KQED's The California Report

With two-thirds of California’s unhoused population living unsheltered, cities are increasingly turning to tiny homes to get people off the streets quickly. Now lawmakers are considering a plan to make it easier to build them.Reporter: Vanessa Rancaño, KQEDFor the second time, state labor officials have rejected the University of California's request to get a court order to stop the UC academic workers strike. This comes as workers from three more campuses are going on strike this week.Reporter: Billy Cruz, The California Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republicans in California have struggled to gain power at the state capitol, but they’ve found more success recently on school boards. Conservatives have made gains in these local seats -- but now they’re facing pushback in the form of recall elections -- including two underway right now in Riverside County and the Bay Area.Reporters: Guy Marzorati, KQED and Madison Aument, KVCR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reaction was not surprisingly mixed to Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, marking the end of the former president’s historic hush money trial. Republicans are still standing strong behind Trump, while many Bay Area residents said they were surprised and pleased by the verdict.Analysts say that Trump’s guilty verdicts may not sway his GOP base, but they could change how swing voters view him and the coming November election. Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Looking to fix the state’s insurance crisis, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a bill to speed up insurance premium rate reviews this week. Under the bill, the Insurance Department would have up to 120 days to review insurers' requests and provide a rate estimate.Reporter: Levi Sumagaysay, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

175 tiny homes for the unhoused are expected to be unveiled in South Sacramento this fall. That’s a year past Governor Gavin Newsom’s projected launch. But it turns out, it’s the only project delivering on the original promise.Reporter: Kate Wolffe, CapRadioClasses will once again be held online at UC Santa Cruz on Thursday as a group of pro-Palestinian protesters say they plan to continue to block the main entrance to the campus. On Tuesday, both roads leading into campus were blocked, leaving many stranded for hours.Reporter: Erin Malsbury, KAZUAt UC Davis, a dozen students held a peaceful demonstration on campus on Wednesday, in support of the 125 Israeli hostages that remain in Gaza.Reporter: Chris Nichols, CapRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March, the country’s largest stone fruit producer laid off thousands of workers in the San Joaquin Valley. The announcement came months after the Fresno-based company, Prima Wawona, declared bankruptcy. The collapse has left many in the Central Valley wondering how prepared the workforce is for industry disruptions.Reporter: Esther Quintanilla, KVPR California firefighters often wear protective gear that also has some amount of toxic chemicals in it. Now efforts are underway to change that. Reporter: Kevin Stark, KQED  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday at UCLA and at UC Davis, unionized student academic workers will strike. They’re protesting the UC system’s crackdowns on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, filing unfair labor practice charges. The university system has argued that the strikes are illegal.This is the second wave of strikes on UC campuses. At UC Santa Cruz, academic workers have now been on strike for more than a week. UAW 4811 members there say morale remains high, and they appreciate other campuses joining in on the strike.Guests: Rebecca Gross & Katherine Rogers, Grad Students and UAW 4811 members at UC Santa Cruz As California faces a deficit in the tens of billions of dollars, Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a number of painful spending cuts and program reductions. But advocates are calling on California lawmakers to save some programs, like one that provided In-Home Supportive Services for undocumented immigrants.Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As our weather warms over the summer, we’re approaching peak rattlesnake season in California and that means more encounters between rattlers and humans. So what should we know about snakes?Guest: Emily Taylor, Professor of Biology, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Author of the book “California Snakes and How to Find Them” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since 1951, an extraordinary looking chapel made of wood, glass and stone has been perched close to the edge of the Pacific on Southern California's Palos Verdes Peninsula. Over the decades, countless weddings and other life events have played out at Wayfarers Chapel. But now the building is in danger from shifting geology, and an architectural rescue operation is underway to save it.Guest: Katie Hauck, Architectural HistorianA second pro-Palestinian encampment was quickly taken down on Thursday at UCLA. And eight pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after blocking traffic at one of the school's main entrances. This all came on the same day as when UCLA's chancellor testified on Capitol Hill about antisemitism on college campuses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last seven years, about 31% of police shootings in Los Angeles involved people who officers believed showed signs of mental illness. Some experts are calling for more de-escalation training for officers, while activists would like to see police removed from such interactions.Reporter: Robert Garrova, LAist Should California doctors be required to report domestic abuse to police? That’s the question at the center of a bill advancing in the state Legislature.Reporter: Ryan Sabalow, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next month, voters will go to the polls in Mexico to select the country's next president. The election is already historic because the two leading candidates, Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez, are women. The election will also be notable because of the likely record number of Mexican citizens living in California and the rest of the U.S. who will cast ballots.Guest: Tony Payan, director of Center for the U.S. and Mexico, Rice University Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s one-time staffer will replace him in Congress, at least for now. In a decisive victory for Assemblymember Vince Fong in a special congressional election, the Associated Press called the race for the Bakersfield Republican just minutes after polls closed in California.Reporter: Joshua Yeager, KVPR The California Supreme Court appears hesitant to strike the state’s Proposition 22, a voter-backed initiative that has allowed gig companies to classify their workers as independent contractors. Justices heard oral arguments in the case on Tuesday.Reporter: Levi Sumagaysay, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices