Ana B. Ibarra

Older men in rural California are dying by suicide. How officials are trying to save lives In Trinity County, isolation, pain, and limited healthcare drive gun suicides among seniors. Health officials plan prevention programs to address the crisis.

Powerful story from @calmatters.org. 5,825 Californians aged 70+ died by gun suicide between 2009 and 2023 — especially in places like rural Douglas City.

Reporting by @ab-ibarra.bsky.social & Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett, with an assist from the Gun Violence Data Hub
calmatters.org/health/2025/...

Trucks carrying crops drive through farmland outside of Firebaugh in Fresno County on Sept. 24, 2025. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local. Hed: Up to 61,000 truck drivers in California could soon lose their licenses. Here’s why

New federal regulations could leave California with 61,000 fewer truck drivers as the Trump administration bans certain immigrants from operating large vehicles. With fewer truck drivers on the road, consumers may see higher shipping costs, too. bit.ly/4peUFUC

📸 Larry Valenzuela

A must-read.

The playground at Juan Lagunas Soria Elementary School is empty on a rainy day, on Sept. 18, 2025. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for CalMatters/Catchlight Quote: “Can you imagine taking a lesson of geometry when a part of your brain is tracking and texting your parent every once in a while?...That’s really, really difficult to do.”  Maria Jarquin, a therapist who directs school-based mental health centers on behalf of Venice Family Clinic. She estimates that schools refer about 10 to 15 students to her mental health center each week. As many as a third of those referrals are prompted by stress and anxiety over ICE activity, she said.

Immigration raids are straining mental health among children and school communities across California, a state where about 1 million children have a parent who is undocumented and about 300,000 students are undocumented themselves. https://cal.news/4gWGsss

📸 Zaydee Sanchez

Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Program Spent Twice as Much on Administrative Costs as on Health Care, GAO Says Republican lawmakers cite Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage as a national model for federal Medicaid work requirements that are set to take effect in 2027. A new report shows the program has spent at lea...

Republican lawmakers cite Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage as a national model for federal Medicaid work requirements that are set to take effect in 2027. A new report shows the program has spent more on administrative costs than on health care.

Glenn Medical Center in Willows on June 13, 2025. Photo by Chris Kaufman for CalMatters Hed: Another California county is losing its only hospital after feds refuse to step in

Tucked between two national forests, the rural county is home to 28,000 people. Without a local emergency room, they’ll instead have to travel at least 40 minutes to a neighboring county for critical care. https://cal.news/46pbMwe

📸 Chris Kaufman

Supreme Court allows immigration agents to resume indiscriminate sweeps in LA, siding with Trump The Supreme Court lifted limits on immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, overturning a ruling that forbade agents from stopping people based on their appearance.

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”

calmatters.org/justice/2025...

A person is detained as clashes break out after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers attempted to raid a store in Bell, just south of Los Angeles, on June 20, 2025. Photo by Etienne Laurent, AFP via Getty Images Hed: BREAKING NEWS U.S. Supreme Court sides with Pres. Trump on immigration sweeps This overturns a lower court ruling prohibiting agents from stopping people based on appearance

Breaking: The U.S. Supreme Court lifted limits on immigration sweeps in Southern California, overturning a lower court ruling that prohibited agents from stopping people based on their appearance. https://cal.news/4nq5YZk

📝 @wendyfry.bsky.social
📸 Etienne Laurent, AFP via Getty

HED: She had to fight for help with medical bills. A new California bill could make it easier Photo: Sierra Freeman, 32, with her dog Milo in her living room in Stockton on July 21, 2025. Photo by Louis Bryant III for CalMatters

Assembly Bill 1312 would require hospitals to check whether patients are eligible for charity care or discounted payments before sending them a bill. cal.news/46BuJMW

📝: Ana Ibarra @ab-ibarra.bsky.social
📷: Louis Bryant III

Medicaid was signed into law 60 years ago. Trump's big bill is chiseling it back This summer, President Donald Trump has begun to chisel back Medicaid and food stamps. On a July day in 1965, President Lyndon B.

apnews.com/article/trum...

Kamala Harris announces she won't run for California governor Conjecture about whether Harris would run for governor began almost immediately after she lost the November election to President Donald Trump.

Kamala Harris will not run for California governor, ending months of feverish speculation and raising fresh questions about the next chapter of her political career.
calmatters.org/politics/202...

Deaf, mute and terrified: ICE arrests DACA recipient and ships him to Texas Javier Diaz Santana, who is deaf and communicates using sign language, was swept up in a federal immigration raid at his job in Temple City. He could not communicate in handcuffs. His attorney says U....

The LA Times details how ICE arrested a deaf DACA recipient during a raid on the car wash where he worked (legally -- as a DACA recipient he has a permit to work in the US). They shipped him to a migrant detention facility in Texas: www.latimes.com/california/s...

House gives final approval to Trump's $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid The House has approved President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid.

The House gives final approval to President Donald Trump's $9 billion cut to public broadcasting and foreign aid. Passed by a vote of 216-213, the bill now goes to Trump for his signature.

Trump administration hands over nation's Medicaid enrollee data, including addresses, to ICE U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will gain access to personally identifiable information for all of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees.

BREAKING: ICE officials will gain access to personally identifiable information for all Medicaid enrollees, according to an agreement obtained by the AP.

California launched an AI chatbot for wildfires. It can’t answer one crucial question The bot fails at some basic questions. Cal Fire says it is working on fixes. Experts wonder if it launched too soon.

California launched an AI chatbot for wildfires. But CalMatters reporter @malenacarollo.bsky.social found it doesn’t reliably provide information such as a list for evacuation supplies and can’t tell users about evacuation orders. calmatters.org/economy/tech...

A Closer Look at the $50 Billion Rural Health Fund in the New Reconciliation Law | KFF The new reconciliation law includes a $50 billion rural health fund. This brief describes the rural health fund, explains what the law says about the allocation of funds, and highlights outstanding qu...

The temporary $50 billion rural health fund in the Republican tax and spending bill gets distributed from 2026 to 2030. But, 63% of the Medicaid cuts hit after 2030.
www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...

Doctors regularly need to pay more than $300,000 for medical school, including tuition and housing. New regulations signed by President Donald Trump cap their federal borrowing at $200,000 for medical degrees. buff.ly/GUSXLkd

📝 @mzinshteyn.bsky.social & Kristen Hwang

One California worker dead, hundreds arrested, after cannabis farm raid A California farmworker died on Friday from injuries sustained a day earlier when U.S. immigration agents raided a cannabis operation and arrested hundreds of workers, according to a farmworker advocacy group.

A California farmworker died on Friday from injuries sustained a day earlier when US immigration agents raided a cannabis operation and arrested hundreds of workers, according to a farmworker advocacy group. @leahjdouglas.bsky.social www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

After a child care worker is detained by ICE, a community is left reeling Nicolle Orozco Forero is one of the thousands of immigrant women who provide child care for American children, and one of the few who cares for children with disabilities. Now she and her seriously il...

Sharing a story that is very close to my heart.

Nicolle Orozco Forero is one of the thousands of immigrant women who provide child care for American kids — she cared for children w/ disabilities.

Now, she and her seriously ill son have been detained by ICE. Her story:
19thnews.org/2025/07/chil...

The new federal budget signed into law by President Donald Trump is expected to raise some health care insurance premiums and force millions off coverage, reverberating the most in lower-income families and communities that are already struggling. cal.news/4641KRG

📸 Larry Valenzuela

California stem cell agency shutting down unique human tissue biobank The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and its partners are selling thousands of stem cell samples before many of them are discarded.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and its partners are selling thousands of stem cell samples before many of them are discarded.
www.statnews.com/2025/07/11/s...

'It's not your country:' Stories from men who were taken in the LA immigration raids CalMatters spoke with a number of migrants about their arrests and detentions after the first weekend of LA raids. Their accounts raise potential legal questions about the government’s operation.

Taken: LA immigration raids

Masked men pull up quickly and approach Latino men.

When someone runs, they’re taken. When they don’t answer a question, they’re taken. When they can’t produce papers, they’re taken. 

calmatters.org/investigatio...

@wendyfry.bsky.social @addonohue.bsky.social

Congress is fighting over this tax deduction. Here’s how it affects Californians The House wants to raise the SALT deduction cap, which would help wealthy Californians pay less in federal taxes. The Senate disagrees.

The House wants to raise the SALT deduction cap, while the Senate wants to keep it at $10,000, the limit first established in 2017 to help pay for tax cuts for big corporations. Here's my look at how the outcome could affect millions of high-income California taxpayers.

Most nabbed in L.A. raids were men with no criminal conviction, picked up off the street The Trump administration claimed the sweeps were aimed at criminals, but data shows otherwise.

The Trump administration says it targets undocumented “criminals,” but a Times analysis found that 69% of Angelenos arrested by ICE in early June had no criminal convictions, and 58% had never even been charged with a crime.

“The mere threat of immigration enforcement near any medical facility undermines public trust and jeopardizes community health.”

He misled the public about his last big immigration sweep. Now he’s leading the Border Patrol in LA The immigration raids across Los Angeles have all the hallmarks of Gregory Bovino's Kern County sweep, which a federal judge says likely violated the Constitution.

Gregory Bovino is running Border Patrol’s LA operation right now.

His last raid was a total mess. And he sees no difference between a farm worker and a fentanyl dealer.

w/
@sergioolmos.bsky.social
@wendyfry.bsky.social

calmatters.org/investigatio...

California National Guard soldiers stand with shields outside the Federal Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, on June 8, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters Hed: Breaking: Federal judge halts Trump’s National Guard deployment in Los Angeles

Breaking: A federal judge halted President Trump’s deployment of California National Guard soldiers in Los Angeles, finding that he broke the law in ordering them to put down urban unrest without consulting Gov. Gavin Newsom. cal.news/4l4l7y9

📸 Ted Soqui

Members of the press take cover as police officers clear the area outside of a federal building as protests continue in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. Photo by David McNew, Getty Images Hed: Why the death of reporter Ruben Salazar 55 years ago resonates with journalists covering LA protests today

Ruben Salazar died 55 years ago while covering a protest in LA. His case illustrates the dangers journalists face today as police fire “less lethal munitions” into crowds. cal.news/3SMlTDN

📸 David McNew, Getty

Ousted CDC vaccine adviser says RFK Jr.'s message is clear: ‘Scientific expertise is no longer of use’ Terminated CDC vaccine adviser Helen Chu spoke with STAT about her fears for the future of vaccine policy

Helen Chu is one of the ousted #ACIP members. She spoke to me today about her grave concerns for future vaccination policy and vaccine access in the United States. www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/c...

The quiet truce between Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump is over Newsom’s anger is escalating after Trump called in the National Guard to Los Angeles without his consent. Newsom is questioning the president’s mental fitness and called him a “stone cold liar.”

A carefully calibrated truce between @gavinnewsom.bsky.social and Donald Trump, forged in the wake of January’s devastating wildfires across Los Angeles, collapsed over the weekend — putting both the governor and California at increasing risk of reprisal
calmatters.org/politics/202...