CalMatters

Clogged supply chains. Hiring struggles. New mask rules. A virus that trampled right over return-to-work schedules. Last year was chaotic for many businesses across California.

After a years-long battle reignited in recent months by controversies over misunderstandings of critical race theory, California students will soon be required to take ethnic studies to graduate high school. 

As record-breaking drought fuels another potentially dangerous wildfire season, the state auditor reported last week that state officials are failing to hold California’s electric utilities accountable for preventing fires caused by their equipment.

Recessions in California tend to widen the gap between rich and poor. The sharp pandemic downturn of 2020 followed this pattern with low-income workers suffering the most. But unprecedented government relief kept millions from falling into poverty, and demand for labor boosted wages when businesses reopened.

Today, as COVID-19 case rates in California have jumped to their highest levels yet — more than six times the peak of the delta variant wave — updated workplace rules are kicking in to better help protect workers vaccinated against COVID-19.

Community clinics in California that have been waiting for more than a year to be reimbursed for COVID-19 vaccinations may soon be flooding state officials with tens of millions of dollars in bills.

A new cough. The beginnings of a fever. A note from your boss about a COVID case at work. 

Vowing to be smarter after lessons learned over the past two years, the Newsom administration yesterday gave a glimpse of what the next few months — and potentially years — may look like in California with COVID-19 likely to stick around.

California’s clean-air regulators on Tuesday unveiled a far-reaching proposal requiring a ramp-up in sales of zero-emission cars, culminating in a ban on new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.