CalMatters

At an emotional legislative hearing Tuesday, lawmakers and critics subjected the Newsom administration to blistering questions about the state’s oversight of nursing homes.

There’s a collective groan, rippling across California, as drivers pull into gas stations and see prices above $5. 

Labor unions and their Democratic allies in the Legislature want to bring back extra paid sick leave for COVID-19. Gov. Gavin Newsom is also proposing to revive supplemental leave in his budget. 

The first two months of 2022 are shaping up to be the driest January and February in California history, prompting state officials to warn of dire water conditions ahead. 

All students and staff, regardless of vaccination status, will no longer be required to wear a mask indoors at schools and child care facilities starting March 12. 

At 66, Edward El has a new lease on life — literally. In two weeks, he’ll move into his own apartment in Berkeley after spending the better part of the past 16 years homeless.

Despite pressure from experts urging a strong mandate, the order leaves the exact conservation measures up to the urban water providers and major water wholesalers that supply the vast majority of Californians. It does not affect agricultural water providers, or the small water systems that are especially vulnerable to drought. 

California is flush with cash — the state has an estimated budget surplus of $21 billion — and, separately, gas prices are way up. 

When California voters legalized marijuana for recreational use in November 2016, it was also a victory for Gavin Newsom, who spent months traveling the state as the face of the campaign. At an election night party at a San Francisco nightclub, the then-lieutenant governor celebrated this “point of pride,”telling attendees that California had sent a “message powerfully to the rest of the nation.”

Painting alarming scenes of fires, floods and economic disruption, the California Legislature’s advisors this week released a series of reports that lays out in stark terms the impacts of climate change across the state.