News from across California that affects Ventura County readers.
Gustavo Meza exits the courtroom after presenting a progress report to a judge at the San Mateo County Superior Court Southern Branch in Redwood City on June 18, 2026. Meza was mandated treatment under Proposition 36. Photo by Manuel Orbegozo for CalMatters The tough-on-crime initiative California voters passed two years ago wasn’t supposed to be a draconian return to mass incarceration. Instea...
Marisa Kendall and Cayla Mihalovich · Sep 25, 2026
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, where he signed 13 bills focused on protecting kids from technology, on Sept. 10, 2026. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney, CalMatters Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he is directing state agencies to develop artificial intelligence safety recommendations, some of which were part of a bill he vetoed...
Jeanne Kuang · Sep 25, 2026
Marcie Frost, CEO of CalPERS, at the regional office in Sacramento on June 26, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters CalPERS Chief Executive Marcie Frost snared her first seven-figure bonus, a milestone that follows a period of leadership stability and high investment returns at the nation’s largest state pension fund. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System board awarded a $1.15 m...
ADAM ASHTON · Sep 25, 2026
Traffic on Highway 50 in Sacramento on June 30, 2022. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Uber must pay $40 million to the parents of a woman who was struck and killed after an Uber driver left her on an Orange County freeway in 2023, an arbitrator has ruled. The arbitrator rejected Uber’s arguments that California’s Proposition 22 — a voter-approved law written by Uber and other gig comp...
Levi Sumagaysay · Sep 25, 2026
