KQED's The California Report

Almost nine months have passed since the Eaton Fire ripped through Los Angeles County. It destroyed more than 9,000 buildings and left billions of dollars in damages. At first, attention focused on Southern California Edison's transmission lines as the likely cause. But a new NPR investigation shows there may have been other failures, too. Guest: Chiara Eisner, NPR Another immigrant has died in the custody of federal immigration authorities in California, this time in the Imperial Valley. New questions are being raised about the care of detainees under the Trump administration’s ongoing mass deportation campaign. Reporter: Kori Suzuki, KPBS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When President Donald Trump signed his sweeping policy bill this summer, it included $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, known here as Medi-Cal. The program is recognized for helping low-income people access health care, but it also funds services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Now, many Californians with disabilities face an uncertain future. Reporter: Izzy Bloom, KQED A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops from California to Oregon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise remains California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire in history. The Northern California fire claimed the lives of 85 people. Now, a new movie depicts the real-life heroic escape of one local bus driver. Reporter: Claudia Brancart, North State Public Radio Yosemite National Park remains open during the government shutdown, but there won't be many rangers there to help visitors. Reporter: Carly Severn, KQED The US Department of Education is ending several grant programs that support minority-serving institutions. Department officials say these programs are discriminatory. California stands to lose more grant money than any other state - for programs that support Black, Latino, Asian and Native American students on college campuses. Reporter: Adam Echelman, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the last federal government shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, national parks here in California were greatly impacted. Some shut down completely, meaning a significant loss in potential revenue. Others remained open, but were not fully staffed. That includes Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. Vehicles drove off-road, causing major damage to sensitive areas, and trash piled up, scattered around the park. The hope is things will be different this time around. Guest: Kenji Haroutunian, Executive Director, friends of Joshua Tree Santa Clara County prosecutors have secured a grand jury indictment against 11 pro-Palestinian Stanford University protestors who barricaded themselves in the campus president’s office in 2024. Reporter: Joseph Geha, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Around the Salton Sea, dust storms have become an increasing problem, sparking dozens of public health studies. But many Imperial Valley residents have grown weary of repeated studies that all basically say the same thing: that the air quality is bad and getting worse. Reporter: Kori Suzuki, KPBS National Parks are once again caught up in the middle of the federal government shutdown. During the last shutdown – for more than 30 days in 2018 and 2019 - parks that remained open were unstaffed, leading to widespread vandalism and environmental damage. There’s growing concern that an extended shutdown could once again put at serious risk of damage. Reporter: Sarah Wright, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What once was a fire season in California is now a fire year. As a result, the state is looking to combat increasing wildfires with funding for more year-round firefighters. Reporter: Rachel Livinal, KVPR California voters approved a $10 billion climate bond measure, last November. We're now getting a sense of where the first round of Prop 4 money is going. Reporter: Manola Secaira, CapRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Marin County, rents are among the highest in the nation. There, a group of mobile home park residents are in a years-long fight to keep hold of one of the county’s few affordable options. They’re residents of the RV Park of San Rafael, where a property management company has been raising the rent, setting new rules and threatening residents with eviction. Reporter: Madi Bolaños, The California Report The Trump administration has expanded its investigation of alleged antisemitism on college campuses to the California State University system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket launched from Florida – the mission? To study the outermost parts of the earth’s atmosphere. The rocket is being driven by remote control from UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED A report out this week details major failures in LA County’s response to the January firestorms. Reporter: Jacob Margolis, LAist Immigration agents arrested three day laborers outside of a well-known worker center in Pomona Thursday morning. Immigration advocates say they’re worried about the health and safety of the people now being detained. Reporter: Anthony Victoria, KVCR A Southern California attorney is facing a historic fine for filing a state court appeal full of fake quotations generated by the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. Reporter: Khari Johnson, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Healthcare workers across Southern California are struggling to provide medical care to undocumented patients, without clear guidance on how to handle encounters with immigration agents. Medical workers want hospitals to improve guidelines and provide better training so they can protect patients and themselves. Reporter: Anthony Victoria, KVCR A federal court hearing on whether or not roving immigration patrols can continue in the Los Angeles area has been postponed. Reporter: Wendy Fry, CalMatters A nearly seven mile stretch of Highway 1 near Big Sur will remain closed this winter, three years after back to back landslides wrecked the roadway. But things could improve in the spring. Reporter: Robert Garrova, LAist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As concerns continue to grow over ICE detention and enforcement in California, the agency is also ramping up its hiring efforts, as it aims to bring on 10,000 new agents by the end of the year. But some experts say the agency’s recruitment strategy is filled with white nationalist messages and imagery. Reporter: Gustavo Solis, KPBS After months of delays and refinement, supervisors in Shasta County, which has for years been at the center of election integrity debates, have approved funding for new changes to the county’s voting system. Reporter: Roman Battaglia, Jefferson Public Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know, if your car gets towed in California and sold because you didn’t claim it, you’re entitled to the profit? And if you don’t claim your money, the DMV gets to keep it. Reporter: Byrhonda Lyons, CalMatters A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the Trump administration to restore 500 National Institutes of Health grants that it suspended at UCLA over the summer. Reporter: Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters The Tulare County Public Defender’s Office has agreed to overhaul an alleged culture of sexual harassment among employees, under the terms of a deal announced Monday. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Governor Gavin Newsom is poised to sign a new law lowering state cannabis taxes from 19% to 15%. Pot companies say it will bring much needed relief to an overtaxed, overregulated industry. But youth groups who are funded by this tax say kids are being betrayed. Reporter: April Dembosky, KQED Governor Gavin Newsom signed a series of bills into law on Saturday, aimed at reigning in aggressive immigration enforcement in the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tequila is produced exclusively in Mexico and has become a star in California's cocktail culture. More than 50 million cases of tequila were sold in the U.S. in 2023, with most of that consumed in the Golden State. And demand for tequila is growing faster than vodka, whiskey, and all other spirits combined. But this summer, several legal battles have begun which could shake up the entire industry. Guest: Carlos Cabrera Lomeli, KQED Bay Area immigrant advocates are suing the Trump administration to end its controversial immigration courthouse arrests, and stop detaining people for days in San Francisco holding rooms meant for only a few hours. Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED When immigrants are detained by the feds, families often struggle to pay rent. LA County officials are now trying to help these families. Reporter: David Wagner, LAist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost every night for nearly three decades in Santa Cruz, Bob and Patti Vasconcellos have gotten a little gussied up. They throw their walkers in the trunk and head to their local karaoke bar. Their performances have made them local celebrities. Reporter: Elena Neale-Sacks, KAZU California’s oil industry regulator is expecting gasoline prices to rise through the end of the year– and is calling on refineries to help. Reporter: Julie Small, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Santa Barbara Senator Monique Limón is set to become the leader of the California Senate this November, and a recent housing bill she authored is raising some eyebrows because it would keep CEQA requirements in place on one tiny plot of land in her district. Reporter: Ben Christopher, CalMatters As California experiences a record number of cases of Valley Fever cases, the Salinas Valley is seeing one of the largest spikes. Clouds of dust rise up behind trucks and tractors in the fields and sweep across Highway 101 in the wind, creating the perfect conditions to spread spores of the fungus that causes Valley Fever. People who work outside, like farm and construction workers, are especially at risk. Reporter: Jerimiah Oetting in Paso Robles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of George Floyd’s death and the protests that followed, California passed a law limiting the use of force against people exercising their First Amendment rights. An LAist investigation found that even when police departments appear to be breaking that law, the state doesn’t have a mechanism to actually enforce it. Reporter: Yusra Farzan, LAist Two companies with thousands of permits to drill oil wells in California merged on Monday, just two days after state lawmakers loosened environmental reviews for permits in Kern County. Reporter: Julie Small, KQED UC Merced students are speaking out after several campus leaders in charge of diversity, equity and inclusion programs were laid off. Reporter: Rachel Livinal, KVPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world lost an icon when Latin jazz pioneer Eddie Palmieri died last month. His music lives on through recordings, but also through sheet music, thanks in part to a publisher in rural California. This pioneer has helped make the work of Palmieri and other Latin jazz artists available to the world, from his home office in Madera. Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPR A handful of controversial bills on climate and energy are heading to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. That’s after state lawmakers passed the bills in the final hours of the legislative session on Saturday. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED While discourse during this year’s end of session at the Capitol was dominated by that package of energy measures, some other big bills were sent to the governor's desk. Reporter: Laura Fitzgerald, CapRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shasta County's voter-approved plan to become a charter county has been delayed by over a year because local officials failed to file necessary paperwork with the state. Local officials say the paperwork was finally filed last month. Justin Higginbottom, Jefferson Public Radio A push to build an immigration detention facility at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield is now on hold, according to the Department of Defense. Tyche Hendricks, KQED Dozens of carwash employees and their family members rallied alongside immigrant rights activists in Los Angeles on Thursday to denounce federal immigration raids at their worksites. Now, they're organizing patrols for possible future sweeps. Benjamin Gottlieb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Across Latino communities, the fear of arrest has become a part of daily life under stepped up immigration enforcement. Advocates say that constant stress is wearing on people's mental health.. And many are carrying the burden quietly. Reporter: Anthony Victoria, KVCR Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attempt to fast-track his administration’s proposal for a 45-mile-long tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta failed to pass the Legislature. Reporter: Ezra David Romero, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For two decades, the nation’s solution to homelessness has been pretty straightforward: get people into housing. This approach is known as Housing First, and in California it’s even written into state law. But this summer, President Trump signed an executive order reversing this policy, turning a California mandate into a liability. Reporter: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED The Garnet Fire east of Fresno has burned more than 56,000 acres, and has reached the McKinley Grove of Giant Sequoias. Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPR A San Diego law firm filed a class action lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement – arguing that federal agents are breaking the law when they arrest asylum seekers at immigration court. Reporter: Gustavo Solis, KPBS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices