California Insider

Santa Monica is known around the world for its beaches and downtown shopping, yet safety on its streets has become a concern for residents and local businesses. What can the city do when its response to homelessness...

California counties begin mailing November ballots by Oct. 5. This year’s ballot carries 14 statewide propositions, and several of them deal with taxes. Some proposals revisit earlier decisions, such as whether an...

California’s 2026–27 budget provides more than $150 billion for TK–12 education. School districts still say they are underfunded, and many parents are asking what that level of spending delivers for students. University...

For many California households, including families with two working parents on a median income, buying a home is out of reach. A bill to make townhomes easier to build would open another route to ownership, and how far...

Patients in California can enter a hospital without knowing what their care will cost. For people covered by Medi-Cal, another problem can come earlier, when they face long waits or struggle to find a physician who...

For many people in California, buying a home remains out of reach. Prices stay high, while limited listings leave buyers with fewer choices. California is changing where and how new housing can be built, with laws...

California’s prison system is changing. The state is closing facilities, moving incarcerated people between institutions, and continuing to invest in rehabilitation. Inside prison, that goal meets a culture with its own...

San Diego County voters will decide this November whether to change some of the rules governing accountability and oversight inside county government. The proposal comes as public spending and how that money is tracked...

When people in California surrender a pet to a shelter or send an animal to a sanctuary, they expect that animal to be cared for. What happens after that can remain largely out of sight until something goes wrong. In...

California families can spend years preparing a student for college, only for that student to reach graduation with little idea of what the work on the other side will actually be like. With the cost of going to college...

Los Angeles is heading toward a mayoral runoff with public safety, homelessness, housing affordability, and the city’s finances still weighing on the race. Karen Bass and Nithya Raman are the two names left on the...

Street takeovers can form quickly, leaving drivers, bystanders, and police facing a dangerous situation in the middle of a public road. In California, large groups can appear before authorities have much time to...

Crime statistics say things are improving in California, yet for some residents, that reading does not square with what they notice in their own communities. When the official numbers and what people experience seem to...

California voters can read a ballot title and still be left wondering what a measure would mean in practice. This November, 14 statewide propositions put some consequential policy choices into just a few lines of ballot...

For families struggling to find a home they can afford, an available affordable unit can mean stability after months or even years of waiting. Yet in parts of California’s affordable housing system, some units are...