KQED's The California Report

Several state bills pending in Sacramento this week seek more guardrails on Artificial Intelligence in the workplace.

Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED

A proposed state budget change could stall the program that sends behavioral health workers — instead of police — to respond to mental health emergencies.

Reporter: Ana Ibarra, CalMatters

California’s newest grade — transitional kindergarten — has been lauded as a success, with enrollment doubling over the past few years. But that growth has come at a cost, pulling 4-year-olds out of community-based preschools.

Reporter: Daisy Nguyen, KQED
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ron Eby spent 20 years in the Navy before he retired from his role as a commander. But after a while, he got bored - so he signed up for a new covert mission. Looking for otters. Not enemy warships, but threatened sea otters, as a volunteer with the Elkhorn Slough Reserve in Moss Landing.

Reporter: Elena Neale-Sacks, KAZU

U.S. Senator Adam Schiff and Central Coast Congressman Salud Carbajal joined Chumash Coastal Band leaders and environmental groups on the Central Coast Thursday. They criticized the Trump administration’s support for restarting an oil pipeline linked to the 2015 Refugio spill.

Reporter: Gabriela Fernandez, KCBX

A number of California residents, who’ve since returned home, are confirmed to have been among the passengers on a cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As wildfires become more destructive in California, the need for forensic investigations is increasing. Specifically: the need for finding and identifying bodies after a wildfire. A recent intensive academy at Fresno City College addressed this need by training working professionals.

Reporter: Rachel Livinal, KVPR

Advocates are criticizing the state's tracking of evictions, saying California has failed to accurately count them for decades, and drumming up support for a bill that would more closely monitor it.

Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED

Humboldt County Supervisors are looking at creating a civilian oversight committee for the sheriff’s office. They’re trying to get ahead of a possible citizen initiative.

Reporter: Roman Battaglia, Jefferson Public Radio

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Immigration enforcement is affecting recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Since 2012, the program has allowed people brought to the United States as children to stay in the US and work, go to school, and buy property. But one Sacramento woman's life unraveled within days of learning that her immigration case was being reopened.

Reporter: Gerardo Zavala, CapRadio

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating how the Los Angeles Unified School District handles allegations of sexual misconduct involving teachers and students.

Governor Gavin Newsom is asking California election officials to speed up their vote count in the June primary.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A major change to a federal farmworker visa program known as H-2A is sparking a heated debate across California. The program allows farms to bring in temporary workers from other countries, but a change from the Trump administration has altered how they are paid, sparking a lawsuit from the United Farmworkers Union. Supporters say it’s a lifeline for farmers facing rising labor costs. Critics call it a wage cut that could push local workers out of the fields.

Reporter: Madi Bolanos, The California Report

A man who was shot multiple times by immigration agents last month in the Central California community of Patterson pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges.

San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney is trying again to expand drug-free housing for people leaving homelessness, after Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill last year.

A bill moving through the California legislature would require independent evaluations of new education programs, like transitional kindergarten.

Reporter: Elly Yu, LAist
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices