News from across California that affects Ventura County readers.
Photo via istockphoto.com Proposition 40, also known as the billionaire tax, is the most contentious fight on Californians’ ballots this November. The proposal to impose a one-time asset tax on the net worth of the state’s approximately 200 billionaires has divided Democrats, galvanized progressives and sparked fierce pushback from business groups and the state’s wealthy tech sector. Google...
Oct 14, 2026
Hopeton Leahong, a family nurse practitioner, examines Ramonte Means at St. John's Community Health's Avalon Clinic in Los Angeles on Feb. 7, 2026. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters Two years ago, California hit a milestone decades in the making: Nearly every person in the state qualified for health insurance, regardless of immigration status and income, pushing the state’s insured rate to...
Kristen Hwang · Oct 14, 2026
Ian Choudri, chief executive officer of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, speaks during a special board meeting at the California Natural Resources Agency in Sacramento on Oct. 9, 2026. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters The board that oversees the California High-Speed Rail Authority voted last week to rein in Chief Executive Ian Choudri’s contracting authority following a state i...
Yue Stella Yu · Oct 14, 2026
Detention officers escort a handcuffed person from a white van into a federal immigration office in downtown Fresno on Oct. 7, 2026. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMatters In a dim storefront near downtown Fresno, a family gathered to mourn. They wore memorial T-shirts, lit candles, and told stories about their patriarch through tears and sobs. Luis Arreguin didn’t die, but to his closes...
Wendy Fry · Oct 14, 2026
Gov. Gavin Newsom in the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento on Feb. 11, 2026. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Not only has Gov. Gavin Newsom vocally opposed the proposed California billionaire tax, but he also wants to prevent the state from ever passing a wealth tax in the future. Last week he endorsed Proposition 42, a ballot measure that would cancel out Proposition 40, th...
Jeanne Kuang · Oct 14, 2026
An American flag waves on a flagpole in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire. Firefighters are performing mop-up activities in the burn area, though the fire continues to burn, in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 9, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters No single failure explains the devastation of the Palisades and Eaton fires that burned through Los Angeles County in January 2025, a new report c...
Rachel Becker · Oct 9, 2026
Gov. Gavin Newsom meets with officials at the BACS St. Regis Center in Hayward where he announced new statewide accountability measures and funding to address homelessness and mental health care on March 2, 2026. Photo by Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed a major victory for his signature mental health court last week, but critics say his math appears more than a littl...
Jocelyn Wiener and Marisa Kendall · Oct 9, 2026
A patient at La Clinica in Oakland picks up her prescription on Sept. 26, 2019. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters Doctors and health insurers filed a lawsuit last week alleging Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature violated the law when they approved a healthcare tax that could substantially increase insurance premiums for Californians. The lawsuit claims the recently passed tax on hea...
Kristin Hwang · Oct 9, 2026
A vehicle auction at Bruffy's Tow in Marina Del Rey on Feb. 18, 2025. Photo by J.W. Hendricks for CalMatters Last week Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would’ve stopped the Department of Motor Vehicles’ practice of keeping excess proceeds from the sales of towed cars. The DMV’s handling of the money came under scrutiny following a CalMatters investigation that showed the agency had kept...
Andrew Donohue and Byrhonda Lyons · Oct 9, 2026
Photo via istockphoto.com California is suing two Christian anti-abortion nonprofits over a disputed treatment the groups call “abortion pill reversal” in a case that could reshape the nation’s ongoing battle over abortion rights. An Alameda County judge heard six weeks of arguments in the case, and will ultimately decide whether the First Amendment shields two anti-abortion groups that pro...
Kristen Hwang · Oct 2, 2026
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