KQED's The California Report

The Murrieta Valley School Board will discuss a policy this evening to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender. This comes after the Chino Valley school board passed a similar policy last month. Reporter: Madison Aument, KVCRMore than 100 unionized healthcare workers disrupted a Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting yesterday. The union is demanding higher wages and healthcare benefits.Reporter: Esthern Quintanilla, KVPRHomeowners in California have been reeling from the news that large insurance carriers will no longer offer new policies in the state. Nonprofits that provide affordable housing are also feeling the squeeze, and that's threatening to make the state's housing shortage even worse. Reporter: Erin Baldassari, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Standing water in Kings and Tulare Counties in the San Joaquin Valley has led to a proliferation of mosquitoes. As a result, big bucks are being spent on abatement.Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPRFor a lot of parents, having no one to care for their children means they often just don’t go to work, which can be bad for their employers. One study found that businesses lose $23 billion every year due to child care challenges faced by their workers. So some companies are taking matters into their own hands through employer-sponsored care.Reporter: Amanda Stupi, KQED  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Los Angeles city workers including sanitation workers, LAX employees, lifeguards at city pools and traffic officers are participating in a 24-hour strike today over unfair labor practices and bad-faith bargaining.California is one of the few states with heat standards aimed at protecting outdoor workers. But heat protections for indoor workers are limited, despite documented risks. Reporter: Nicole Foy, CalMattersIn Tijuana, a team of very young baseball players is getting ready to represent Mexico in the Little League World Series held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.Reporter: Gustavo Solis, KPBS  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Sacramento, a budget deficit limited what California state lawmakers could fund in this year’s budget. Now, lawmakers are looking to bonds as a different strategy to pay for things like climate infrastructure, mental health beds and affordable housing. Reporter: Nicole Nixon, CapRadioA controversial Farmer John slaughterhouse in the L.A. County community of Vernon closed earlier this year after nearly a century of operations. More than 2,000 people, mostly immigrants, worked there. Months later, laid-off workers are still struggling to adjust. Reporter: Leslie Berestein Rojas, LAist  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Biden Administration program to monitor asylum-seeking families and subject them to a curfew is set to expand to several California cities next week. It’s part of an effort by the Biden Administration to signal a tough but humane approach to border enforcement.Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED Following the state’s record-breaking rainfall in the winter, and now its dry heat, public health officials are worried about an uptick in Valley fever infections. Reporter: Izzy Bloom, The California ReportIn the early 1900s, many young Americans of Japanese descent left the United States to escape discrimination and seek opportunity back in Japan. When war broke out, they experienced the violence of the U.S. offensive while trying to navigate complex, often contradictory feelings about identity and belonging. Reporter Kori Suzuki explores this period through a very personal story — that of his grandmother.Reporter: Kori Suzuki, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After days of triple-digit heat, areas of the San Joaquin Valley, flooded from winter storms, are drying up, little by little. That includes Tulare Lake, which is receding after peaking at more than 170 square miles in size. But for many, the return to dry land doesn’t mean a return to normalcy.Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPRA coalition of environmentalists and social justice groups have launched a statewide campaign to try to ban new oil and gas wells near schools, parks and other residential places. The group is gathering signatures to get the initiative on the 2024 ballot. Reporter: Kevin Stark, KQED Survivors of the 2021 Caldor Fire in the Sierra Foothills are pursuing legal action against the U.S. Forest Service. Many residents are still living in trailers, and few, if any have received direct federal assistance.Reporter: Scott Rodd, KPBS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The York Fire, California’s largest wildfire this year, is currently burning in the Mojave National Preserve along the border of California and Nevada.  The fire is also the largest on record for the Mojave Desert, where wildfires are rare. Guest: Jacob Margolis, Reporter, LAistFormer President Donald Trump will campaign in California next month, speaking at the state Republican Party’s fall convention in Anaheim.  The announcement comes even as Trump faces new indictments, this time over his efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and his role in the January 6th insurrection. Reporter: Nicole Nixon, CapRadioThis summer marks the 59th year that Northern California’s Yurok Tribe is holding its Klamath Salmon Festival. But this year, there won’t actually be any salmon served, because of historically low salmon stocks.Reporter: Izzy Bloom, The California Report  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent months we've seen an explosion of strikes and worker protests in California -- by hotel employees, Hollywood writers and actors, port workers, UC grad students in teaching positions, and health care professionals. But when you take them all together, what do these actions say about the state of organized labor in California? Guest: Lorena Gonzalez, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, California Labor FederationTens of thousands of family child care workers overwhelmingly approved a new contract with the state of California on Monday. The deal includes significant changes for a workforce made of mostly women of color. Reporter: Daisy Nguyen, KQEDA grassroots group of writers and filmmakers have created a mutual aid fund. The goal is to help their production crew colleagues keep their health insurance during the Hollywood strikes.Reporter: Jackie Fortier, LAist   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Los Angeles, the strikes by film and television writers and actors continues, with no end in sight. That's brought production to a standstill. And with each passing day, the wider economic toll of the strikes continues to mount.Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California ReportIn San Diego, police will begin enforcing a controversial new municipal ordinance banning outdoor camping. Under the ordinance, encampments are prohibited within two blocks of schools, homeless shelters and mass transit stations, as well as in parks, along waterways, freeways, and in canyons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 250,000 Californians are still waiting on pandemic rental assistance they applied for through the state. As they wait, eviction protections are continuing to expire. Reporter: Ben Christopher, CalMatters With inflation cooling, renters in Los Angeles and Orange counties are about to get a slight reprieve from large rent hikes. The statewide Tenant Protection Act uses inflation to determine how much landlords can raise rent each year.Reporter: David Wagner, LAistSan Diego is home to a world-class public art scene.  Throughout the city you’ll find colorful murals stretching across entire buildings and soaring sculptures celebrating the city's heritage. You’ll also find public art sprinkled along the bowels of “America’s Finest City” — from public bathrooms to pump stations to sewage treatment plants.Reporter: Scott Rodd, KPBS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices