Advertise on podcast: KQED's The California Report

As federal immigration enforcement efforts continue across California, families of detainees are struggling with a new problem. Many can't find loved ones who've been hospitalized after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Guest: Claudia Boyd-Barrett, KFF Health News A federal judge blocked a California state law barring federal officers from wearing masks on Monday. But the ruling also handed the state a partial victory. Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was another historic halftime show at this year’s Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara as global superstar Bad Bunny took the stage.  Reporter: Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report 2025 was a pivotal year for health insurance reform: more than two dozen states, including California, passed laws limiting insurers’ ability to delay or deny medical services after a doctor has ordered them. The practice is known as prior authorization. Criticism of it reached a fever pitch last year and California is leading the way with reform. Reporter: April Dembosky, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Super Bowl Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, Bad Bunny will make history, headlining the halftime show, and singing entirely in Spanish. It will also be the first time the show includes Puerto Rican sign language. Reporter: Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED People who say their rights are being trampled at a remote immigration detention facility in the Mojave Desert get their first day in court on Friday. Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED Kern County's District Attorney is suing an oil and gas producer for alleged environmental violations. This comes as the county’s oil production is ramping up under a new state law. Reporter: Cresencio Rodriguez Delgado, KVPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Super Bowl 60 will air on NBC on Sunday. And if you can’t watch the game in person at Levi’s Stadium, you’ll likely be one of millions glued to a TV screen. The game is being played in Santa Clara, but you might not know it from some of the images the broadcast is likely to show. Reporter: Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report California’s new congressional map will stay in place after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the new districts Wednesday. Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Over a year ago, California voters passed a measure, Proposition 36, to crack down on theft and drug crimes. But counties have been left to figure out how to fund it. Reporter: Riley Palmer, CapRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This weekend's Super Bowl halftime show is expected to be one of the most-watched performances of the year, and this time it's headlined by Bad Bunny. The global superstar has never shied away from politics. Just days ago at the Grammys, he used his acceptance speech to denounce ICE at a moment when immigration enforcement has become more aggressive in parts of the country, including here in California. So what does it mean for an artist like Bad Bunny to take the Super Bowl stage right now? Guest: Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED Arts Editor A naturalization ceremony in Fresno to swear in new U.S. citizens was abruptly cancelled recently. Many waiting for citizenship were thrown into confusion. Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPR Up until now, police in California could cite drivers with an open container violation, if they found loose marijuana in a vehicle. But a new ruling by the California Supreme Court finds that police can’t issue a citation, or search the car, unless the pot they find is ready to be consumed. Reporter: Nigel Duara, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every winter, skiers trek up to the Southern California mountain town of Big Bear to hit the slopes. But this winter, snow has been hard to come by. Rain and unusually warm temperatures have dominated and put a chill on ski resorts and businesses in the region. Reporter: Madison Aument, KVCR Every time there’s a major disaster in California, the state is supposed to write a report on lessons learned. But they're years behind. Reporter: Jacob Margolis, LAist A bill to regulate unaccredited groups that help veterans access benefits is pending on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Reporter: Laura Fitzgerald, CapRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the catastrophic fires in Los Angeles more than a year ago, rebuilding has been slow. So some local architects have been thinking about how to move things along. A few took inspiration from a project in the 1940s to build homes quickly, which ended up revolutionizing architecture and forever associating LA with the mid-century modern home. Reporter: Brandon Reynolds, KCRW It seems like California just might be repeating last year’s snowpack story. Massive storms drenched the state in December. But California was virtually dry for most of January. Reporter: Ezra David Romero, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the past few years, the California legislature has passed a bevy of laws aimed at cutting red tape and spurring housing construction. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who represents the 14th district, has been at the forefront of that work. But, it’s still really expensive to build. This year, she is chairing the newly established Select Committee on Housing and Construction Innovation. Guest: Buffy Wicks, CA Assemblymember, 14th District Immigration arrests in San Diego surged nearly 1500% in 2025. And many of the people who’ve been arrested have no history of criminal convictions. Reporter: Wendy Fry, CalMatters California lawmakers want to set new standards for cleaning homes after toxic fires. Reporter: David Wagner, LAist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is seeing a decline in crime rates across the state, especially when it comes to homicides. So why is this happening? That answer, as it turns out, is complicated. Guest: Magnus Lofstrom, Policy Director, Public Policy Institute of California A new state bill would raise taxes on for-profit companies that operate immigration detention centers in California. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED US Congressmembers from California called for the removal of the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, at a news conference outside of ICE’s field office in San Bernardino Wednesday. Reporter: Anthony Victoria, KVCR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With insurance companies reluctant to back fire-prone parts of the state, officials and builders are looking for ways to get people into homes designed to survive wildfires. Those efforts are now extending to entire developments. In El Dorado County, that includes the opening of a “wildfire-prepared neighborhood” – the first in Northern California. Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED A lawsuit filed this week claims people held at the federal immigration facility in Adelanto lack basic necessities like clean water, healthy food and medical care. Reporter: Jordan Rynning, LAist Democrat Ro Khanna is demanding the Trump administration turn over health and safety records for the California City immigration detention facility in the Mojave Desert, after a recent oversight visit that he described as “alarming.” Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It has been about a year since a fire burned the battery plant at Moss Landing in Monterey county. While the fire prompted many residents to move away from homes surrounding the plant, the government's stance on the aftermath of the fire is that it left no significant environmental impact. Locals are still challenging that narrative. In the wake of federal immigration agents killing another person in Minneapolis, Minnesota, over the weekend, California lawmakers are moving to place further limits on how  these agents can operate and maneuver in the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been about a year since President Donald Trump began his second term in the White House. Californians that voted for him in the 2024 US presidential election weigh in on how he's doing this time around. Nurses working at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California and parts of Hawaii began their strike today, asking for better wages and more manageable workloads. The US Department of Justice has just ended its efforts to obtain the medical records for more than 3,000 people who had been provided gender-affirming care at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wine isn’t often the drink of choice in Chinese restaurants, yet the country’s immigrants played a key role in planting Northern California vineyards and building wineries after the Gold Rush. Now, a Chinese American winemaker is bringing a taste of that history — along with her Sonoma and Napa wines — to Chinatown restaurants in the Bay Area and beyond. Reporter: Tina Caputo California State University has reached a legal settlement with its faculty union over the sharing of faculty information with federal authorities. Reporter: Juan Carlos Lara, KQED After over a decade of planning, and years of construction, Butte County finally has a new jail. Reporter: Claudia Brancart, North State Public Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The race for California governor is coming into focus -- after Attorney General Rob Bonta and Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso announced last week that they will not join the field. But one important constituency has yet to agree on a candidate: organized labor. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED California counties are starting their homeless point-in-time counts this week. This is the annual census where volunteers fan out statewide to try to answer the question: Is California's homelessness crisis improving…or getting worse? Reporter: Marisa Kendall, CalMatters A federal immigration agent shot at a suspect during what's being called a targeted operation in South Los Angeles Wednesday. No one was hit by the gunfire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As tensions rise over the conduct of federal immigration enforcement – and in-custody deaths are increasing – California’s two U.S. senators say they’re “aghast” at conditions inside the newest immigration detention center in the state. That’s after a visit Tuesday to the California City Detention Facility. Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED California prosecutors are expressing alarm at the Trump administration’s response to the January 7 fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an immigration agent, including claims that ICE officials have absolute immunity from prosecution. Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices