KQED's The California Report

Half of California hospitals are losing money everyday. Madera Community Hospital is just the latest to close due to financial issues. And experts predict many more will follow across the state.Reporter: Lesley McClurg, KQEDIn Fresno County, an emergency hospital declaration has just been lifted, despite area hospitals still dealing with an overcrowding crisis. That's in large part due to the recent closure of a hospital in neighboring Madera County.Reporter: Soreath Hok, KVPRFor the second year in a row, there’s an effort underway to reform and significantly reduce the use of solitary confinement in California. The Mandela Act would prohibit jails, prisons, and immigration detention facilities from holding people in solitary confinement for more than two weeks in a row.Reporter: Kate Wolffe, CapRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here in California, we've grown pretty accustomed to power outages. Sometimes it gets knocked out by storms. Other times, it gets turned off on purpose by the utility companies to avoid wildfires. But what if you could live in a community where your lights always stayed on, no matter what happened to the grid?Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report California utility regulators are digging into reasons for this winter’s high natural gas prices. During a hearing on Tuesday, the California Public Utilities Commission pressed industry officials to explain the record setting price hikes for natural gas.Reporter: Erik Anderson, KPBS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Half Moon Bay farmworkers – and other vulnerable immigrants who speak up about workplace abuses – could get some protection under a new Biden administration policy. It would shield undocumented immigrants from deportation if they cooperate with labor investigations.Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQEDCalifornia’s governor is calling for a federal probe into the record high natural gas prices that have doubled and even tripled some customer bills. Reporter: Erik Anderson, KPBSBesides its canals, the city of Amsterdam is known for its pot cafes, where you can eat and hang out with friends while using marijuana. California law prevents that kind of establishment, but there’s a move to change that.Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When storms battered California last month, the streets of Planada became rivers. Hundreds of homes were flooded and the whole town was evacuated. Now people in this rural Central Valley community are trying to put their lives back together. But many undocumented residents are struggling to access assistance.Reporter: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Governor Gavin Newsom says he expects to collaborate with lawmakers this year on reforms to the state’s environmental review law, which has been used repeatedly by opponents of development to block construction. The California Environmental Quality Act, which was signed into law in 1970, aimed to ensure that the environmental impact of a project is taken into account. Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Guru Jagat, a Santa Monica-based yoga instructor, was known for being confident and relatable. She modernized the esoteric practice of Kundalini yoga. But in 2020, her followers started noticing a shift in her beliefs.Reporter: Emily Guerin, Producer, LAist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of two mass shootings that left 18 people dead, California leaders say they’ll pass new legislation to regulate concealed weapon permits.Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED The funeral for 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was held Wednesday in Memphis, three weeks after he died following a beating by police. There are increased calls for police accountability across the nation, an issue that’s being taken on here in California by the Bay Area-based Anti Police-Terror Project.Guest: Cat Brooks, Executive Director, Anti Police-Terror Project  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Californians continue to process the series of mass shootings up and down the state, the small community of Goshen in the Central Valley remains shaken by the brutal murders of six family members two weeks ago.Reporter: Alex Hall, KQEDCalifornia’s snowpack is at 208% of normal for this time of year. That's the highest level in decades.Reporter: Ezra David Romero, KQEDThieves have stolen more than $35 million from some of the state’s most vulnerable residents – because the debit cards California uses to send financial assistance are too easy to exploit. Now, the state is trying to make it easier for these theft victims to get their money back.Reporter: Jeanne Kuang, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friends and family of Tyre Nichols, the former Sacramento resident who was beaten and killed by Memphis police officers, held a candlelight vigil in his honor Monday night.  Reporter: Sarah Mizes-Tan, CapRadio A new study out of Stanford University finds climate warming will likely reach a critical threshold in the early 2030s. Reporter: Ezra David Romero, KQEDCold temperatures are forecast through Wednesday, prompting The National Weather Service to issue frost advisories and freeze warnings for parts of the Bay Area and the Central Valley. The low temperatures could be dangerous for the unsheltered, and add to high utility bills for housed Californians. Natural gas and electricity prices are both up sharply compared to last year. Reporter: Erik Anderson, KPBS  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big Sur is cut off again thanks to landslides on Highway 1 caused by the rain storms earlier this month. Now supplies are being flown in, and residents along portions of the scenic highway may be stuck for at least another three weeks. Reporter: Jonathan Linden, KAZU The COVID-19 pandemic continues to heavily affect the lives of California’s 9 million children. Those impacts are particularly devastating for kids of color or kids living in poverty, according to new data tracking children’s well-being in each of the state’s 58 counties. Reporter: Daisy Nguyen, KQEDThis month, California issued first-in-the-nation safety guidelines for employers of domestic workers: people like cleaners, nannies and caregivers who have historically been excluded from occupational health and safety laws. But advocates say California is taking the first steps to right that wrong. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Authorities confirm they’re investigating possible wage theft and health and safety violations at the two farms in Half Moon Bay where seven farm workers were killed this week in a mass shooting. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQEDEven as the community mourns in Half Moon Bay, people are looking for ways to heal and grasp for normalcy. Reporter: Madi BolañosThis week, we've covered Monterey Park in the wake of the mass shooting there. But communities shouldn't just be defined by their worst days. So we're looking at one aspect of Monterey Park life not related to this week’s news -- its amazing Asian food scene that’s been created by immigrant communities there.Guest: Denny Mu, The Mandarin Noodle House Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices