CALMATTERS

• 💥 The explosive reason CA may ban single-use vapes
  June 26, 2026
  Seasoned Californians by now should be used to various bans on single-use plastics, like grocery bags, straws and food packaging, in an attempt by the state to curb environmental waste. But one proposal to ban […]
• Big box tinderboxes: Warehouses are exposing more Californians to costly, toxic disasters
  June 26, 2026
  The blaze at a massive cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights is simply the latest in a string of massive industrial facility fires in California.
• California prisons clamp down on overtime, limit access to classes for incarcerated people
  June 26, 2026
  California prisons are limiting access to programs for incarcerated people as the system manages it overtime budget. The state spends about $18 billion a year on corrections.
• They asked 6,000 Californians about inequality and learned how we live with it
  June 26, 2026
  A conversation with G. Cristina Mora and Tianna S. Paschel, authors of “Normalizing Inequality: How Californians Make Sense of the Growing Divide”
• What the federal probe of Newsom and the first partner means for his presidential ambitions
  June 26, 2026
  Gavin Newsom has rocketed to the top of the shadow campaign for president. A federal investigation into the Newsoms could either boost or torpedo his ambitions.
• California unions, hospitals strike deal — but billionaire tax heads to ballot
  June 25, 2026
  Hospitals and a healthcare union have agreed to pull rival initiatives from the ballot, but a proposed one-time 5% tax on billionaires remains headed to November voters.
• Billionaire tax, affordable housing: See the measures on California’s November ballot
  June 25, 2026
  California voters will decide on 14 statewide policy proposals come November, including the high-stakes billionaire tax, an $11 billion affordable housing bond and voter ID requirements.