SB 634 would make the task of housing unhoused and low-income residents on vacant land easier for California cities.

Sen. Dave Cortese of San Jose began pushing for the audit after touring a massive homeless encampment on vacant land near the San Jose Mineta International Airport. San Jose will be one of two cities targeted by the audit.

California law requires law enforcement agencies to release body cam footage of police shootings. Many departments shape those images into stories they want to tell.

A new loan program for first-time home buyers only served a couple thousand borrowers, most of them white, non-Latino and living in the Sacramento area.

Enrollment is down at the University of California and the Cal State system, which has frustrated lawmakers who gave both systems more money to increase their number of students. Parents say their children who have with GPAs above 4.0 but aren’t accepted to a UC of their choice.

The California Journalism Preservation Act directs big tech companies to pay publishers a “journalism usage fee” each time they use local news content and sell advertising alongside it. In turn, the bill requires news publishers to invest 70% of the profits from the usage fee in journalism jobs.

The oil industry qualified a 2024 ballot measure to kill a law that bans new oil wells near schools and neighborhoods, and the fast-food industry qualified another to wipe out a law creating a council to regulate fast food wages. 

Many more gun owners are seeking California concealed carry permits, even in blue, coastal counties. Gov. Newsom and Democrats in the Legislature are trying again to limit where weapons are allowed.

Domestic workers — those who are privately hired to provide services in a home — aren’t covered by the state’s or the nation’s occupational safety laws, which require most employers to meet standards to prevent injury and ensure a safe place to work. 

The auditors say the chancellor's office should provide more oversight when it comes to how districts are spending state dollars allocated for full-time faculty. 

The political debate over California’s highest-in-the-nation homelessness has boiled down to money with Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials at odds.

California set up a fund to cut out-of-pocket costs for those enrolled in Covered California, but Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget shifts that money to other expenses.

The California Public Records Act grants the public access to government documents, with some exceptions. But using the act can sometimes be difficult.

For nearly three years, an increase in federal aid has allowed California to issue higher-than-usual amounts in food stamps. That ends in April.

One in 10 state lawmakers is related by blood or marriage to other legislators past and present. State Sen. Dave Cortese, a Campbell Democrat, is one of these, who has benefited from name recognition: His father, Dominic, served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors before nabbing a seat in the Assembly.

The state is expanding mortgage relief to more California homeowners who are struggling through the pandemic. The program now covers second mortgages and loan deferrals, with a maximum total grant of $80,000.