California signed up an estimated 450,000 people under Medicaid expansion who may not have been eligible for coverage, according to a report by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s chief watchdog. In a Feb. 21 report, the HHS inspector general estimated that California spent $738.2 million on 366,078 expansion beneficiaries who were ineligible. It […]
California’s homeless population has grown to more than 134,000 people, and key state government spending is taking a while to reach the streets. In summer 2016 the state approved its largest homeless program, a $2-billion loan to help finance new housing, but the money is tied up in court. That same year, lawmakers allocated $35 […]
A Bay Area legislator is unveiling new legislation to provide major state funding for cities and counties to finance low-income housing, transit and other infrastructure. Assembly Bill 3037 from Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) would re-create a version of a program known as redevelopment that set aside billions of dollars in property taxes each year […]
A proposal to help find spots for Cal State applicants who are shut out of the most popular campuses passed a key committee Tuesday at the trustees meeting in Long Beach. The trustees are expected to vote Wednesday on the plan to chip away at a problem so serious that about 32,000 eligible applicants were […]
In another sign of the state’s power glut, three Southern California gas-fired power plants owned by a subsidiary of energy firm NRG Energy Inc. will close over the next few months. . . .Gladys Limon, executive director of the California Environmental Justice Alliance advocacy group, said in a statement Friday that the retirement of the […]
The human response to possible takeover by robot overlords is off to a troubling start. Of six crash reports involving robot cars filed in California so far this year, two involved a human approaching the car and attacking it. On Jan. 2, a Chevy Bolt EV operated by General Motors’ Cruise driverless car division in […]
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa both have said they want developers in California to build a half million homes in a year — something that’s never happened, at least in modern history. And they want builders to do it for seven straight years, resulting in 3.5 million new homes […]
A judge has ordered California agricultural officials to stop spraying pesticides on public and private property to control insects that threaten the state’s $45-billion agriculture industry. The injunction by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge, issued late last week, could throw a substantial hurdle in front of efforts by the state Department of Food and […]
The California bullet train will take longer to build and cost more than previously estimated under a soon-to-be-released business plan, but plans to begin the project by linking the Bay Area to the Central Valley remain intact, according to the rail authority’s new chief executive, Brian Kelly. Kelly, who took over leadership of the project […]
Nearly two years after California lawmakers approved a $2-billion bond to help finance new housing for the state’s homeless, not a penny has been spent, and it’s unclear when any of the money will be available. The dollars are tied up in court as a Sacramento attorney challenges the state’s plan to pay off that […]
The union that represents Los Angeles school cafeteria workers, bus drivers and custodians announced Monday that it will hold a vote to authorize a strike. If the workers approve a strike, a walkout would not be inevitable, but union leaders could call one without returning to the membership for permission. The move could provide more […]
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s $37-million Cafe L.A. project at first seemed like a stunning success. In 18 months, 64 school cafeterias were gutted and transformed so that students could be served faster — and with healthier options. Then the district’s auditors looked at the books. They concluded the construction came at a high […]
Average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees last month grew at a 2.9% annual rate of increase, the most since 2009. That has fueled hopes for workers. It has also spooked some investors with fears of higher inflation and interest rates, which have convulsed financial markets. But wage gains thus far have been very uneven, […]
Those who want to blame a California environmental law for the state’s housing problems should instead point their fingers at cities and counties, according to a new report from researchers at UC Berkeley and Columbia University. The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, a 1970 state law, requires developers to analyze and eliminate a project’s […]
The road to an imminent electric vehicle future has hit a speed bump — one made of cobalt. An essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries that power millions of smartphones as well as plug-in electric cars, cobalt is in heavy demand. But just as the silverish-gray metal has established itself as a critical element in the […]