May 23 was the deadline to turn in 42,802 valid signatures of voters in the district, which includes parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

Under a new law, employees in California are guaranteed five paid sick days a year, two days more than previously. Worker advocacy groups say the benefit is needed, but business groups warn of additional costs.

First-termers made the state Legislature the most diverse ever and racked up some policy wins for their constituents. But they also ran into a bill and budget process that wasn’t always transparent.

Proponents originally sought seven days of sick leave. The bill also extends protections against retaliation to workers who are in a union.

The former president railed against Democrats and again claimed the 2020 election was rigged, even though he lost California by nearly two-to-one. The GOP's 2023 state convention also heard from Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The state GOP is doubling down on its support for Donald Trump, inviting him to be its keynote speaker and adding rules for the March 2024 primary that make it possible for him to sweep all national convention delegates.

The bills require 5,300 companies that do business in California and have revenues exceeding $1 billion to disclose greenhouse gas emissions and financial risks from climate change

Unions won major victories in this year’s legislative session on pay for fast food and health care workers, benefits for strikers and bargaining rights. Business groups say labor has too much power at the Capitol. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas says unions are counting on lawmakers to deliver results.

Lawmakers shelved until 2014 a bipartisan bill to prohibit Tik Tok on state phones. It’s the latest attempt at social media regulation to get stalled in California.

The most sweeping bills to change California elections got shelved in the Legislature. Instead, lawmakers are focusing on ballot measure language, local redistricting, voting integrity and campaign finance tweaks before the 2024 election.

After weeks of negotiations, state legislators will start voting today on a budget deal that sets spending and policy across a wide range of issues affecting Californians.

Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, said that without the state cash, BART and other big-city transit systems will have to make drastic service cuts.

The oil industry qualified a 2024 ballot measure to kill a law that bans new oil wells near schools and neighborhoods, and the fast-food industry qualified another to wipe out a law creating a council to regulate fast food wages. 

State legislators sometimes exempt themselves from the laws they pass, but this session, they could change course on an emblematic bill: To allow their own staffers to form a union.

President Biden signed a law banning nearly 4 million federal employees from having TikTok on their government phones, over national security concerns. This week, New Jersey and Ohio joined at least 20 other states in restricting access to TikTok, amid fears that the Chinese government could use the app to spy on Americans. Will California jump on the TikTok ban bandwagon?

Across the state, some of the most vulnerable include the unhoused, whose numbers have increased by at least 22,500 in the last three years to about 172,000.