Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, gave out $1 million checks to gin up support for Donald Trump. California lawmakers want to ban big cash payments to registered voters.

California lawmakers called an informational hearing on mental health services at Kaiser Permanente, but the company didn’t attend.

It’s been five months since California’s legislative leaders deemed affordability an “urgent” issue for the session. So far: committees, bills, but few results.

California’s political watchdog staff accused former Assemblymember Evan Low of concealing payments to actor Alec Baldwin for appearing at a 2020 fundraiser for Low, plus multiple other campaign finance violations.

AI can help businesses charge you more based on how it evaluates your personal history and desires. California lawmakers want to end that price discrimination.

The results of a five-year state probe laid out dozens of potential violations by Evan Low involving a non-profit tech foundation for which he raised a half-million dollars. The investigation began after CalMatters published an investigation into the relationship between Low, the foundation and its donors.

A supermajority of Democrats and emboldened Republicans returned to the Capitol this week — at odds over the cost of living, the Trump presidency, state spending, tech innovations and reparations for descendants of people once enslaved.

Adam Gray, a former state Assembly member, defeated Rep. John Duarte, a Republican, in a reversal of their 2022 13th Congressional District race, to set the final GOP margin in the House of Representatives at five votes.

As a gasoline reserve bill faced a final vote today, labor advocates warned the bill’s safety measures don’t go far enough.

The vote is not guaranteed. Eight Senate Democrats did not vote for his bill, the oil industry and Republicans have been sharply critical of the proposal, which they say would actually drive up prices at the pump.

Google, Meta, ChatGPT and other Silicon Valley firms have been lobbying heavily against the bill, warning it will hurt new tech growth.

Legislators blocked more than 270 bills, partly due to the budget crunch, in the second round of suspense file hearings this year. The 500 bills that survived must still win final approval by Aug. 31 to reach Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.

The sprawling bill that offers protection to whistleblowers and citizens was approved 32-1 by the state Senate in May faces a vote in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Thursday and must win final approval by Aug. 31 to reach Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk this year. 

May 23 was the deadline to turn in 42,802 valid signatures of voters in the district, which includes parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

A suite of five bills introduced this week seeks to protect election integrity from bad actors using AI, especially on social media.

The Assembly has until the end of January to decide the fate of the youth tackle football bill, which would prevent kids under 12 from playing the sport to protect them from brain trauma.