KQED's The California Report

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Debate Over Key Climate Change Program Continues In Sacramento Sep 04, 2025

Show notes

At the state capitol, negotiations are heating up over California's signature program to fight climate change. It's called cap and trade, and the state uses it to cap greenhouse gas emissions. But the program expires in 2030, and lawmakers are debating how to extend the program amid rising energy costs and concerns about the closure of oil refineries.

Guest: Guy Marzorati, KQED

California, Oregon, and Washington are forming a health alliance to issue their own vaccine recommendations. The move comes in response to the Trump administration’s changing vaccine guidance.

Reporter: Lesley McClurg, KQED A major new immigration detention facility has quietly opened in California’s Mojave Desert. But advocates say the private prison company that owns it has not obtained permits to operate.

Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED

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Sonoma Wineries Prepare For Possible Impacts from Immigration Enforcement Sep 03, 2025

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The federal budget allocated a record-setting $170 billion for immigration enforcement. The money is set to go toward expanding detention facilities and hiring new agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After pledging in June to protect the agriculture industry from crackdowns, President Trump reversed course a few days later. Now, as California’s annual grape harvest begins, the state’s wine community is on edge.

Reporter: Tina Caputo

The only emergency room in a rural North State county is closing its doors on October 21. Glenn Medical Center serves some 30,000 people in Glenn County but federal regulators have pulled its funding.

Reporter: Sarina Grossi, North State Public Radio

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Volunteers Help Monitor For ICE Activity Near Where Day Laborers Gather Sep 02, 2025

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Hundreds of volunteers in California are getting up early in the morning to stand at corners where day laborers wait for jobs. The goal? To watch out for ICE.

Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED

Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a new taskforce to clear homeless encampments in California.

Reporter: Marisa Kendall, CalMatters

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Dolores Huerta On The State Of Worker's Rights In California Sep 01, 2025

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On this Labor Day, we're taking a closer look at the labor force here in California. With increased immigration enforcement from the Trump administration, the state of the immigrant workforce has perhaps never been more in flux.

Guest: Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder of United Farm Workers, President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation

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Modesto Loses Its Longtime Minor League Baseball Team Aug 29, 2025

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Minor league baseball has a rich history in California, going back more than a century. But minor league baseball is changing. Like other professional sports, it has become a big-money game, attracting owners looking to cash in on rising team values. One Central Valley city is witnessing what that big-money game looks like firsthand, as its longtime team plays its last few home games, before moving to Southern California.

Reporter: Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report

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What Newsom's Approach To Battling Trump Might Mean For Political Aspirations Aug 28, 2025

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California Governor Gavin Newsom is making national waves as he takes on President Donald Trump -- on social media and, soon, at the ballot box, with an initiative that would redraw congressional districts to give Democrats more seats in the House of Representatives. What does all this mean for the famously ambitious politician?

Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED

In a hearing in Sacramento on Wednesday, state lawmakers grilled officials tasked with protecting the health and safety of workers.

Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED

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North State Voters Brace For Changes With Possible Redistricting On The Horizon Aug 27, 2025

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In rural Northern California, voters represented by Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa are bracing for big changes. A proposed congressional map on the November ballot would shift them into a more Democratic-leaning territory.

Reporter: Izzy Bloom, KQED

Some foreign dissidents in California say they need law enforcement help when the governments they fled threaten them here on U.S. soil. A bill moving through the legislature would train police on how to respond. Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED

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The Playbook to Fight Wildfires' Unseen Threat to Tap Water Aug 26, 2025

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The Tubbs Fire that struck the North Bay in 2017 shed light on an unseen threat that wildfires pose to clean water supplies; and a civil engineering professor out of Indiana has devised the playbook that utilities rely on to address the contamination.

As the redistricting battle heats up between California and Texas, Republican legislators in the Golden State are suing to block the plan spearheaded by Governor Newsom to gerrymander California in favor of House Democrats. The move aims to offset congressional gains that Texas would get with their own redistricting plans.

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California Heads Into Uncharted Territory With Redistrict Vote Aug 25, 2025

Show notes

State Lawmakers have paved the way for Governor Newsom's redistricting plan to go before voters on a November ballot, but not all voters are sold on the idea of taking a partisan approach to draw up California's district map--even if Texas plans to do the same in an attempt to tip the mid-term elections in the GOP's favor. Some worry the move would take California into murky political waters down the line.

Wildfire victims in Los Angeles County are starting to rebuild their lives. A bill is making its way through Sacramento to make sure that renters are not excluded from help that is extended to home owners--however, it's facing mounting criticism from both landlords and tenants.

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Hikers Can Walk Among Grazing Cattle At New Coastal National Monument Aug 22, 2025

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A stunning national monument just opened to the public in Santa Cruz County. It’s called Cotoni-Coast Dairies. It's opening was delayed due to the pandemic, neighbors’ fears over traffic, and figuring out how to keep a herd of nearly 100 cows that graze there away from hikers and bikers.

Reporter: Jerimiah Oetting

California voters will decide this November whether to redraw the state's congressional lines to help Democrats pick up seats in the House of Representatives.

Reporter: Guy Marzorati , KQED

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