Voices Spotlight
ICE ignores hard lessons LAPD learned after Rodney King beating
Federal immigration agents are forgoing the basics that LA police espouse after their years of ignominy: de-escalation, accountability and protecting and serving. Read more.
My Legislator
Keeping up with your California lawmaker felt impossible before. Now, it’s never been easier
My Legislator, CalMatters’ new accountability newsletter, lets Californians track their state legislators through a weekly email report. Sign up for the free newsletter.
POLITICS
Project Spotlight
Digital Democracy
Check out CalMatters’ custom-built AI tool that tracks every word spoken in public hearings, every dollar donated to politicians, every vote cast and more.
INSIDE THE NEWSROOM
What goes into our reporting on California’s biggest issues – how investigative stories come together, what challenges journalists face, CalMatters’ latest plans and more.
Nonpartisan, independent California news for all
We’re CalMatters, your nonprofit and nonpartisan news guide.
Our journalists are here to empower you and our mission continues to be essential.
We are independent and nonpartisan. Our trustworthy journalism is free from partisan politics, free from corporate influence and actually free for all Californians.
We are focused on California issues. From the environment to homelessness, economy and more, we publish the unfettered truth to keep you informed.
We hold people in power accountable. We probe and reveal the actions and inactions of powerful people and institutions, and the consequences that follow.
But we can’t keep doing this without support from readers like you.
Please give what you can today. Every gift helps.
EDUCATION
About College Beat
College Beat is produced by the CalMatters College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. Read more.
HEALTH
Series Spotlight
No Deliveries
Explore why hospitals are shutting down maternity wards, what this means for parents-to-be with limited options, and whether anything can be done to protect access.
JUSTICE
Investigation
They were convicted of killing with their cars. No one told the DMV
A CalMatters investigation found that courts didn’t report hundreds of vehicular manslaughter convictions, prompting officials to belatedly take many drivers’ licenses.
ECONOMY AND TECHNOLOGY
Tech Spotlight
Why California backed off again from ambitious AI regulation
For the third year, the state delayed AI regulations for disclosing and appealing many automated decisions.
ENVIRONMENT
Series Spotlight
Lake Tahoe: A tarnished jewel
Lake Tahoe is an innocent victim — but there isn’t just a single villain. This series reveals the problems plaguing this alpine treasure.
CALIFORNIA VOICES
Guest Commentary
A California national monument may lose protected status, risking plant and animal life — and water
Volcanic rock at the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument filters rain and snowmelt into an underground aquifer network that holds as much as 200 of California’s biggest reservoirs.
A California diversion program saved her from prison and dying young
A criminal justice reform advocate who thrived after completing a diversion program says lawmakers should back a bill that would give more offenders a shot to better themselves.
Suspicion looms over Aliso Canyon storage facility a decade after massive gas leak
Residents are angry that the natural gas storage site still operates. Its methane gas leak in 2015-16 displaced 10,000 families and caused illness.
We want to hear from you!
Want to submit a guest commentary or reaction to an article we wrote? You can find our submission guidelines here. For questions, please email commentary@calmatters.org
DAN WALTERS
Would California voters actually support a wealth tax on billionaires?
Should taxing real estate be supplemented by tapping other assets of the state’s billionaires? California voters may decide this year if a wealth tax initiative qualifies for the ballot.
CALIFORNIA DIVIDE
Inequality Insights
A statewide media collaboration to raise awareness about poverty and income inequality through in-depth journalism and community outreach. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.