KQED's The California Report

President Biden toured Capitola Village and Seacliff State Park in Santa Cruz County on Thursday. Both of the areas were two of the hardest hit by the recent winter storms.A new bill would give California college athletes more protections and require Division I schools to share revenue with athletes whose market value exceeds the amount of their scholarships. That money would be paid after an athlete graduates.There’s a beam of light bringing people together in Sacramento, where long suffering basketball fans finally have a reason to celebrate. Reporter: Bianca Taylor, KQED  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Madera County near Yosemite, the new year has brought more than just stormy weather. The county’s only hospital closed. That leaves 150,000 residents without specialty care, without an emergency room and many of the hospital’s 700 employees without a job.Guests: Omar Rashad and Dympna Ugwu-Oju, Reporters, FresnolandLos Angeles City Council members are renewing calls for unarmed crisis response efforts by LAPD. This comes after the first week of the year saw two fatal police shootings, and the death of 31-year-old Keenan Anderson, who was repeatedly tased by officers.Reporter: Robert Garrova, KPCCPacific Gas and Electric is in criminal court again, this time to fight charges it killed four Shasta County residents in a 2020 wildfire. The company is facing four counts of manslaughter for its alleged role in starting the Zogg Fire near Redding.Reporter: Dan Brekke, KQED  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the aftermath of a massacre that left six people dead in the small farming town of Goshen early Monday, details remain sparse. The victims include a teen mother and her infant son.Reporter: Joshua Yeager, KVPR California could soon have a new repository of electric power, capable of stabilizing the state’s power grid. A German company is building a virtual power plant brimming with potential. Reporter: Erik Anderson, KPBS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Six people were shot and killed in a small San Joaquin Valley community early Monday morning.Reporter: Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado, KVPRWhen the pandemic hit in early 2020, local governments across the country passed eviction moratoriums to protect tenants from becoming homeless if they couldn’t afford to pay their rents. As the pandemic has eased, many of those protections have been eliminated. One place they still exist is Los Angeles, but maybe not for long. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The storms that have battered much of California will finally start to subside this week. Rain is expected to die down on Monday, although parts of Northern California and the Bay Area could see more precipitation on Wednesday. Much of Southern California will likely start a dry spell starting Tuesday. As communities clean-up following the storms, President Biden has declared a major disaster in California.Reporter: Katherine Monahan, KQED The achievement gap between Black and Latino students and other groups is a long standing problem throughout California. Tony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction, has appointed a task force to identify solutions. But on this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, we're checking in with a group that's working at the local level to close the achievement gap. Guest: Lisa Mitchell, Executive Director of African American Academic Acceleration, or A4, Fresno Unified School District  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Salinas River is still at risk of flooding, but authorities now say it may not be quite as bad as they had been predicting. Several low-lying communities near the river remain under evacuation orders and warnings.The intense rains so far this year have flooded farm fields across the state, forcing farmworkers to stay home -- which for most means no pay. Reporter: Leslie Berestein Rojas, KPCCSam Anderson was surprised to hear a high school friend from New Jersey was accused of murder in connection with an illegal marijuana operation in Mendocino County. The California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha spoke with Anderson about his wild experiences reporting on what really happened for his podcast "Crooked City: The Emerald Triangle."Reporter: Sasha Khokha, The California Report Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto is warning people to be prepared for the Monterey Peninsula to become an island because of flooding from the Salinas River. Nieto warned that flooding Thursday could eliminate all travel routes on or off the peninsula, leaving people stranded on either side. As the winter storms move through the state, power outages and flooding can make it hard for families to get and preserve food. State officials say families who get CalFresh benefits can apply for replacement funds on their EBT card if their food was lost or destroyed due to misfortune or a disaster.Reporter: Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli, KQEDEven in the midst of all this rain, wine makers and grape growers are worried about what wildfire smoke from next fire season will do to their wine. UC Vineyard advisor Chris Chen says the best time to think about preventing fires is when they’re still months away.Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQEDThe Merced County town of Planada remains evacuated this morning. About 200 people are sheltering at the Merced fairground and with more rain expected they’re worried about their homes and what happens next.Guest: Esther Quintanilla, KVPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Governor Gavin Newsom toured Capitola Village near Santa Cruz Tuesday, surveying the flood damage to small businesses there hit hard by storm surges.Reporter: Rachael Myrow, KQEDIn Santa Barbara County, cleanup is underway now that evacuation orders have been lifted. Local leaders consider the evacuations a success. There are no reports of major injuries or deaths. Reporter: Benjamin Purper, KCBX Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The entire town of Montecito has been evacuated. The order comes exactly five years to the day after a deadly mudslide destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes there after rain washed out a wildfire burn scar. Part of Santa Barbara and the nearby communities of Carpenteria and Summerland were also ordered to evacuate yesterday.Reporter: Dan Brekke, KQEDGovernor Gavin Newsom is set to outline his spending priorities for the 2023-24 fiscal year. The new budget proposal comes at a time when the state is facing a projected $24 billion dollar deficit — a sharp contrast to last year when California had a record surplus.Reporter: Alexei Koseff, CalMattersBakersfield native Kevin McCarthy claimed the Speaker’s Gavel in the House of Representatives early Saturday after a historic 15 rounds of voting. To get there, the San Joaquin Valley Republican made many concessions to party hard-liners. But he didn’t miss a beat during his acceptance speech that made frequent references to his Central California upbringing.Reporter: Joshua Yeager, KVPR  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Newsom Says 12 Californians Died in Extreme WeatherThe National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for a large swath of Northern and Central California with 6 to 12 inches of rain expected through Wednesday in the already saturated Sacramento-area foothills.CalMatters Investigates $35 million in Leftover Campaign CashA new investigation from CalMatters found there are nearly 100 politicians across California sitting on 35 million dollars in leftover campaign funds. CalMatters’ Ben Christopher explains why, and what’s happening to all this money. Reporter: Ben Christopher, CalMatters What Happens After Native American Tribes Get Their Land Back?Governor Gavin Newsom is setting aside $100 million dollars to support Native American tribes in buying back their ancestral lands. It’s part of his “30 by 30” pledge… to preserve one third of state lands and coastal waters by the year 2030. But once a tribe gets their land back… how do they restore and preserve it? An indigenous tribe in Humboldt County bought back 48 acres of land earlier this year. Reporter: Izzy Bloom, KQED  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices