Deputy Editor: California Divide
Founded in 2015, CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of this country’s largest state and the world’s fifth-largest economy.
This is a pertinent explanation of the company's mission provided by its leaders. "Environmental regulation, education, health care, criminal justice, economic inequality – the debates on these issues and others have a profound impact on the lives of 38 million Californians and beyond. Yet, mirroring trends across the country, there has been a significant decline in the number of journalists covering the Capitol in Sacramento. This has meant fewer eyes on decision makers, and a public that feels disconnected from its state government."
I have directed a team of five reporters assigned to the California Divide team, a statewide media collaboration to heighten awareness and engagement about poverty and income inequality. Reporters are dispersed throughout the state — including our headquarters in Sacramento.
While based in San Diego, I have traveled the state to meet with team members, stakeholders and difference makers to ascertain their passions about the most pressing topics as they relate to the disenfranchised among us.
OUR EFFORTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Wage theft typically impacts society’s most vulnerable workers — those with the least education, financial means and the fewest legal protections. Often those workers are immigrants. We introduced this series with
a visual primer that was updated as we exposed how some of California’s largest Employers steal from their lowest-paid employees.
UNPAID WAGES: A WAITING GAME
Part One: When employers steal wages from workers
Part Two: Wage Theft: Car wash workers in $2.3 million case await pay 3 years later
KCRW Collaboration: LA car wash workers are still waiting years for their back pay
Part Three: Wage theft whack-a-mole: California workers win judgments against bosses but still don’t get paid
Part Four: Agency battling wage theft in California is too short-staffed to do its job
Part Five: Though wage theft is a crime, few California DAs file charges for it
Part Six: A Workers’ Guide to Wage Theft: What to do if your boss steals your wages
Part Seven: To fight wage theft California gets strong assist from worker centers
Part Eight: Stolen Time: Portraits of Californians living through wage theft
In The Courts
California AG charges construction firm with felony wage theft
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed 31 felony charges of wage theft and tax evasion against a construction company that he said cost the state and the company’s workers $2.6 million, he announced Nov. 26.
Bonta filed the criminal complaint on Aug. 26 alleging that US Framing West dodged more than $2.5 million in state payroll taxes and underpaid workers on a public housing project in Cathedral City, in Riverside County. The company, which builds wood framing for such projects as hotels, apartments and housing developments, shorted workers at least $40,000 when it failed to pay the prevailing wage, Bonta said.
“For some reason US Framing West seems to think it can operate outside the prevailing wage laws of California,” Bonta said in a press conference in Los Angeles. “I’m here with a simple message: They cannot. No company can.” …
Best of the West Social Justice Reporting
The CalMatters’ California Divide team won for “Unpaid Wages: A Waiting Game.”
The judge praised the story package on wage theft for “its methodical, well-told chronicling of how wages are routinely stolen from some of the state’s hardest workers who keep our society afloat.
“Labor reporting is too often overlooked, as are low-wage employees who don’t speak English or are vulnerable to exploitation,” the judge added. “‘Unpaid Wages: A Waiting Game’ makes sure these stories are told and has already ensured accountability.”
CalMatters’ first Emmy displays the power of collaboration
CalMatters was also a finalist for another CalMatters/CBS video. “Wage Theft: When Bosses Don’t Pay” was reported by CalMatters’ California Divide reporters Jeanne Kuang, Alejandro Lazo and Lil Kalish with project editor Denise Amos in partnership with CBS’ Watts.
This is a pertinent explanation of the company's mission provided by its leaders. "Environmental regulation, education, health care, criminal justice, economic inequality – the debates on these issues and others have a profound impact on the lives of 38 million Californians and beyond. Yet, mirroring trends across the country, there has been a significant decline in the number of journalists covering the Capitol in Sacramento. This has meant fewer eyes on decision makers, and a public that feels disconnected from its state government."
I have directed a team of five reporters assigned to the California Divide team, a statewide media collaboration to heighten awareness and engagement about poverty and income inequality. Reporters are dispersed throughout the state — including our headquarters in Sacramento.
While based in San Diego, I have traveled the state to meet with team members, stakeholders and difference makers to ascertain their passions about the most pressing topics as they relate to the disenfranchised among us.
OUR EFFORTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Wage theft typically impacts society’s most vulnerable workers — those with the least education, financial means and the fewest legal protections. Often those workers are immigrants. We introduced this series with
a visual primer that was updated as we exposed how some of California’s largest Employers steal from their lowest-paid employees.
UNPAID WAGES: A WAITING GAME
Part One: When employers steal wages from workers
Part Two: Wage Theft: Car wash workers in $2.3 million case await pay 3 years later
KCRW Collaboration: LA car wash workers are still waiting years for their back pay
Part Three: Wage theft whack-a-mole: California workers win judgments against bosses but still don’t get paid
Part Four: Agency battling wage theft in California is too short-staffed to do its job
Part Five: Though wage theft is a crime, few California DAs file charges for it
Part Six: A Workers’ Guide to Wage Theft: What to do if your boss steals your wages
Part Seven: To fight wage theft California gets strong assist from worker centers
Part Eight: Stolen Time: Portraits of Californians living through wage theft
In The Courts
California AG charges construction firm with felony wage theft
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed 31 felony charges of wage theft and tax evasion against a construction company that he said cost the state and the company’s workers $2.6 million, he announced Nov. 26.
Bonta filed the criminal complaint on Aug. 26 alleging that US Framing West dodged more than $2.5 million in state payroll taxes and underpaid workers on a public housing project in Cathedral City, in Riverside County. The company, which builds wood framing for such projects as hotels, apartments and housing developments, shorted workers at least $40,000 when it failed to pay the prevailing wage, Bonta said.
“For some reason US Framing West seems to think it can operate outside the prevailing wage laws of California,” Bonta said in a press conference in Los Angeles. “I’m here with a simple message: They cannot. No company can.” …
Best of the West Social Justice Reporting
The CalMatters’ California Divide team won for “Unpaid Wages: A Waiting Game.”
The judge praised the story package on wage theft for “its methodical, well-told chronicling of how wages are routinely stolen from some of the state’s hardest workers who keep our society afloat.
“Labor reporting is too often overlooked, as are low-wage employees who don’t speak English or are vulnerable to exploitation,” the judge added. “‘Unpaid Wages: A Waiting Game’ makes sure these stories are told and has already ensured accountability.”
CalMatters’ first Emmy displays the power of collaboration
CalMatters was also a finalist for another CalMatters/CBS video. “Wage Theft: When Bosses Don’t Pay” was reported by CalMatters’ California Divide reporters Jeanne Kuang, Alejandro Lazo and Lil Kalish with project editor Denise Amos in partnership with CBS’ Watts.
My Core Values
1. Encourage enterprise and story development.
2. Involve those with data expertise early and often.
3. Reinforce watchdog habits.
4. Allow reporters to stretch.
5. Encourage teamwork.
6. Brainstorm innovative digital components.
2. Involve those with data expertise early and often.
3. Reinforce watchdog habits.
4. Allow reporters to stretch.
5. Encourage teamwork.
6. Brainstorm innovative digital components.
Deputy Editor: California Voices
Currently I am Deputy Editor of California Voices, a months-old commentary forum that has been designed to spotlight less-visible authors statewide. We aim to broaden our understanding of California by convening discussions and fostering dialogue that advances solutions. Via a regularly appearing column, I contribute my own views and spotlight voices of those directly impacted by policy — or its absence. Because my goal is to provide a unique forum for guest commentaries, staff columns and other contributors. I aggressively help identify a diverse range of those guest voices.
Losing it instead of using it: How California missed out on $1 billion to feed kids during the pandemic
It shouldn’t be this hard to get money into the hands of parents struggling to feed their children. But in California, where even the simple can get real complicated, hundreds of millions of federal dollars meant for hungry kids have slipped away unspent.
It’s wasteful. It’s frustrating. It’s repeating. Communications lapses and often inadequate and inconsistent outreach by state and local officials has meant some needy families in California don’t receive the money earmarked for them. …
It’s wasteful. It’s frustrating. It’s repeating. Communications lapses and often inadequate and inconsistent outreach by state and local officials has meant some needy families in California don’t receive the money earmarked for them. …
As Caltrans sells homes it bought for defunct road project, some LA residents are being shut out
Years ago, as California stretched its freeways across cities and suburbs like so many ribbons of progress, it damaged and dissected many urban neighborhoods, buying up and tearing down thousands of homes, most occupied by Black or Latino families.
It was a disgraceful chapter in this country’s long story of land grabbing, which for decades robbed people of color of their homes, livelihoods and future wealth. …
It was a disgraceful chapter in this country’s long story of land grabbing, which for decades robbed people of color of their homes, livelihoods and future wealth. …
SPECIAL MENTION: A special shoutout to Denise Amos’s commentary on CalTrans, which got 12K views on Apple News and 5K on CalMatters.org. The editors at Apple have a hard line against promoting Commentary, which is why I didn’t pitch it. But it was so compelling they put it out there anyway.
It inspired someone to donate to us from the Apple News platform, and they wrote in: “The housing story regarding CALTRANS sales to other entities rather than to current residents was disheartening and shameful. Thank you!”
Labor leaders despair but don’t give up on unemployment for strikers after Gavin Newsom veto
Supporters who celebrated as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a fast food bill Thursday bemoaned his decisions Saturday night when he announced he had vetoed two other high-profile labor bills.
Newsom rejected Senate Bill 799, which would have paid striking workers California unemployment benefits after two weeks, and SB 686, which would have extended workplace safety protections to domestic workers, such as housekeepers and nannies. …
Newsom rejected Senate Bill 799, which would have paid striking workers California unemployment benefits after two weeks, and SB 686, which would have extended workplace safety protections to domestic workers, such as housekeepers and nannies. …
Advocates blame Black lawmakers for unsigned reparations bills, but Newsom deserves more scrutinyCalifornia’s political leaders recently signed a lengthy, well-written proclamation listing the many ways state government has supported and endorsed slavery, and upheld and perpetuated racial segregation and discrimination. They’re poised to memorialize that apology on a plaque in the Capitol.
That politicians are willing to tell the truth about California’s less than noble history is significant. California joins other states acknowledging an unjust past, including Florida, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama, New Jersey and Iowa. … 
Californians want the rent to be less damn high. Is Proposition 33 the solution? |
Rent control is on the California ballot for the third time in six years, forcing voters to confront some painstaking questions: Can cities and counties be trusted to rein in rental costs without discouraging new construction?
Proposition 33 looks deceptively simple. But it comes with complications that are hard to see at first glance, raising questions for which there are few definitive answers. …
Proposition 33 looks deceptively simple. But it comes with complications that are hard to see at first glance, raising questions for which there are few definitive answers. …
‘He played them’: How a GOP reparations bill splintered supporters of California’s Black Caucus
At a time when the political climate calls for strong and steady leadership, many Black Californians are losing faith in the lawmakers they sent to Sacramento to deliver on a justice agenda anchored by reparations.
It has enabled one of the Capitol’s chief disruptors — a conservative firebrand — to seize an opportunity to highlight the Democratic party’s hypocrisy by championing a reparations billthat competes with a similar measure put out by the California Legislative Black Caucus.
And one of the state’s preeminent reparations groups has made the eye-opening decision to back this version of reparations legislation, rather than the Black Caucus’ proposal, deeming the Republican lawmaker, Assemblymember Bill Essayli from Corona, more trustworthy.
It has enabled one of the Capitol’s chief disruptors — a conservative firebrand — to seize an opportunity to highlight the Democratic party’s hypocrisy by championing a reparations billthat competes with a similar measure put out by the California Legislative Black Caucus.
And one of the state’s preeminent reparations groups has made the eye-opening decision to back this version of reparations legislation, rather than the Black Caucus’ proposal, deeming the Republican lawmaker, Assemblymember Bill Essayli from Corona, more trustworthy.