy.

While the governor projected optimism about his economic plans, he also acknowledged that not everyone has a rosy view. Asked whether he has a message for Latinos — who leaned more to the right and voted for Donald Trump in November — Newsom replied: “Take a look at what we’re doing here around economic and workforce development. We see you, you matter, we care. You’ve been included in this conversation. Now we want to make the vision real.”

Newsom’s tone reflected that he’s aware about Californians’ economic concerns: In the new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 70% of residents said their children will be worse off financially, and 56% are expecting “bad economic times” in the next year — although that’s an improvement from recent years. Also, 52% of those surveyed think the president-elect should prioritize getting “costs and inflation under control.” (Many economists think Trump’s policies, such as tariffs and mass deportations, will do the opposite.) 

The PPIC poll of 2,344 people conducted Nov. 6-22 also found that a majority of the state’s residents — especially those with lower incomes — have a negative view of artificial intelligence, with about a third very or somewhat concerned about its effects. About half of residents polled think AI will reduce the number of jobs in their industry. 

Some concern over AI cuts “across income scales, whether it’s fast food workers or screenwriters,” Dean Bonner, PPIC’s associate survey director, said during a briefing Tuesday.

On the other hand, the latest Small Business Optimism index rose to its highest reading since June 2021, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. The association’s leaders said small businesses are hopeful about favorable tax and regulatory policies under the incoming administration.

John Kabateck, state director for the association in California, also said in a statement that some state ballot initiative outcomes will help businesses. The association applauded voters’ approval of toughening up penalties for retail theft, and their rejection of raising the minimum wage, boosting local rent-control power and lowering the voter threshold to pass bonds.

When factoring in the cost of living, the pay for California judges ranks right in the middle nationally, at 25th. Now, a group of state judges are claiming that the state has been stiffing them for years — bungling the prescribed formula that’s used to calculate wage increases.

As CalMatters deputy editor Adam Ashton explains, California judges earn at least $240,000 a year and are supposed to receive a raise every year by law. But a coalition of judges, which includes Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne Gilliard, alleges that the state is short-changing them by excluding from the formula part of the targeted raises some state workers received through their contracts.

The lawsuit calls on the state to redo its calculations, going back nearly a decade. The judges also want CalPERS — the public pension system for state employees — to recalculate their pensions. 

In a hearing last month, the state’s attorneys said the human resources department “properly calculated state employee average salary increases” and that the law doesn’t require “the inclusion of ‘all categories of increases’” when calculating salary increases.

A lot of money could be at stake: In 2015, a group of judges filed a similar lawsuit. The state lost the case, and had to fork over $15,000 per judge, totaling $40 million.

Read more about the lawsuit on judges’ pay in Adam’s story.

CalMatters pointed out in February that many new California laws require reports on how they’re working — but that 73% of 1,118 reports due in the past year were late. Has that performance improved? Find out from CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Sameea Kamal.

Pledging to take on the affordable housing crisis and bring down health care costs, Adam Schiff was sworn in Monday by Vice President Kamala Harris as California’s junior U.S. senator.

The Burbank Democrat will serve out the remaining term of the late Dianne Feinstein after winning a special election for the unexpired term. In January, Schiff’s full six-year tenure will begin.

In a statement after taking the oath of office on the Senate floor, Schiff didn’t name President-elect Donald Trump, but the new senator is in the same political balancing act as Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has pledged an “open hand, not a closed fist” approach to the incoming administration. 

• Schiff, in the statement: “I will work with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to help our state and our families succeed. At the same time, I will not shrink from my duty to defend our democracy and will vigorously protect the rights and freedoms of the American people and the people of California.”

Schiff, who served 23 years in the House, rose to national prominence as one of Trump’s most outspoken critics, leading the first impeachment trial in 2020 and serving on the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots by Trump’s supporters. 

Trump has labeled Schiff an “enemy within” and a “sleazebag.” And just Sunday, Trump repeated his threat to punish his political adversaries, saying of those on the Jan. 6 committee: “Honestly, they should go to jail.”

Schiff, however, said he does not want a preemptive pardon from President Joe Biden in case Trump follows through, calling it “unnecessary.”

Schiff’s first opportunity to push back on Trump could be confirmation hearings on the president-elect’s contentious Cabinet picks, though the Senate won’t vote on them until after the Jan. 20 inauguration. 

Trump announced Monday that he has nominated Harmeet Dhillon, a California Republican leader and conservative attorney, as assistant attorney general for civil rights. Trump praised her for representing Christians restricted from gathering during the COVID lockdowns, suing companies for “woke” policies and fighting election fraud.

Schiff serves alongside U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla — ending California’s 30-year long streak of having at least one female senator. Schiff replaces Laphonza Butler, who was appointed after Feinstein’s death in September 2023 but didn’t seek to keep the seat. He will be succeeded in the House next month by Democrat Laura Friedman, a former Assemblymember and Glendale mayor.

State regulators last year voted to ban the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and require large fleets to convert all their trucks to zero-emission models by 2042. But with about 1.8 million trucks operating in the state, the road toward electric- or hydrogen-powered trucks will be bumpy, reports CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde.

One big question is Trump’s presidency. California needs a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce its diesel truck ban, but Trump has repeatedly blasted the state’s electric car mandates and tried to revoke its authority to limit car emissions during his first term. 

Trucking companies have strongly opposed the California Air Resources Board’s rule, arguing that zero-emission trucks are expensive and the lack of reliable charging stations make long-haul shipments nearly impossible. 

Until the rules are enforced however, residents living near high-traffic truck routes and ports remain subject to toxic soot and carcinogens emitted by the heavy-duty vehicles.

• Imelda Ulloa, a resident of Wilmington, where trucks drive through on their way to the Port of Los Angeles: “If you blow your nose, black dust will come out. It’s a terrible life living here.” 

Read more about the zero-emission truck mandate in Alejandra’s story.

Speaking of electric vehicles: The Air Resources Board pulled the plug on what would have been a first-in-the-nation initiative to boost electric motorcycle sales by requiring half of all motorcycles sold in California be electric by 2035. The board already postponed voting on the rule from its original Nov. 7 deadline. But last week, it didn’t give a reason why it’s shelving the endeavor for the foreseeable future, reports Politico.

Industry experts and advocates said they suspect that Trump’s opposition to the state’s electric vehicle policies could be a factor. Trump could also nix a federal tax credit on electric vehicles (which prompted Gov. Newsom to propose the revival of a state rebate program if he does).

State lawmakers dealt California’s card room industry a bad hand this year, passing legislation that allows its competitor, tribal casinos, to sue card rooms. As payback, card rooms spent millions of dollars to oppose four lawmakers who were key to the law’s passage — and three lost their races.

As CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow explains, card rooms spent more than $3 million targeting four legislators:

• Josh Newman of Fullerton, who lost his Senate seat;
• Evan Low of Cupertino, who lost a race for Congress;
• Brian Maienschein, who unsuccessfully ran for San Diego city attorney;
• Republican Assemblymember Laurie Davies of Oceanside, who won reelection by only 3,870 votes (out of a total of 230,546 votes). 

The defeat of Newman, who introduced the card room bill, is notable given that he was an incumbent Democrat who lost to a Republican, marking the first time since 1980 that a GOP lawmaker flipped a Democratic Senate seat in a presidential election. He was also targeted by a typically Democratic-friendly labor union after he opposed a bill it sponsored. Newman has already formed a campaign committee to run again in 2026.

Learn more about card room campaign spending in Ryan’s story.

California was once a leader in enabling student athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness. CalMatters community college reporter Adam Echelman and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on Adam’s story on the failure of recent efforts to expand those rights as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

It has been eight years since California voters repealed a 1998 law directing public school districts to essentially eliminate their bilingual programs. But the fallout from the state’s vacillating history of bilingual education has led to California falling short of providing a quality education not only to non-English speakers but also to students who want to be bilingual. 

As CalMatters higher education reporter Tara García Mathewson explains, in 1998 California voters approved a law requiring schools to teach classes only in English with students who were not fluent with the language, with few exceptions. Latino state lawmakers and teachers’ unions pushed to repeal that law, which voters did in 2016.

There are many benefits for schools to have bilingual education: It allows students who are not proficient in English to still be able to learn school subjects in their native language while they also learn English. Schools with strong dual-language programs, a type of bilingual instruction approach, also report better student outcomes, including higher test scores and graduation rates. And bilingual students develop strong cognitive skills and have more job opportunities.

But while both California and Texas each enroll more than 1 million students still learning English, California managed to put just 10% of them in bilingual classrooms last year — compared to 40% in Texas.

One reason for this lag is a lack of teachers. The 1998 law largely extinguished programs that could train teachers to lead bilingual K-12 classrooms.

• Patricia Gándara, a longtime bilingual education researcher and co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project: “(It’s) one of those stories of ‘I told you so.’ … I could see what the problem was going to be: That when people came back to their senses and realized what a mistake this was, the big fallout was going to be that we didn’t have the teachers.”

To enroll more students in bilingual education, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law this year requiring the education department to develop a plan for districts to adopt the state’s English Learner Roadmap. The Legislature also allocated in 2017 roughly $20 million to help districts prepare bilingual staffers to lead bilingual classrooms, and budgeted another $10 million in 2021 to start or expand dual-language programs.

But advocates say it’s not enough. In Massachusetts, for example, the Legislature budgeted $11.8 million for similar initiatives, though it enrolls about one-tenth the number of kids still learning English compared to California. 

• Anya Hurwitz, executive director of the bilingual education nonprofit SEAL: “Funding is not the solution to everything in and of itself. But at the same time, we can’t build capacity without funding and resources.”

For more on bilingual education in California, read Tara’s story. A Spanish-language version is also available and if you’re in a hurry, read just the three main takeaways.

In January, Gov. Newsom will unveil his initial state budget proposal and while advocacy groups want more revenue, there’s not a ton of money to go around: The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated a $2 billion budget shortfall next year.

Still, it never hurts to ask.

Business groups including manufacturers and the California Chamber of Commerce are urging Newsom to restore a tax credit for research and development that was limited in the 2024-25 state budget. The groups argue the tax credit is “crucial” for retaining and expanding jobs and businesses in California.

The groups’ letter notes that in 2021, the state had more than 700,000 jobs related to research and development, and that the tax credit will assist in California’s ambitions to invest in the artificial intelligence, chip and alternative energy industries. Thirty-four other states offer this tax credit, and the letter argues that the credit pays for itself with the economic benefits it generates.

The analyst’s office has warned against new spending commitments, but Newsom has already floated some pricey initiatives. For example, the governor wants to increase the state’s film and television tax credit to $750 million a year — a point the business group made in stressing that their research and development credit should be funded, too.

Lawmakers are also reconvening in January for a special session to consider Newsom’s proposal to allocate as much as $25 million to the state Department of Justice for potential legal battles with the incoming Donald Trump presidency.

In other Capitol news:

• Schiff appointed: On Sunday the governor formally appointed U.S. Sen.-elect Adam Schiff to complete the remaining term of the late Dianne Feinstein, who died in September 2023. Sen. Laphonza Butler had been temporarily filling in and gave her farewell remarks Thursday. Schiff, who also won a special election for the unexpired term, is to be sworn in today and gets a one-month head start before serving his full six-year term starting in January.

• Capitol building evacuated: The Capitol had a bit of a scare Friday, when authorities received a threat and had to evacuate staffers out of the state Capitol and two other state office buildings. After law enforcement determined the threat to be “unfounded,” the buildings were cleared to reopen later in the afternoon.

The voting, and the counting, is over. But the debate over voting access in California isn’t. 

CalMatters did a series of stories this year about Californians who still face barriers to exercising their voting rights, including those with visual impairments and eligible voters in county jails. The final story, which reported on the challenges faced by homeless individuals, pointed out that many didn’t get a say in policies that directly affect their lives and chronicled some of the efforts by advocates and counties to give them more ballot access.

Bolts, a nonprofit newsroom that focuses on voting rights and criminal justice, just followed up with a report focusing on Los Angeles, where voters approved a November ballot measure to double and extend a sales tax to fund homeless services and affordable housing, but also ousted District Attorney George Gascón for a more conservative prosecutor.

The Bolts story highlights that L.A. County’s unhoused population of more than 75,000 is bigger than most of the county’s 88 cities, but they are underrepresented at the ballot box. The story details a county program that brings pop-up polling places to homeless shelters and service providers.

• Angel Agabon, 24, who was recently homeless and voted for the first time this year at My Friend’s Place, a drop-in center in Hollywood for young people: “Voting is the least of their concerns. They don’t know where they’re going to stay tonight, they don’t know what they’re gonna eat, they don’t know when they’re next meal’s gonna be.”

The passage of Proposition 36 means there will be tougher penalties for repeat drug and theft offenders. CalMatters’ video strategy director Robert Meeks has a video segment on Nigel Duara and Joe Garcia’s story on the potential consequences of the measure as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.