Jeanne Kuang
CalMatters-
California is full of food, yet scarred by hunger.
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An obscure 1910s-era labor board once regulated everything from canneries to film sets to sheep farms. Why is California trying to revive it now?
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Providers say home daycare businesses may need to close if the state continues paying too little in child care subsidies.
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‘You small, pathetic man,’ Gavin Newsom wrote in a Twitter post suggesting he’d pursue criminal charges against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over recent migrant flights to Sacramento.
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State lawmakers want to loosen CalWORKs job requirements so people keep cash benefits. Congress’ debt limit deal could curb that.
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A new state law aims to ensure workers with disabilities earn at least minimum wage. But some worry that the state doesn’t have enough resources to help these workers compete for jobs.
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A California grandmother fights to retrieve $30,000 taken by San Diego County from her grandchildren’s survivor benefits. Counties take millions of dollars in federal benefits from foster children, says a lawmaker trying to stop it.
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It takes the state nearly 800 days — four times longer than is legal — to handle wage claims. Lawmakers ordered an audit to start Sept. 1, if agency issues aren’t addressed by then.
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Most college students don’t qualify for CalFresh, California’s food stamps program, despite high rates of food insecurity. A pandemic-era rule that made it easier to get aid ends soon.
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Workers who clean houses or take care of children and the elderly are in a class by themselves; they are not covered by state or federal workplace safety regulations. The exclusion has racist origins, advocates say.
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State and local governments, and some private funders, are launching dozens of pilot projects making direct, monthly payments to low-income residents to help meet basic needs. Researchers will study what happens next. Key question: will this money add to, reform, or supplant current welfare programs?
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What’s one of the driving forces of poverty and inequality? When the cost of living outpaces the growth in wages.