KQED's The California Report

Fresno State University is creating a new task force to assess its policies and procedures on harassment and discrimination. This comes after a recent investigation by USA Today revealed that the school’s former president and current Cal State University Chancellor Joseph Castro badly mishandled claims of sexual harassment against a top administrator.Traditionally, it’s been easy to become an auto mechanic and never touch an electric car or truck. That may be changing as the state prepares for the year 2035, when all new vehicles sold are supposed to be electric.Reporter: Megan Jamerson, KCRW Officials in San Diego County are asking the state Department of Public Health to issue new guidelines on when it’s safe to phase out the COVID-19 mask mandate for schools. This comes as indoor mask rules are set to expire for fully vaccinated Californians next week.Reporter: Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report The town of Paradise continues the slow, painstaking and painful process of rebuilding from 2018’s Camp Fire. Part of that process involves confronting the history of why the tragedy happened.Reporter: Dan Brekke, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is easing some of the pandemic restrictions put in place during the omicron surge, including the statewide indoor mask requirement. That mandate will expire on February 15.Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED A new California law will require schools to expand their mental health instruction. Educators say it would have been a welcome mandate before the pandemic, and it’s even more so now.Reporter: Robert Garrova, KPCCA recall campaign led by extreme conservative groups to remove a Shasta County Supervisor has succeeded. The target of the recall was himself a Republican.Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQEDThere are growing calls for a full investigation of California State University Chancellor Joseph Castro, after an investigation found that in a previous job, he failed to discipline a senior administrator following a series of workplace harassment complaints.Reporter: Scott Rodd, CapRadioThe city of Los Angeles has put a pause on impounding cars for unpaid parking tickets. The directive follows a lawsuit that could shake up how L.A. enforces parking.Reporter: Tara Atrian, KCRW Officials in Woodside, in San Mateo County, have backed down from their plan to sidestep Senate Bill 9, the state’s new housing law, over concern for local mountain lions.Reporter: Rachael Myrow, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the omicron surge first swept through California, nursing homes implemented more stringent testing requirements for visitors. It was right about the same time that California started allowing COVID positive nurses who aren’t showing symptoms to keep showing up to work. That has many visitors feeling confused, and frustrated.Reporter: Caleigh Wells, KCRWFewer and fewer students in California are taking the bus to school. As the numbers continue to decline, Bay Area State Senator Nancy Skinner is hoping legislation will help give families more options.But even if Skinner’s legislation is passed, can enough school bus drivers be found? Many districts are already reporting problems hiring and keeping drivers because of the job market and COVID-19. That includes in Sacramento.Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED Wildfires are a greater threat during periods of drought, which should surprise no one. But new research from Stanford University shows that the wildfire threat during times of scant rainfall is not spread evenly. Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Los Angeles’ lowest paid workers will get a pay bump this summer. Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced that the city's minimum wage will rise to more than $16 an hour on July 1.Reporter: Darrell Satzman, KCRWThe 2022 Winter Olympic Games open in Beijing Friday. And that sporting spectacle has some people remembering the one and only time the Winter Games were held here in California. It was 1960 at the then named Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe.Guest: David Antonucci, Author of the book "Snowball’s Chance: The Story of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games"LA County health officials have announced their new criteria for when that county indoor mask mandate can be lifted. Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCCIn response to the omicron surge, the Newsom administration is increasing its reliance on a border wall company to provide medical staffing around the state.Reporter: Scott Rodd, CapRadio   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Safety is one of the major concerns for Southern California officials, with the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium a little more than a week away. But there’s also the pandemic. Even though infection rates in Los Angeles County have steadily declined, the county is still averaging thousands of new cases a day over the past week.Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCCIn recent weeks, Governor Gavin Newsom has suggested that state health officials are working on an endemic plan for California, which would outline how the state will live with COVID-19. But with the omicron wave and possible other variants down the line, should the state ease some of its restrictions?Guest: Dr. Abraar Karan, Infectious Disease Expert, Stanford University School of MedicineA new poll shows the COVID-19 pandemic still tops the list of concerns for Californians. Nearly one-fifth of those polled by the Public Policy Institute of California say COVID-19 is the most important issue for state leaders to tackle in 2022.Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQEDA state lawmaker is introducing legislation that would require school officials to collect information from parents about guns they store at home. The bill from State Senator Anthony Portantino was inspired by a school shooting in Michigan last year.Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED  The nation’s troubled immigration courts would get an overhaul under a bill being introduced Thursday by San Jose Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. They've been plagued by a backlog of 1.6 million cases, and lack due process protections.Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQEDA state appeals court has rejected a bid by a group of 22 PG&E employee, to black out their names from evidence gathered during the criminal investigation into the 2018 Camp Fire.Reporter: Dan Brekke, KQED 2022 is an election year. And more California counties will be making the switch from polling places to larger vote centers, where people can cast their ballots over several days.Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The water contained in California’s mountain snow is now lower than the historical average, after a January without significant rain or snow. That could mean another difficult drought year for Californians.Guest: Ezra David Romero, Climate Reporter, KQEDWith the extremely dry January, preceded by a very wet December, state officials say it's part of the volatile shifts in weather brought about by climate change. But as we head into another year of drought, some cities are trying to get ahead on conservation efforts.Guest: Laura Bliss, Bloomberg CityLab Reporter In rural Shasta County, an effort to recall a county supervisor who his critics said was too deferential to Sacramento’s COVID-19 restrictions is too close to call. Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED The fallout from California's failed attempt to pass single-payer healthcare legislation continues. Assemblyman Ash Kalra is defending his decision to not bring the bill up for a vote.Reporter: April Dembosky, KQEDCalifornia has been a national leader in the movement to get residents healthcare coverage. But a recent analysis out of UCLA finds disparities in access to care persist. Reporter: Tara Atrian, KCRW Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a big spike, COVID-19 cases are now falling in California. And hospitalizations are also declining.Reporter: Lesley McClurg, KQEDStarting Tuesday, people who are vaccinated and boosted can take off their masks in certain indoor spaces in San Francisco. The new rule says anyone who’s fully vaccinated can go maskless in places like gyms, offices, college classes and religious services. Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED  While San Francisco is relaxing its mask rules, LA County’s mask mandate remains in place. The mandate will only be lifted if cases, hospitalizations and transmission hit a low benchmark, under county criteria put in place last fall. Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCC California lawmakers’ most recent attempt to create a single-payer health system, that would have provided coverage to all Californians, is now dead. The proposal didn't even come up for a vote in the state legislature on Monday.  Reporter: April Dembosky, KQEDNew traffic fatality numbers are out for California cities and they show that last year, our streets got more dangerous even though cities, like Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, have launched ambitious programs to reduce traffic deaths.Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California ReportA new director will be sworn in Tuesday to head the state’s Employment Development Department, or EDD. That’s the agency that’s faced a barrage of criticism for paying out billions in fraudulent unemployment claims while legitimate applicants struggled to get the help they were due. Reporter: Mary Franklin Harvin, The California ReportA bill that would create a new commission to set pay and working conditions in California's fast food industry won approval in the state Assembly on Monday.Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Rams and 49ers renewed their rivalry on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. And after falling behind early, Los Angeles got a late field goal and interception to seal the win. They're now headed to the Super Bowl in two weeks, which will be played on their home field, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.SB9, a new law in California, allows some homeowners to divide and redevelop their properties, with the hope of producing more homes and apartments. But many are divided on the law and what it will mean for their community and the neighborhoods they live in.Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California ReportA bill that would create a government-run, single-payer health care system in California goes before the full state Assembly on Monday for a vote. Reporter: April Dembosky, KQED State investigators found a company with Burger King franchises in San Francisco owes nearly $2 million for wage theft. But that was a year and a half ago. And workers are still waiting for their money, as the state has not scheduled a hearing to finalize their case.Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Los Angeles Rams will take on the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday in the NFC Championship at SoFi Stadium. Ticketing for the game has been controversial, as the Rams have tried to make it more difficult for Niners fans to grab seats.Guest: Tony Knopp, CEO of Ticketmanager Even though Los Angeles County appears to be past the omicron peak, health officials say residents can’t get complacent. LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer estimates that the peak was January 8th, but said the virus is still circulating.Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCC In rural Shasta County, about 3 hours north of Sacramento, a Republican county supervisor is the target of a recall. A recall initiated by a local militia leader. The election is next week and the outcome could determine how far to the right this local government will move, in an already deeply conservative county. Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oil drilling in Los Angeles is on the way out. The city council has voted unanimously to ban new oil and gas wells and to phase out existing ones over the next 20 years.Gas stoves have greater health and climate impacts than scientists previously thought. That's according to a new study out of Stanford University.Reporter: Laura Klivans, KQEDNearly half of Californians have postponed addressing a health issue in the past 12 months because of cost. That’s according to the latest annual poll by the California Health Care Foundation.Reporter: Tara Siler, KQED California is the first state in the nation to examine how to compensate Black residents for centuries of racial injustice. The state's Reparations Task Force meets this week to further study how the impacts of slavery are felt today and to ask several daunting questions about how to remedy the harm.Guest: Christina Kim, Racial Justice and Social Equity Reporter, KPBS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices