Lauren Hepler
CalMattersLauren Hepler is an investigative reporter at CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics, and a JPR news partner. She focuses on labor issues and California’s housing crisis. She has spent the past decade covering housing, labor and climate issues for the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Guardian, the LA Times and others.
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Labor groups that spent $20 million against Prop. 22 are warning that the measure cements gig workers as a “second class” of workers and mulling limited options to challenge it. -
Gig companies embark on a last-minute spending blitz after a court rules that drivers should be paid as employees and labor groups question campaign tactics.
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As early voting begins this week, the most expensive state ballot measure in modern history has widened the fault lines in the battle over the future of work. -
An Oct. 15 state deadline to restore $11 billion in funding for education, housing and state workers looks likely to pass with no more financial help from Washington. Is there still hope for a reprieve, and could deeper cuts follow? -
Beyond the conservative Facebook memes and viral YouTube videos, has California reached a breaking point? -
State lawmakers aimed for a $600-a-week unemployment extension and billions in tax vouchers. Federal inaction, economic anxiety and the pandemic derailed those plans. -
A judge ruled that the ride-hailing giants must comply with California’s AB 5 contractor law, but legal appeals, a November ballot battle and big questions about organized labor loom large. -
In the middle of it all is Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has yet to show his cards on a preferred plan to dig the state out of its deep financial hole. -
As the majority of schools across the state prepare to start the school year teaching remotely, parents have started investigating their options for how they can maintain their child’s education while still holding down a job.
