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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in a West Sacramento \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l0Rs93LKuI\">high school cafeteria\u003c/a> in 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gavin-newsom\">Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> promised fundamental reforms to the state’s job training programs. A few months later, he was in front of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpMC6yHOV_4\">a fire truck in Modesto\u003c/a>, and later, in\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG5InB3qU9Q&t=3628s\"> a welding classroom\u003c/a> in Redding, making the same promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a “\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/04/career-education/\">point of pride\u003c/a>,” Newsom said last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a handful of those reforms are underway. A new inter-agency council, designed to increase collaboration among workforce providers, is meeting next week. The state is also developing a new kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/06/17/californias-career-passport-to-connect-qualified-workers-to-employment-with-or-without-a-four-year-degree/\">digital resume\u003c/a> that would help students and workers consolidate information about their work experience and education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the state faces yet another budget deficit, a flagship workforce program could be forced to scale back. One of the state’s leading agencies for coordinating workforce training, the California Workforce Development Board, could lose 20% of its staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the governor’s budget proposal for 2026-27 fiscal year, several workforce programs, including the governor’s \u003ca href=\"https://cwdb.ca.gov/cwdb-home/our-programs/high-road-programs/high-road-training-partnerships/\">“high road training partnerships\u003c/a>,” would receive little or no new funding, meaning that they could shut down by the time the next governor assumes office or soon thereafter. The Legislature has already passed a budget that largely accepts Newsom’s proposals, and the governor has until the end of the month to approve it. Some job training organizations criticized the governor’s proposal to withhold new funding this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a time when affordability is such a massive concern, it feels like we’re focusing on what things cost and not enough on what people can earn,” said Julia Hatton, the president of the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, told CalMatters. Her organization trains workers for jobs in construction and climate-related careers and has received nearly $4 million in state workforce grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087658\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty-1536x1027.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks as his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom (left) looks on during an election night gathering at the California Democrats headquarters on Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, in a legislative hearing in April, Allison Hewitt, a budget analyst with California’s Department of Finance said the state is still committed to workforce development and that the board’s budget isn’t being cut, just that it isn’t receiving new funding. The workforce development board received a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/hearings/279461#t=2476&f=c90f5001889cb947a92f8d013b87727d\">“surge”\u003c/a> of grants over the past few years, and those dollars have been spent so less funding is available this year, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That did not sit well with at least one legislator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, you can say that all you want,” said \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/maria-elena-durazo-165445\">Sen. María Elena Durazo\u003c/a>, a Los Angeles Democrat, in response. “But if we’re not proposing funding for that … then you’re basically saying this is gonna be the new policy. The bottom line is without funding, it’s not a reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to CalMatters, Marissa Saldivar, a spokesperson for the governor, said Newsom’s workforce plan focuses on “structural changes to benefit students, which does not always require funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for California’s Department of Finance, responded in the same email, saying that the current budget proposes over $250 million in new workforce funds, including in healthcare and construction. By comparison, the state put over $2.2 billion into new workforce grants in the 2022-23 budget year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Have workforce programs succeeded?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For decades, states and the federal government have pumped money into job training programs, especially for low-income workers without college degrees, but the results \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/resource-library/providing-public-workforce-services-job-seekers-30-month-impact-findings-wia-adult\">are often poor\u003c/a>. Graduates end up earning minimum-wage or landing in jobs \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2024/08/for-profit-schools-california-jobs/\">with low retention\u003c/a>, where many workers quit within the first year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To improve outcomes, California created the high road training partnerships to target job training programs that yield long-lasting, living-wage employment where the employer, not just the government, has a stake in the worker’s professional growth. Starting around 2014, the state put a small amount of money into these programs, said Stewart Knox, the secretary of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055465\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Valero Benicia Refinery in Benicia, on May 8, 2025, which processes up to 170,000 barrels of oil a day, making gasoline, diesel, and other fuels for California. Valero plans to shut down the Benicia refinery by April 2026, citing high costs and strict environmental rules. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2021 and 2022, the state made “massive investments in the workforce,” he said, pumping hundreds of millions into high-road programs all across the state, including in construction, healthcare, technology and in public sector jobs. The state sent money to current and former oil workers to help them retrain for careers \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/10/refinery-workers-california/\">when refineries close\u003c/a>. It also sent money to youth apprenticeship programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Results have been\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/02/workforce-training/\"> mixed\u003c/a>. In the high-road program, some grants helped train hundreds or thousands of workers for union jobs while other grants created few concrete benefits for workers. One grant was supposed to train workers at the electric vehicle company Proterra, but the company closed before workers could begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/rick-chavez-zbur-165429\">Rick Chavez Zbur\u003c/a>, a Los Angeles Democrat, is proposing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab2634\">a bill\u003c/a> to further restrict how the high-road money is used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out of the roughly 1,700 oil workers who could benefit from the state’s retraining grants, only about 500 participated as of May, according to a bill analysis. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab2157\">That bill\u003c/a>, authored by San Rafael Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/damon-connolly-165425\">Damon Connolly,\u003c/a> a Democrat, would give grantees more time to spend the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘master plan’ for career education\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2023, Newsom’s workforce plans culminated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/8.31.23-Career-Education-Executive-Order.pdf\">an executive order\u003c/a> calling for the creation of a master plan for career education that would create a “new foundation” for the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025-CA-Master-Plan-for-Career-Education.pdf\">The plan\u003c/a>, released in 2025, called for better coordination among the state’s workforce providers, who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/09/trade-schools-job-training-california/\">often compete for the same students.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The master plan also called for more high-road job training programs and highlighted ongoing work supporting youth apprentices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Caltrans worker adjusts construction cones as traffic comes to a slow on I-80 eastbound in San Francisco on Saturday, April 18, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re definitely not done. We’re kind of mid-stage,” said Knox. “What you’re seeing is a little less money, yes, in terms of programs, but that’s because we did such massive investments from 2021 on into the system (and) those outcomes now are what we’re focused on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knox pointed to outcomes from the master plan, including the growth of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/05/middle-school-california/\">dual enrollment,\u003c/a> which allows high school students to take college classes. The state is also helping thousands more students get \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/02/college-credit-california/\">college credit for their prior work experience\u003c/a>, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer, with the state’s Department of Finance, said in an email that the current proposal from the Legislature includes more funding both for dual enrollment and to help college students get credit for their work experience.[aside postID=news_12087559 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CaliforniaSealCM.jpg']Those funding allocations, however, come from a different pot of money, known as Proposition 98, which is largely restricted to education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Shirley Ware Education Center, a national job training nonprofit founded in Oakland, was among the earliest and largest recipients of the high-road training grants, which it used to help over 5,500 workers find better jobs, mostly in the healthcare industry. All told, the organization received more than $40 million in state workforce dollars starting in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the state was flush with cash, they put a lot of money into these programs,” said Rebecca Hanson, the executive director. Now, she said the state budget deficit makes it “hard to argue” for increased funding, especially when so many other core services are\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/06/california-budget-legislature-deal/\"> facing cuts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanson’s high-road workforce grant ends in 2027, but even then, she said she isn’t too worried, since her organization has other funding and is used to these fluctuations in state support. “My hope is that by the time we’re talking about 2028, we’ll be able to find other money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/06/workforce-funding/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in a West Sacramento \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l0Rs93LKuI\">high school cafeteria\u003c/a> in 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gavin-newsom\">Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> promised fundamental reforms to the state’s job training programs. A few months later, he was in front of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpMC6yHOV_4\">a fire truck in Modesto\u003c/a>, and later, in\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG5InB3qU9Q&t=3628s\"> a welding classroom\u003c/a> in Redding, making the same promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a “\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/04/career-education/\">point of pride\u003c/a>,” Newsom said last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a handful of those reforms are underway. A new inter-agency council, designed to increase collaboration among workforce providers, is meeting next week. The state is also developing a new kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/06/17/californias-career-passport-to-connect-qualified-workers-to-employment-with-or-without-a-four-year-degree/\">digital resume\u003c/a> that would help students and workers consolidate information about their work experience and education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the state faces yet another budget deficit, a flagship workforce program could be forced to scale back. One of the state’s leading agencies for coordinating workforce training, the California Workforce Development Board, could lose 20% of its staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the governor’s budget proposal for 2026-27 fiscal year, several workforce programs, including the governor’s \u003ca href=\"https://cwdb.ca.gov/cwdb-home/our-programs/high-road-programs/high-road-training-partnerships/\">“high road training partnerships\u003c/a>,” would receive little or no new funding, meaning that they could shut down by the time the next governor assumes office or soon thereafter. The Legislature has already passed a budget that largely accepts Newsom’s proposals, and the governor has until the end of the month to approve it. Some job training organizations criticized the governor’s proposal to withhold new funding this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a time when affordability is such a massive concern, it feels like we’re focusing on what things cost and not enough on what people can earn,” said Julia Hatton, the president of the Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, told CalMatters. Her organization trains workers for jobs in construction and climate-related careers and has received nearly $4 million in state workforce grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087658\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinJenniferNewsomGetty-1536x1027.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks as his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom (left) looks on during an election night gathering at the California Democrats headquarters on Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, in a legislative hearing in April, Allison Hewitt, a budget analyst with California’s Department of Finance said the state is still committed to workforce development and that the board’s budget isn’t being cut, just that it isn’t receiving new funding. The workforce development board received a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/hearings/279461#t=2476&f=c90f5001889cb947a92f8d013b87727d\">“surge”\u003c/a> of grants over the past few years, and those dollars have been spent so less funding is available this year, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That did not sit well with at least one legislator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, you can say that all you want,” said \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/maria-elena-durazo-165445\">Sen. María Elena Durazo\u003c/a>, a Los Angeles Democrat, in response. “But if we’re not proposing funding for that … then you’re basically saying this is gonna be the new policy. The bottom line is without funding, it’s not a reality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement to CalMatters, Marissa Saldivar, a spokesperson for the governor, said Newsom’s workforce plan focuses on “structural changes to benefit students, which does not always require funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for California’s Department of Finance, responded in the same email, saying that the current budget proposes over $250 million in new workforce funds, including in healthcare and construction. By comparison, the state put over $2.2 billion into new workforce grants in the 2022-23 budget year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Have workforce programs succeeded?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For decades, states and the federal government have pumped money into job training programs, especially for low-income workers without college degrees, but the results \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/resource-library/providing-public-workforce-services-job-seekers-30-month-impact-findings-wia-adult\">are often poor\u003c/a>. Graduates end up earning minimum-wage or landing in jobs \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2024/08/for-profit-schools-california-jobs/\">with low retention\u003c/a>, where many workers quit within the first year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To improve outcomes, California created the high road training partnerships to target job training programs that yield long-lasting, living-wage employment where the employer, not just the government, has a stake in the worker’s professional growth. Starting around 2014, the state put a small amount of money into these programs, said Stewart Knox, the secretary of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055465\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250509-BeniciaRefinery-31-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Valero Benicia Refinery in Benicia, on May 8, 2025, which processes up to 170,000 barrels of oil a day, making gasoline, diesel, and other fuels for California. Valero plans to shut down the Benicia refinery by April 2026, citing high costs and strict environmental rules. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2021 and 2022, the state made “massive investments in the workforce,” he said, pumping hundreds of millions into high-road programs all across the state, including in construction, healthcare, technology and in public sector jobs. The state sent money to current and former oil workers to help them retrain for careers \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/10/refinery-workers-california/\">when refineries close\u003c/a>. It also sent money to youth apprenticeship programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Results have been\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/02/workforce-training/\"> mixed\u003c/a>. In the high-road program, some grants helped train hundreds or thousands of workers for union jobs while other grants created few concrete benefits for workers. One grant was supposed to train workers at the electric vehicle company Proterra, but the company closed before workers could begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/rick-chavez-zbur-165429\">Rick Chavez Zbur\u003c/a>, a Los Angeles Democrat, is proposing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab2634\">a bill\u003c/a> to further restrict how the high-road money is used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out of the roughly 1,700 oil workers who could benefit from the state’s retraining grants, only about 500 participated as of May, according to a bill analysis. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab2157\">That bill\u003c/a>, authored by San Rafael Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/damon-connolly-165425\">Damon Connolly,\u003c/a> a Democrat, would give grantees more time to spend the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘master plan’ for career education\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2023, Newsom’s workforce plans culminated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/8.31.23-Career-Education-Executive-Order.pdf\">an executive order\u003c/a> calling for the creation of a master plan for career education that would create a “new foundation” for the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025-CA-Master-Plan-for-Career-Education.pdf\">The plan\u003c/a>, released in 2025, called for better coordination among the state’s workforce providers, who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/09/trade-schools-job-training-california/\">often compete for the same students.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The master plan also called for more high-road job training programs and highlighted ongoing work supporting youth apprentices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041826-I80Closure-JY-11-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Caltrans worker adjusts construction cones as traffic comes to a slow on I-80 eastbound in San Francisco on Saturday, April 18, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re definitely not done. We’re kind of mid-stage,” said Knox. “What you’re seeing is a little less money, yes, in terms of programs, but that’s because we did such massive investments from 2021 on into the system (and) those outcomes now are what we’re focused on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knox pointed to outcomes from the master plan, including the growth of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/05/middle-school-california/\">dual enrollment,\u003c/a> which allows high school students to take college classes. The state is also helping thousands more students get \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/02/college-credit-california/\">college credit for their prior work experience\u003c/a>, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer, with the state’s Department of Finance, said in an email that the current proposal from the Legislature includes more funding both for dual enrollment and to help college students get credit for their work experience.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Those funding allocations, however, come from a different pot of money, known as Proposition 98, which is largely restricted to education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Shirley Ware Education Center, a national job training nonprofit founded in Oakland, was among the earliest and largest recipients of the high-road training grants, which it used to help over 5,500 workers find better jobs, mostly in the healthcare industry. All told, the organization received more than $40 million in state workforce dollars starting in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the state was flush with cash, they put a lot of money into these programs,” said Rebecca Hanson, the executive director. Now, she said the state budget deficit makes it “hard to argue” for increased funding, especially when so many other core services are\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/06/california-budget-legislature-deal/\"> facing cuts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanson’s high-road workforce grant ends in 2027, but even then, she said she isn’t too worried, since her organization has other funding and is used to these fluctuations in state support. “My hope is that by the time we’re talking about 2028, we’ll be able to find other money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/06/workforce-funding/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "csu-workers-disrupt-bargaining-at-san-francisco-state-as-contract-deadline-looms",
"title": "CSU Workers Disrupt Bargaining at San Francisco State as Contract Deadline Looms",
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"headTitle": "CSU Workers Disrupt Bargaining at San Francisco State as Contract Deadline Looms | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>More than 100 members of the CSU Employees Union rallied at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-state-university\">San Francisco State University\u003c/a> on Tuesday, during an active bargaining session — demanding higher wages and job security on the heels of a newly delivered state budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers face a rare convergence: a sweeping set of labor negotiations playing out across the nation’s largest public university system, including a long-standing staff contract about to expire and a first-ever contract for student workers still unwritten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Tuesday’s rally, that fight spilled directly into the room where it’s being decided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers marched upstairs at the J. Paul Leonard Library to chant outside the bargaining session, briefly disrupting the talks. They left behind whiteboards listing their demands for administrators to read on the way out, before marching around the library.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The standoff comes after years of financial whiplash across the CSU system, which has spent recent years closing budget deficits and bracing for steep cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2024, it grappled with a $218 million operating deficit and warned of a projected $\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998761/california-state-university-stares-down-a-1-billion-budget-gap-as-campuses-cut-costs\">1 billion shortfall\u003c/a>, and in 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to cut \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/02/cal-state-budget-3/\">hundreds of millions\u003c/a> from its ongoing funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087830\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087830\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A California State University Employees Union organizer speaks through a megaphone near the entrance to San Francisco State University during a rally on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Campuses responded by freezing hiring, leaving vacancies unfilled, consolidating classes and laying off workers. This year, the union said, the state budget finally delivered a record $264.8 million in new ongoing funding to the CSU, and workers argue that they have yet to see it reflected in their paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union represents 36,000 staff and student workers across the CSU’s 22 campuses, and juggles several contracts at once. The central one covers staff in bargaining units that include healthcare, facilities, custodial, technical and administrative workers — and it expires June 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, student assistants who unionized in 2024 are bargaining for their first-ever contract, and roughly 1,000 workers employed by private service contractors on campus are also in first-contract talks.[aside postID=news_12086884 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MariaSuAP1.jpg']“I’m out here today because, like a lot of Americans, going to the grocery store feels like a luxury extravagance,” said Katie Murphy, chief steward for the union’s San Francisco State chapter and an academic office coordinator in the School of Social Work. “The pay structure we have currently does not support us having a living wage within this city and within the state of California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murphy, a Daly City commuter, said some of her colleagues drive in from as far as Sacramento because they can’t afford to live near campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She framed Tuesday’s action as part of a deliberate strategy that the union called “getting strike ready” — escalating demonstrations meant to show management that the workers are serious, in hopes of preventing an actual walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that the union has already forced CSU to change its bargaining plans on several occasions. “It’s great to know that we are having an effect and that the CSU knows our power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This strike would be the first for CSUEU, the CSU’s largest labor group. Murphy said that if no fair contract is reached, the union is prepared to walk out — and to stay out. “We are in it for the long haul,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The State of California puts a premium on educating our next college graduates,” CSUEU President Catherine Hutchinson said in a statement. “Supporting the essential frontline staff who help students succeed must be a priority for CSU leadership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087831\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087831\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A union button reading “One Union, One Voice” is displayed on a California State University Employees Union shirt during a rally at San Francisco State University on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Murphy said the workers’ frustration stems from the CSU walking back a promise on a salary step structure — a system designed to reward years of service and make pay market-competitive — that the union had fought decades to win. She also pointed to raises for campus presidents and executives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They somehow have money to put into the pockets of people who are at the very top, but not put money in the pockets of people at the bottom for whom it would have the most impact,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For student assistants, the stakes are different, as they’re starting from scratch. Chloe Murray, a peer mentor at the library who earns minimum wage, said she had to take a second job just to afford living in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have a contract right now, so it means that we don’t have any benefits,” Murray said, noting that while other units were given paid time off to attend the rally, she had to call out of work to be there. The students are pushing for $21 an hour, holiday pay and reduced parking fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We help make this campus run, and we have to juggle our class work and working on the campus,” Murray said. “It makes it really difficult when we’re not getting paid very much, and they’re not giving us very many hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murray also pointed to rising tuition — a 6% increase each year under a plan adopted two years ago — despite department cuts and faculty layoffs. “We’re just getting a worse education for a higher cost,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the CSU said it is bargaining in good faith “toward achieving an agreement that recognizes and supports the work of our staff in fulfilling CSU’s mission.” The university said that it respects the right to peaceful protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087828\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087828\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the California State University Employees Union march through the J. Paul Leonard Library during a rally at San Francisco State University on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED.jpg)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s rally at San Francisco State at San Francisco State was the second action of its kind in the past month, and it follows a wave of labor unrest across California’s public education sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969109/hundreds-of-sf-state-faculty-ditch-class-in-1-day-strike-for-better-wages-working-conditions\">SF State faculty\u003c/a> staged a one-day strike, and earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/CSU-February-17-Statement-on-Teamsters-Local-2010-Strike.aspx\">Teamsters struck\u003c/a> within the CSU. This past spring, both \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066588/west-contra-costa-teachers-agree-to-end-strike-and-return-to-class-after-a-week\">West Contra Costa Unified School Distric\u003c/a>t and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073306/sfusd-teachers-strike-no-end-in-sight-health-care-battle\">San Francisco Unified School District\u003c/a> reached tentative agreements with unions after strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murphy said those fights are a source of motivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re always inspired and rallied by our union siblings, our union cousins across various sectors,” she said. “We are united, we’re coming together, and we’ve had enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than 100 members of the CSU Employees Union rallied at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-state-university\">San Francisco State University\u003c/a> on Tuesday, during an active bargaining session — demanding higher wages and job security on the heels of a newly delivered state budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers face a rare convergence: a sweeping set of labor negotiations playing out across the nation’s largest public university system, including a long-standing staff contract about to expire and a first-ever contract for student workers still unwritten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Tuesday’s rally, that fight spilled directly into the room where it’s being decided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers marched upstairs at the J. Paul Leonard Library to chant outside the bargaining session, briefly disrupting the talks. They left behind whiteboards listing their demands for administrators to read on the way out, before marching around the library.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The standoff comes after years of financial whiplash across the CSU system, which has spent recent years closing budget deficits and bracing for steep cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2024, it grappled with a $218 million operating deficit and warned of a projected $\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998761/california-state-university-stares-down-a-1-billion-budget-gap-as-campuses-cut-costs\">1 billion shortfall\u003c/a>, and in 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to cut \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/02/cal-state-budget-3/\">hundreds of millions\u003c/a> from its ongoing funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087830\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087830\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_016-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A California State University Employees Union organizer speaks through a megaphone near the entrance to San Francisco State University during a rally on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Campuses responded by freezing hiring, leaving vacancies unfilled, consolidating classes and laying off workers. This year, the union said, the state budget finally delivered a record $264.8 million in new ongoing funding to the CSU, and workers argue that they have yet to see it reflected in their paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union represents 36,000 staff and student workers across the CSU’s 22 campuses, and juggles several contracts at once. The central one covers staff in bargaining units that include healthcare, facilities, custodial, technical and administrative workers — and it expires June 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, student assistants who unionized in 2024 are bargaining for their first-ever contract, and roughly 1,000 workers employed by private service contractors on campus are also in first-contract talks.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m out here today because, like a lot of Americans, going to the grocery store feels like a luxury extravagance,” said Katie Murphy, chief steward for the union’s San Francisco State chapter and an academic office coordinator in the School of Social Work. “The pay structure we have currently does not support us having a living wage within this city and within the state of California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murphy, a Daly City commuter, said some of her colleagues drive in from as far as Sacramento because they can’t afford to live near campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She framed Tuesday’s action as part of a deliberate strategy that the union called “getting strike ready” — escalating demonstrations meant to show management that the workers are serious, in hopes of preventing an actual walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that the union has already forced CSU to change its bargaining plans on several occasions. “It’s great to know that we are having an effect and that the CSU knows our power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This strike would be the first for CSUEU, the CSU’s largest labor group. Murphy said that if no fair contract is reached, the union is prepared to walk out — and to stay out. “We are in it for the long haul,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The State of California puts a premium on educating our next college graduates,” CSUEU President Catherine Hutchinson said in a statement. “Supporting the essential frontline staff who help students succeed must be a priority for CSU leadership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087831\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087831\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_018-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A union button reading “One Union, One Voice” is displayed on a California State University Employees Union shirt during a rally at San Francisco State University on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Murphy said the workers’ frustration stems from the CSU walking back a promise on a salary step structure — a system designed to reward years of service and make pay market-competitive — that the union had fought decades to win. She also pointed to raises for campus presidents and executives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They somehow have money to put into the pockets of people who are at the very top, but not put money in the pockets of people at the bottom for whom it would have the most impact,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For student assistants, the stakes are different, as they’re starting from scratch. Chloe Murray, a peer mentor at the library who earns minimum wage, said she had to take a second job just to afford living in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have a contract right now, so it means that we don’t have any benefits,” Murray said, noting that while other units were given paid time off to attend the rally, she had to call out of work to be there. The students are pushing for $21 an hour, holiday pay and reduced parking fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We help make this campus run, and we have to juggle our class work and working on the campus,” Murray said. “It makes it really difficult when we’re not getting paid very much, and they’re not giving us very many hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murray also pointed to rising tuition — a 6% increase each year under a plan adopted two years ago — despite department cuts and faculty layoffs. “We’re just getting a worse education for a higher cost,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the CSU said it is bargaining in good faith “toward achieving an agreement that recognizes and supports the work of our staff in fulfilling CSU’s mission.” The university said that it respects the right to peaceful protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087828\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087828\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_002-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the California State University Employees Union march through the J. Paul Leonard Library during a rally at San Francisco State University on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED.jpg)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s rally at San Francisco State at San Francisco State was the second action of its kind in the past month, and it follows a wave of labor unrest across California’s public education sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969109/hundreds-of-sf-state-faculty-ditch-class-in-1-day-strike-for-better-wages-working-conditions\">SF State faculty\u003c/a> staged a one-day strike, and earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/CSU-February-17-Statement-on-Teamsters-Local-2010-Strike.aspx\">Teamsters struck\u003c/a> within the CSU. This past spring, both \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066588/west-contra-costa-teachers-agree-to-end-strike-and-return-to-class-after-a-week\">West Contra Costa Unified School Distric\u003c/a>t and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073306/sfusd-teachers-strike-no-end-in-sight-health-care-battle\">San Francisco Unified School District\u003c/a> reached tentative agreements with unions after strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murphy said those fights are a source of motivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re always inspired and rallied by our union siblings, our union cousins across various sectors,” she said. “We are united, we’re coming together, and we’ve had enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "court-orders-national-parks-signage-including-at-muir-woods-to-be-restored",
"title": "Court Orders National Parks Signage, Including at Muir Woods, to Be Restored",
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"headTitle": "Court Orders National Parks Signage, Including at Muir Woods, to Be Restored | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A U.S. District Court ruling issued Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055659/national-park-service-california-yosemite-muir-woods-trump-executive-order\">signage at national parks that was taken down last year\u003c/a>. That includes a sign at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049405/muir-woods-national-monument-exhibit-removal-trump-executive-order-national-parks-history-under-construction-sticky-notes\">Muir Woods National Monument\u003c/a> in Marin County that documented the contributions of women and Indigenous people to the founding of the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The signage, which was removed as part of a 2025 \u003ca href=\"https://www.doi.gov/document-library/secretary-order/so-3431-restoring-truth-and-sanity-american-history\">executive order\u003c/a>, includes anything on display that the administration deemed would “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Parks-PI-Order.pdf\">her 63-page ruling\u003c/a>, Judge Angel Kelley documented exhibits on slavery, climate change and history that were taken down by leaders in President Donald Trump’s White House, who she said: “seek to rewrite the nation’s history with a white-out pen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parks advocacy groups, which filed a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/slavery-exhibit-climate-national-parks-trump-cb443d3d61c0df9613bc6dd37f7b0f07\">February lawsuit\u003c/a> challenging the order, celebrated the decision, especially amid the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s court ruling will help protect national parks from the administration’s unprecedented campaign to erase history and science at these one-of-a-kind places,” wrote Alan Spears, senior director for cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, one of the plaintiff organizations. “National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent. Americans count on national parks to help us understand our full, rich history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Department of the Interior spokesperson told KQED in an email that it is weighing an appeal given the ruling is “from a [President] Biden-appointed judge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087613\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087613\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty-1536x981.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff with the National Parks Service replace the plaques that were part of the ‘Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation’ exhibit at the President’s house on Feb. 19, 2026, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On Jan. 22, 2926, the exhibit was removed as part of the Trump administration’s policies, and on President’s Day, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the exhibit’s restoration. \u003ccite>(Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jon Jarvis, former director of the National Park Service under President Barack Obama, said he anticipates an appeal, but even without one, it’s unlikely the administration will take immediate action to restore removed signs like the one at Muir Woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This administration’s NPS has been “kind of a mess,” and has a “pattern of ignoring court decisions,” he said. “And I think implementation of this order will also be very messy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055659/national-park-service-california-yosemite-muir-woods-trump-executive-order\">removal process itself has been chaotic\u003c/a> since it was announced last year, Jarvis said.[aside postID=news_12087471 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Trailhead-Gays-LEDE.jpg']“There haven’t been a wholesale and comprehensive set of decisions made from [the executive order],” he said. “There have been some places that have been, let’s say, more aggressive about it … but in many cases, nothing’s ever actually been done to remove or adjust the signs.” Jarvis praised Kelley’s ruling as “well-justified.” He said it “will go in the sort of annals of park service legal lore,” in particular noting its focus on the park service’s education mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an affirmation of the park services, not only its mission and responsibilities, but its policy and its responsibility to tell America’s story authentically and to ensure that no one gets left out of that story,” Jarvis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parks advocacy groups nationwide have been\u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/save-our-signs/home\"> documenting what has been taken down\u003c/a> both physically and digitally on government websites as a result of the executive order. At sites across the state, including at Manzanar National Historic Site in Inyo County, where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II, QR codes were posted soliciting public input on what should be taken down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The park service took down or revised a lot of signs, and they put them in storage, and they’ll come back out,” he said. “They’re either going to come back now, or they’re going to come back in a few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A U.S. District Court ruling issued Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055659/national-park-service-california-yosemite-muir-woods-trump-executive-order\">signage at national parks that was taken down last year\u003c/a>. That includes a sign at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049405/muir-woods-national-monument-exhibit-removal-trump-executive-order-national-parks-history-under-construction-sticky-notes\">Muir Woods National Monument\u003c/a> in Marin County that documented the contributions of women and Indigenous people to the founding of the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The signage, which was removed as part of a 2025 \u003ca href=\"https://www.doi.gov/document-library/secretary-order/so-3431-restoring-truth-and-sanity-american-history\">executive order\u003c/a>, includes anything on display that the administration deemed would “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Parks-PI-Order.pdf\">her 63-page ruling\u003c/a>, Judge Angel Kelley documented exhibits on slavery, climate change and history that were taken down by leaders in President Donald Trump’s White House, who she said: “seek to rewrite the nation’s history with a white-out pen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parks advocacy groups, which filed a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/slavery-exhibit-climate-national-parks-trump-cb443d3d61c0df9613bc6dd37f7b0f07\">February lawsuit\u003c/a> challenging the order, celebrated the decision, especially amid the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s court ruling will help protect national parks from the administration’s unprecedented campaign to erase history and science at these one-of-a-kind places,” wrote Alan Spears, senior director for cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, one of the plaintiff organizations. “National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent. Americans count on national parks to help us understand our full, rich history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Department of the Interior spokesperson told KQED in an email that it is weighing an appeal given the ruling is “from a [President] Biden-appointed judge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087613\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087613\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/NPSGetty-1536x981.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff with the National Parks Service replace the plaques that were part of the ‘Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation’ exhibit at the President’s house on Feb. 19, 2026, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On Jan. 22, 2926, the exhibit was removed as part of the Trump administration’s policies, and on President’s Day, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the exhibit’s restoration. \u003ccite>(Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jon Jarvis, former director of the National Park Service under President Barack Obama, said he anticipates an appeal, but even without one, it’s unlikely the administration will take immediate action to restore removed signs like the one at Muir Woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This administration’s NPS has been “kind of a mess,” and has a “pattern of ignoring court decisions,” he said. “And I think implementation of this order will also be very messy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055659/national-park-service-california-yosemite-muir-woods-trump-executive-order\">removal process itself has been chaotic\u003c/a> since it was announced last year, Jarvis said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“There haven’t been a wholesale and comprehensive set of decisions made from [the executive order],” he said. “There have been some places that have been, let’s say, more aggressive about it … but in many cases, nothing’s ever actually been done to remove or adjust the signs.” Jarvis praised Kelley’s ruling as “well-justified.” He said it “will go in the sort of annals of park service legal lore,” in particular noting its focus on the park service’s education mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an affirmation of the park services, not only its mission and responsibilities, but its policy and its responsibility to tell America’s story authentically and to ensure that no one gets left out of that story,” Jarvis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parks advocacy groups nationwide have been\u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/save-our-signs/home\"> documenting what has been taken down\u003c/a> both physically and digitally on government websites as a result of the executive order. At sites across the state, including at Manzanar National Historic Site in Inyo County, where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II, QR codes were posted soliciting public input on what should be taken down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The park service took down or revised a lot of signs, and they put them in storage, and they’ll come back out,” he said. “They’re either going to come back now, or they’re going to come back in a few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As college graduates throw off their caps and move on to their next life chapter, one topic is surely on their minds: Has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/artificial-intelligence\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> made their skills irrelevant? And what does an entry-level job even look like anymore?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past month, graduates across the country have\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/20/nx-s1-5822419/ai-colleges-commencement-booing\"> booed and jeered\u003c/a> college commencement speakers at the very mention of AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s no surprise. Recent polling suggests the technology weighs heavily on the minds of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079472/stanford-study-ai-experts-are-optimistic-about-ai-the-rest-of-us-not-so-much\">those already in the job market\u003c/a> and those who seek to \u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/704087/college-students-weigh-impact-majors-careers.aspx\">join it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several college graduates from around the state spoke with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/californiareportmagazine\">\u003cem>The California Report Magazine\u003c/em>\u003c/a> about how they’re navigating the unpredictable economy, and how AI factors into their job search. The testimonies below have been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087236\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087236\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gisselle Ulloa poses with her diploma from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Ulloa, who plans to be a teacher, said she witnessed the impact of AI on her middle-schoolers in the classroom. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Gisselle Ulloa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Gisselle Ulloa\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> California State Polytechnic University, Pomona\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Liberal Studies\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I plan to be a teacher in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a recent graduate, it is intimidating to apply to jobs and fail to meet the criteria of artificial intelligence. There’ve been occasions where I feel … the employer is not even going to gaze at my resume. Of course, jobs don’t come easily, and you have to earn your position. But it’s really difficult to learn to satisfy an algorithm instead of a person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With my experience tutoring, I saw the effects of AI, social media and electronics in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I worked with middle schoolers last year. Seeing my students struggle to write paragraphs with a pencil or solve math problems [with] ChatGPT was discouraging. It put into perspective the amount of work needed from teachers and staff to get students to where they need to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers can only do so much. As an aspiring educator, [AI] is a really pivotal tool, and I’m sure it works for bigger things, [like] social media and technology. But I fear it’s going to impact classrooms negatively in the years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Camalah Saleh\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> California State University, Fresno\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Political Science and Communication\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I go to China at the end of August to earn a master’s in Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University. My goal is to connect international affairs and global affairs to immigration because I want to be an immigration attorney and work on refugee and asylum cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087227\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087227\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camalah Saleh smiles after graduating from California State University, Fresno. She said she initially tried to ignore ChatGPT but realized AI is not going anywhere. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Camalah Saleh)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When ChatGPT first came out, everyone was talking about it, and I didn’t know what it was. I ignored it. I’m in a field where you need to critically write and be a critical thinker, and it can’t just do your work for you. Then, I realized [AI] is not going away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve looked at the way it’s going to impact my career. To see lawyers using it is really worrisome because … there’s a lot of ethical concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I need to pay attention to how it’s going to advance. And people need to be literate in AI so that they can analyze what is and is not made by AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087237\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087237\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Yang poses with her diploma at Oracle Park in San Francisco. She said the threat of AI taking over peoples’ jobs is “pretty scary.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Michelle Yang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Michelle Yang\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> San Francisco State University\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Marketing\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to go into event [planning]. Hopefully, within the music industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With most jobs that include administration and planning, AI definitely has or could have the potential to take over certain skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with events, it’s a very in-person, human interaction type of industry. So, that’s not something I’m worried about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Graduating college right now, it’s pretty scary with this threat of AI taking over. We spent so much time in school figuring out what we want to do after college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can decide not to use AI within my life. But as society progresses, especially in San Francisco, AI [will] become more incorporated into society, [and] there might not be a choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Michelle Yang is a Live Events intern at KQED. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Amelia Zai\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> UCLA (incoming senior)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Mechanical Engineering\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll probably start applying [for entry-level jobs] in the fall. I already know that even without AI, the job market is really difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087221\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087221\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Amelia_Zai.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Amelia_Zai.jpeg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Amelia_Zai-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amelia Zai \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Amelia Zai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How do you feel about AI?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m the president of the AI Robotics and Ethics Society at the University of California, Los Angeles. A lot of students here are aware of how AI is reshaping the world. They see it in the news; they’re seeing it in their classes; they use AI to help them understand assignments. I do that too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During every discussion, it’s inevitable that the question of whether AI will replace roles in some field comes up. I think it’s less of a competition between AI and people, and more of a competition between people who use AI and people who don’t know how to use AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because I know that AI is such a powerful tool, I’m trying to use that to my advantage and integrate it into my workflow to make myself a more efficient thinker. It’s the responsibility of universities to ensure that their graduates are competitive. And one way to achieve that goal is to integrate AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Aaron Kim\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> UC Berkeley\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Political Science\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Career path: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Labor/Union Organizing\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, in terms of my personal career trajectory, it still feels pretty peripheral. I ended up doing a lot of stuff in the union/labor world, so AI affects me less. None of the jobs that I was looking for are AI-exposed as much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of the organizations I’m interested in are concerned with progressive issues and working people. How would you feel if your union rep is ChatGPT and tries to get you to sign union cards? That’s something AI can never take away. Because so much of organizing is based on building trust, human to human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s no surprise. Recent polling suggests the technology weighs heavily on the minds of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079472/stanford-study-ai-experts-are-optimistic-about-ai-the-rest-of-us-not-so-much\">those already in the job market\u003c/a> and those who seek to \u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/704087/college-students-weigh-impact-majors-careers.aspx\">join it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several college graduates from around the state spoke with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/californiareportmagazine\">\u003cem>The California Report Magazine\u003c/em>\u003c/a> about how they’re navigating the unpredictable economy, and how AI factors into their job search. The testimonies below have been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087236\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087236\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GisselleUlloa-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gisselle Ulloa poses with her diploma from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Ulloa, who plans to be a teacher, said she witnessed the impact of AI on her middle-schoolers in the classroom. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Gisselle Ulloa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Gisselle Ulloa\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> California State Polytechnic University, Pomona\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Liberal Studies\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I plan to be a teacher in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a recent graduate, it is intimidating to apply to jobs and fail to meet the criteria of artificial intelligence. There’ve been occasions where I feel … the employer is not even going to gaze at my resume. Of course, jobs don’t come easily, and you have to earn your position. But it’s really difficult to learn to satisfy an algorithm instead of a person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With my experience tutoring, I saw the effects of AI, social media and electronics in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I worked with middle schoolers last year. Seeing my students struggle to write paragraphs with a pencil or solve math problems [with] ChatGPT was discouraging. It put into perspective the amount of work needed from teachers and staff to get students to where they need to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers can only do so much. As an aspiring educator, [AI] is a really pivotal tool, and I’m sure it works for bigger things, [like] social media and technology. But I fear it’s going to impact classrooms negatively in the years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Camalah Saleh\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> California State University, Fresno\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Political Science and Communication\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I go to China at the end of August to earn a master’s in Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University. My goal is to connect international affairs and global affairs to immigration because I want to be an immigration attorney and work on refugee and asylum cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087227\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087227\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CamalahSaleh-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camalah Saleh smiles after graduating from California State University, Fresno. She said she initially tried to ignore ChatGPT but realized AI is not going anywhere. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Camalah Saleh)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When ChatGPT first came out, everyone was talking about it, and I didn’t know what it was. I ignored it. I’m in a field where you need to critically write and be a critical thinker, and it can’t just do your work for you. Then, I realized [AI] is not going away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve looked at the way it’s going to impact my career. To see lawyers using it is really worrisome because … there’s a lot of ethical concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I need to pay attention to how it’s going to advance. And people need to be literate in AI so that they can analyze what is and is not made by AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087237\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087237\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MichelleYang-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Yang poses with her diploma at Oracle Park in San Francisco. She said the threat of AI taking over peoples’ jobs is “pretty scary.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Michelle Yang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Michelle Yang\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> San Francisco State University\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Marketing\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to go into event [planning]. Hopefully, within the music industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With most jobs that include administration and planning, AI definitely has or could have the potential to take over certain skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with events, it’s a very in-person, human interaction type of industry. So, that’s not something I’m worried about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Graduating college right now, it’s pretty scary with this threat of AI taking over. We spent so much time in school figuring out what we want to do after college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can decide not to use AI within my life. But as society progresses, especially in San Francisco, AI [will] become more incorporated into society, [and] there might not be a choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Michelle Yang is a Live Events intern at KQED. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Amelia Zai\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> UCLA (incoming senior)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Mechanical Engineering\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your plans after graduation?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll probably start applying [for entry-level jobs] in the fall. I already know that even without AI, the job market is really difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087221\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087221\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Amelia_Zai.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Amelia_Zai.jpeg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Amelia_Zai-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amelia Zai \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Amelia Zai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How do you feel about AI?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m the president of the AI Robotics and Ethics Society at the University of California, Los Angeles. A lot of students here are aware of how AI is reshaping the world. They see it in the news; they’re seeing it in their classes; they use AI to help them understand assignments. I do that too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During every discussion, it’s inevitable that the question of whether AI will replace roles in some field comes up. I think it’s less of a competition between AI and people, and more of a competition between people who use AI and people who don’t know how to use AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because I know that AI is such a powerful tool, I’m trying to use that to my advantage and integrate it into my workflow to make myself a more efficient thinker. It’s the responsibility of universities to ensure that their graduates are competitive. And one way to achieve that goal is to integrate AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Aaron Kim\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>School:\u003c/strong> UC Berkeley\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major:\u003c/strong> Political Science\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Career path: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Labor/Union Organizing\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How does AI affect you? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, in terms of my personal career trajectory, it still feels pretty peripheral. I ended up doing a lot of stuff in the union/labor world, so AI affects me less. None of the jobs that I was looking for are AI-exposed as much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of the organizations I’m interested in are concerned with progressive issues and working people. How would you feel if your union rep is ChatGPT and tries to get you to sign union cards? That’s something AI can never take away. Because so much of organizing is based on building trust, human to human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "as-californias-wine-industry-struggles-some-lodi-grape-growers-pivot-to-new-crops",
"title": "As California’s Wine Industry Struggles, Some Lodi Grape Growers Pivot to New Crops",
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"headTitle": "As California’s Wine Industry Struggles, Some Lodi Grape Growers Pivot to New Crops | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published in the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lodinews.com/news/article_5861a96a-6744-4727-8a92-f52dcf7a6e0c.html\">\u003cem>Lodi News-Sentinel\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and has been edited for KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Mohr-Fry Ranch, just south of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/central-valley\">Central Valley\u003c/a> city of Lodi, peacocks roamed through one vineyard on a blindingly sunny spring day. Mohrgan Fry strolled through her family’s ranch, pointing a manicured pink nail at rows of dark brown, gnarly vine branches that split off in all directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They all look like they have a story to tell, right?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes the story of her family, who have been farming grapes in the region for six decades. For the past 13 years, they’ve been cultivating grapes exclusively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060895/visiting-a-vineyard-to-see-how-the-bays-wine-industry-is-doing\">California’s wine industry began bottoming out \u003c/a>over the past few years, driven by what growers say is the worst industry storm they have seen in their lifetimes, the family started looking at different options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where the industry is at, you have to be able to diversify and be willing to try something new,” Fry said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grapes are everywhere in Lodi — in the city’s official logo. On murals downtown. They’re the namesake of the stadium and the annual “Lodi Grape Festival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of 66,000 has about a dozen wine tasting rooms — and that’s just within the city limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1302\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED-1536x1000.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation since 1855, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it’s no longer just the land of the grape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orchards full of pistachios, almonds and olives are popping up all over the city’s outskirts as challenges in the wine industry are pushing growers to try other crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wine consumption is down globally, according to reports from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. National reports from the Napa-based Wine Market Council show baby boomers are drinking less as they age. Younger generations are drinking less too, as they become more health — and wallet — conscious. On the supply side, California grape growers are having to compete with cheaper foreign-grown grapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consequently, growers in Lodi and across the state are ripping vines out. About 10% of vines in the Lodi area were removed in the last year alone, according to a report from the California Association of Winegrape Growers.[aside postID=news_12077310 hero= 'https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/031226_DRAGONDEN-_GH_015-KQED.jpg']About a fifth of California’s vineyard acreage has been ripped out since 2022, state data shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some smaller vineyards are closing shop altogether. Others are taking unique approaches, like leasing their land for use as water-recharge basins. But for grape growers who want to continue growing, there is one key to staying afloat — crop diversification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s especially true for larger farming operations, according to Lodi Winegrape Commission Executive Director Stuart Spencer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We honestly think this is a good thing,” he said. “I think diversification is always good from an economic and business perspective and … ecological perspective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a sixth-generation farmer, it’s not surprising that Fry knows so much about grapes. She grew up around the family business and always knew she wanted to be a part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate sitting in the office,” she said. “But I love being outside. I love being with Mother Nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the choice, she’d spend every minute in the vineyards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You get to make decisions that are different than in an office or in a lab, because you’re out there and you’re making pruning decisions, and then you see the results within a few months,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bruce Fry, left, and his daughter Mohrgan Fry, right, examine grape vines at their ranch Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation since 1855, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After studying the business and engineering of agriculture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she knew she wanted to bring what she’d learned back to her family’s ranch as operations manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when she graduated two years ago, the industry was tanking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ironically, I think it was actually the best time to come join the industry, I think for me, for my family,” she said. “It’s a time for us to really think about the decisions we’re making and how we can be more efficient, how we can save money, but still be able to provide for our employees and continue to farm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Frys are no strangers to diversification. Over the 171 years their family has been farming, they’ve grown 30 different crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They started out in what is now Hayward, but at the time was land claimed by the Spanish. Fry’s great-great-great-grandfather left a whaling ship in the San Francisco Bay to start farming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family didn’t start with grapes. Instead, they grew crops like tomatoes, sugar beets and wheat. As Hayward became more urban, they moved the operation to Lodi in 1965 and got into the wine business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087155\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087155\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED-1536x1048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bottles of wine, made with Mohr-Fry Ranches’ grapes, are displayed in the ranch’s office in Lodi on June 10, 2026. Mohr-Fry Ranches is a six-generation family farming operation. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was right around that time that Mohrgan’s grandfather, Jerry Fry, took over the business. He’s seen it through labor shifts from World War II to the Bracero Program that brought workers from Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few decades later, Mohrgan’s dad, Bruce Fry, came into the business. Like Mohrgan, he’d just graduated from Cal Poly. At that time, wineries were consolidating, leaving grape growers with fewer buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the same issues the family faced then have continued. Fewer wineries, increasing labor costs, damaging pests. And now, more foreign competition and decreasing wine consumption. Jerry said none of the previous threats have been quite like the current one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my perspective, this has been the most challenging of anything that I think our family has dealt with,” Jerry said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, they could plant a different crop every year and rip it out if it wasn’t selling well. Now, because of the soil type and price of the land, annual crops don’t make financial sense for them. That means picking a permanent crop, one they’ll be committed to for the next two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past year or so, the family’s been weighing their options. They’ve been talking to neighbors, looking at research, setting up spreadsheets. At the moment, they’re leaning toward olives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED-1536x1050.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A plaque awarding Marian’s Vineyard for the California State Fair’s “2025 Vineyard of the Year” is displayed at Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And last fall, they ripped out a block of their vineyards to begin their next chapter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On another one of the Frys’ properties just north of Lodi, Mohrgan and Bruce stood on a gravel path that runs right through the past and future of their farming operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the south side, where there once were Chardonnay grapes, little green sprouts stick up out of the dirt, far into the distance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s safflower, a transitional crop. Mohrgan explained it will help add some nutrients to the soil that the vineyards had used up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really good for the soil health, for its porosity, all those other fun things,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transitioning crops is a yearslong process. After the grape harvest this past fall, they ripped out the vines. For several months, they planted safflower in its place. By this time next year, the safflower will be swapped out for the new permanent crop, likely olives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process was made possible with the aid of a regional government initiative, the Ag Burn Alternatives Grant Program, that paid to help remove the vines in an environmentally friendly way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that the program is really great because [it] saves you some money,” she said. “Getting your tax dollars back, right?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mohrgan and her family are keenly aware of what the government is — and isn’t — doing to help farmers like them. Even as they spoke with a reporter, Bruce got an alert on his phone and pulled up a livestream of a state Assembly hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bruce Fry, left, and his daughter Mohrgan Fry, right, examine grape clusters at their ranch Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation since 1855, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The hearing focused on \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1585\">AB 1585\u003c/a>, a bill that would require wines to be made with 100% American grapes if vintners want to use an “American” designation on the label.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fry family and many other growers in the state say it will stop wineries from blending in cheaper foreign grapes. They also hope it will encourage them to buy from American growers, most of which are in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 40 minutes, Mohrgan held the phone on the hood of her blue Chevy truck. She and her dad watched intently as assemblymembers debated the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, the committee members voted to move the bill along to the next stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully this bill keeps going, keeps rolling,” Mohrgan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Baby steps,” Bruce said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the bill does pass, it might alleviate one of the industry’s challenges. But there’s a long way to go if grape growers and vintners are to fully bounce back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet many growers like the Frys remain optimistic. They feel connected to grapes and believe the industry could be turning the corner soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the wine grape region, [and] it’s going to stay that way, but it’s just, it’s not going to be as big as what it was before,” Bruce said. “I think change is hard, but change makes things better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1384\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED-1536x1063.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A peacock walks through a vineyard at Mohr-Fry Ranches in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mohrgan said she feels encouraged by both the older generation’s willingness to pivot and her generation’s fresh ideas. Last year, the Lodi Winegrape Commission elected its youngest leadership team ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a lot of knowledge to learn from, like my grandpa and my dad, and I think because of that, we’ll make it through,” Mohrgan said. “You have, I wouldn’t say it’s a weight, but … you want to make your family proud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With generations working together, they’re hoping to make wine feel less pretentious and more approachable for consumers. If they’re successful, Lodi could remain the land of the grape for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hannah Weaver writes for the Lodi News-Sentinel as a cohort member of the California Local News Fellowship program, a multi-year, state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting in California.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "As California’s Wine Industry Struggles, Some Lodi Grape Growers Pivot to New Crops | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published in the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lodinews.com/news/article_5861a96a-6744-4727-8a92-f52dcf7a6e0c.html\">\u003cem>Lodi News-Sentinel\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and has been edited for KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Mohr-Fry Ranch, just south of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/central-valley\">Central Valley\u003c/a> city of Lodi, peacocks roamed through one vineyard on a blindingly sunny spring day. Mohrgan Fry strolled through her family’s ranch, pointing a manicured pink nail at rows of dark brown, gnarly vine branches that split off in all directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They all look like they have a story to tell, right?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes the story of her family, who have been farming grapes in the region for six decades. For the past 13 years, they’ve been cultivating grapes exclusively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060895/visiting-a-vineyard-to-see-how-the-bays-wine-industry-is-doing\">California’s wine industry began bottoming out \u003c/a>over the past few years, driven by what growers say is the worst industry storm they have seen in their lifetimes, the family started looking at different options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where the industry is at, you have to be able to diversify and be willing to try something new,” Fry said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grapes are everywhere in Lodi — in the city’s official logo. On murals downtown. They’re the namesake of the stadium and the annual “Lodi Grape Festival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of 66,000 has about a dozen wine tasting rooms — and that’s just within the city limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1302\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-25-KQED-1536x1000.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation since 1855, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it’s no longer just the land of the grape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orchards full of pistachios, almonds and olives are popping up all over the city’s outskirts as challenges in the wine industry are pushing growers to try other crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wine consumption is down globally, according to reports from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. National reports from the Napa-based Wine Market Council show baby boomers are drinking less as they age. Younger generations are drinking less too, as they become more health — and wallet — conscious. On the supply side, California grape growers are having to compete with cheaper foreign-grown grapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consequently, growers in Lodi and across the state are ripping vines out. About 10% of vines in the Lodi area were removed in the last year alone, according to a report from the California Association of Winegrape Growers.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>About a fifth of California’s vineyard acreage has been ripped out since 2022, state data shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some smaller vineyards are closing shop altogether. Others are taking unique approaches, like leasing their land for use as water-recharge basins. But for grape growers who want to continue growing, there is one key to staying afloat — crop diversification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s especially true for larger farming operations, according to Lodi Winegrape Commission Executive Director Stuart Spencer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We honestly think this is a good thing,” he said. “I think diversification is always good from an economic and business perspective and … ecological perspective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a sixth-generation farmer, it’s not surprising that Fry knows so much about grapes. She grew up around the family business and always knew she wanted to be a part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate sitting in the office,” she said. “But I love being outside. I love being with Mother Nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the choice, she’d spend every minute in the vineyards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You get to make decisions that are different than in an office or in a lab, because you’re out there and you’re making pruning decisions, and then you see the results within a few months,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bruce Fry, left, and his daughter Mohrgan Fry, right, examine grape vines at their ranch Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation since 1855, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After studying the business and engineering of agriculture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she knew she wanted to bring what she’d learned back to her family’s ranch as operations manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when she graduated two years ago, the industry was tanking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ironically, I think it was actually the best time to come join the industry, I think for me, for my family,” she said. “It’s a time for us to really think about the decisions we’re making and how we can be more efficient, how we can save money, but still be able to provide for our employees and continue to farm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Frys are no strangers to diversification. Over the 171 years their family has been farming, they’ve grown 30 different crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They started out in what is now Hayward, but at the time was land claimed by the Spanish. Fry’s great-great-great-grandfather left a whaling ship in the San Francisco Bay to start farming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family didn’t start with grapes. Instead, they grew crops like tomatoes, sugar beets and wheat. As Hayward became more urban, they moved the operation to Lodi in 1965 and got into the wine business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087155\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087155\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-19-KQED-1536x1048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bottles of wine, made with Mohr-Fry Ranches’ grapes, are displayed in the ranch’s office in Lodi on June 10, 2026. Mohr-Fry Ranches is a six-generation family farming operation. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was right around that time that Mohrgan’s grandfather, Jerry Fry, took over the business. He’s seen it through labor shifts from World War II to the Bracero Program that brought workers from Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few decades later, Mohrgan’s dad, Bruce Fry, came into the business. Like Mohrgan, he’d just graduated from Cal Poly. At that time, wineries were consolidating, leaving grape growers with fewer buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the same issues the family faced then have continued. Fewer wineries, increasing labor costs, damaging pests. And now, more foreign competition and decreasing wine consumption. Jerry said none of the previous threats have been quite like the current one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my perspective, this has been the most challenging of anything that I think our family has dealt with,” Jerry said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, they could plant a different crop every year and rip it out if it wasn’t selling well. Now, because of the soil type and price of the land, annual crops don’t make financial sense for them. That means picking a permanent crop, one they’ll be committed to for the next two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past year or so, the family’s been weighing their options. They’ve been talking to neighbors, looking at research, setting up spreadsheets. At the moment, they’re leaning toward olives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-17-KQED-1536x1050.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A plaque awarding Marian’s Vineyard for the California State Fair’s “2025 Vineyard of the Year” is displayed at Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And last fall, they ripped out a block of their vineyards to begin their next chapter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On another one of the Frys’ properties just north of Lodi, Mohrgan and Bruce stood on a gravel path that runs right through the past and future of their farming operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the south side, where there once were Chardonnay grapes, little green sprouts stick up out of the dirt, far into the distance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s safflower, a transitional crop. Mohrgan explained it will help add some nutrients to the soil that the vineyards had used up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really good for the soil health, for its porosity, all those other fun things,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transitioning crops is a yearslong process. After the grape harvest this past fall, they ripped out the vines. For several months, they planted safflower in its place. By this time next year, the safflower will be swapped out for the new permanent crop, likely olives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process was made possible with the aid of a regional government initiative, the Ag Burn Alternatives Grant Program, that paid to help remove the vines in an environmentally friendly way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that the program is really great because [it] saves you some money,” she said. “Getting your tax dollars back, right?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mohrgan and her family are keenly aware of what the government is — and isn’t — doing to help farmers like them. Even as they spoke with a reporter, Bruce got an alert on his phone and pulled up a livestream of a state Assembly hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bruce Fry, left, and his daughter Mohrgan Fry, right, examine grape clusters at their ranch Mohr-Fry Ranches, a six-generation family farming operation since 1855, in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The hearing focused on \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1585\">AB 1585\u003c/a>, a bill that would require wines to be made with 100% American grapes if vintners want to use an “American” designation on the label.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fry family and many other growers in the state say it will stop wineries from blending in cheaper foreign grapes. They also hope it will encourage them to buy from American growers, most of which are in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 40 minutes, Mohrgan held the phone on the hood of her blue Chevy truck. She and her dad watched intently as assemblymembers debated the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, the committee members voted to move the bill along to the next stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully this bill keeps going, keeps rolling,” Mohrgan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Baby steps,” Bruce said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the bill does pass, it might alleviate one of the industry’s challenges. But there’s a long way to go if grape growers and vintners are to fully bounce back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet many growers like the Frys remain optimistic. They feel connected to grapes and believe the industry could be turning the corner soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the wine grape region, [and] it’s going to stay that way, but it’s just, it’s not going to be as big as what it was before,” Bruce said. “I think change is hard, but change makes things better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1384\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260610_LodiWine_GC-26-KQED-1536x1063.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A peacock walks through a vineyard at Mohr-Fry Ranches in Lodi on June 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mohrgan said she feels encouraged by both the older generation’s willingness to pivot and her generation’s fresh ideas. Last year, the Lodi Winegrape Commission elected its youngest leadership team ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a lot of knowledge to learn from, like my grandpa and my dad, and I think because of that, we’ll make it through,” Mohrgan said. “You have, I wouldn’t say it’s a weight, but … you want to make your family proud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With generations working together, they’re hoping to make wine feel less pretentious and more approachable for consumers. If they’re successful, Lodi could remain the land of the grape for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hannah Weaver writes for the Lodi News-Sentinel as a cohort member of the California Local News Fellowship program, a multi-year, state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting in California.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Helped Strike Down the $100,000 H-1B Fee. Now, the Fight Moves to Appeals",
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"headTitle": "California Helped Strike Down the $100,000 H-1B Fee. Now, the Fight Moves to Appeals | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Since the H-1B program was introduced in 1990, the visa has been the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058586/silicon-valley-dreams-at-risk-current-h-1bs-sidestep-trumps-100k-fee-for-now\"> primary pathway\u003c/a> for Silicon Valley companies to take advantage of foreign talent. And vice versa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of that is now back in play after a federal judge\u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/H1B%20Order.pdf\"> blocked\u003c/a> a $100,000 visa fee this week, which the Trump administration imposed on employers in a September 2025 proclamation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin concluded the policy was an unauthorized, “arbitrary and capricious” tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Proclamation expresses concern about the share of foreign workers filling jobs in the science and technology fields, specifically focusing on the IT sector,” Sorokin wrote. “However, [it] fails to consider or discuss these policy concerns as they pertain to other human-services sectors, such as education and healthcare.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sorokin sided with 20 states in a lawsuit, led by California, which alleged that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This tax was an attack on America’s ability to attract and retain the high-skilled talent that strengthens our economy and helps us meet critical workforce needs,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement, adding that California “remains open for business, open to talent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074482\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074482\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/GettyImages-2262729717-scaled-e1773182284895.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1413\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. \u003ccite>(Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In making their case, the states argued the higher visa costs, which previously ranged from \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-sues-over-trump-administration%E2%80%99s-unlawful-new-100k-fee-h\">$960 to $7,595\u003c/a>, would lead to severe staffing shortages in public school systems, state universities, and public healthcare facilities that rely on foreign workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration argued the visa restrictions were within the executive branch’s authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it. A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal,” White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers wrote KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/\">Proclamation 10973\u003c/a> sought to discourage companies from hiring skilled foreign workers over American workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really shooting us in the foot,” immigration attorney Emily Neumann said on KQED shortly afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep-pocketed technology companies are the biggest users, with more than 70% of approvals going to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707158/indian-entrepreneurs-with-no-green-cards-pursue-silicon-valley-dreams-elsewhere\">workers from India\u003c/a>, but the H-1B visa also helps to fill vacancies for doctors and teachers. Trump’s proposal meant big changes to the longstanding H-1B visa application system, and the many tech companies, big and small, that came to rely on it over the last three decades.[aside postID=news_12084655 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP.jpg']Until the Trump administration clarified that current visa holders weren’t affected, the proposal prompted much of corporate America to push out\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911349/trump-dropped-a-100000-fee-on-h-1b-visas-and-sent-silicon-valley-spinning\"> emergency advisories\u003c/a> to all employees on H-1B visas, asking them not to leave the U.S. if they were here, or come back immediately within 24 hours if they were abroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sued the administration in federal court over the fee hike, and it has appealed a denial of a summary judgment in December. That ruling left the higher fee in effect, at least until September 2026, when it is scheduled to expire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco in October by nurses, schools, religious groups and labor organizations, setting up the possibility of divided rulings in three appellate court circuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has a tremendous effect for employers and for people’s lives, and so I think it’s something that the Supreme Court’s gonna take up, and perhaps even relatively soon,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky said that, in\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/02/27/nx-s1-5722909/learning-resources-ceo-talks-about-scotus-decision-on-trumps-tariffs\"> Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump\u003c/a> earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against the administration in a way that bodes well for Silicon Valley and other industries keen to restore the H1-B.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The states have a good shot of winning their case, and I say that based on the tariffs decision from Feb. 20,” Chemerinsky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue has stoked infighting among the Trump administration’s top advisers, and not for the first time, as the President targeted the H1-B and\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707255/what-silicon-valley-could-lose-if-trump-revokes-h-1b-spousal-work-visas\"> similar visas\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825766/trump-suspends-work-visas-and-silicon-valley-isnt-happy\"> during his first term\u003c/a> in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Trump’s tech advisers, including White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, former Andreessen Horowitz partner Sriram Krishnan, who resigned from the White House two days ago, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023367/what-big-tech-sees-in-donald-trump\">Elon Musk\u003c/a>, himself a former H-1B holder, came down lopsidedly for the program. This put them at odds with the nativist wing of the administration, which has helped drive Trump’s crackdown on immigration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Since the H-1B program was introduced in 1990, the visa has been the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058586/silicon-valley-dreams-at-risk-current-h-1bs-sidestep-trumps-100k-fee-for-now\"> primary pathway\u003c/a> for Silicon Valley companies to take advantage of foreign talent. And vice versa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of that is now back in play after a federal judge\u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/H1B%20Order.pdf\"> blocked\u003c/a> a $100,000 visa fee this week, which the Trump administration imposed on employers in a September 2025 proclamation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin concluded the policy was an unauthorized, “arbitrary and capricious” tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Proclamation expresses concern about the share of foreign workers filling jobs in the science and technology fields, specifically focusing on the IT sector,” Sorokin wrote. “However, [it] fails to consider or discuss these policy concerns as they pertain to other human-services sectors, such as education and healthcare.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sorokin sided with 20 states in a lawsuit, led by California, which alleged that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This tax was an attack on America’s ability to attract and retain the high-skilled talent that strengthens our economy and helps us meet critical workforce needs,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement, adding that California “remains open for business, open to talent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074482\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074482\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/GettyImages-2262729717-scaled-e1773182284895.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1413\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. \u003ccite>(Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In making their case, the states argued the higher visa costs, which previously ranged from \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-sues-over-trump-administration%E2%80%99s-unlawful-new-100k-fee-h\">$960 to $7,595\u003c/a>, would lead to severe staffing shortages in public school systems, state universities, and public healthcare facilities that rely on foreign workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration argued the visa restrictions were within the executive branch’s authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it. A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal,” White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers wrote KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/\">Proclamation 10973\u003c/a> sought to discourage companies from hiring skilled foreign workers over American workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really shooting us in the foot,” immigration attorney Emily Neumann said on KQED shortly afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep-pocketed technology companies are the biggest users, with more than 70% of approvals going to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707158/indian-entrepreneurs-with-no-green-cards-pursue-silicon-valley-dreams-elsewhere\">workers from India\u003c/a>, but the H-1B visa also helps to fill vacancies for doctors and teachers. Trump’s proposal meant big changes to the longstanding H-1B visa application system, and the many tech companies, big and small, that came to rely on it over the last three decades.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Until the Trump administration clarified that current visa holders weren’t affected, the proposal prompted much of corporate America to push out\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911349/trump-dropped-a-100000-fee-on-h-1b-visas-and-sent-silicon-valley-spinning\"> emergency advisories\u003c/a> to all employees on H-1B visas, asking them not to leave the U.S. if they were here, or come back immediately within 24 hours if they were abroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sued the administration in federal court over the fee hike, and it has appealed a denial of a summary judgment in December. That ruling left the higher fee in effect, at least until September 2026, when it is scheduled to expire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco in October by nurses, schools, religious groups and labor organizations, setting up the possibility of divided rulings in three appellate court circuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has a tremendous effect for employers and for people’s lives, and so I think it’s something that the Supreme Court’s gonna take up, and perhaps even relatively soon,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky said that, in\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/02/27/nx-s1-5722909/learning-resources-ceo-talks-about-scotus-decision-on-trumps-tariffs\"> Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump\u003c/a> earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against the administration in a way that bodes well for Silicon Valley and other industries keen to restore the H1-B.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The states have a good shot of winning their case, and I say that based on the tariffs decision from Feb. 20,” Chemerinsky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue has stoked infighting among the Trump administration’s top advisers, and not for the first time, as the President targeted the H1-B and\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707255/what-silicon-valley-could-lose-if-trump-revokes-h-1b-spousal-work-visas\"> similar visas\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825766/trump-suspends-work-visas-and-silicon-valley-isnt-happy\"> during his first term\u003c/a> in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Trump’s tech advisers, including White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, former Andreessen Horowitz partner Sriram Krishnan, who resigned from the White House two days ago, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023367/what-big-tech-sees-in-donald-trump\">Elon Musk\u003c/a>, himself a former H-1B holder, came down lopsidedly for the program. This put them at odds with the nativist wing of the administration, which has helped drive Trump’s crackdown on immigration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California occupational safety officials have issued a $142,700 fine against the University of California, San Francisco, after documenting multiple “serious” safety violations surrounding the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066248/stabbing-at-san-francisco-general-hospital-leaves-social-worker-in-critical-condition\">fatal stabbing of a social worker\u003c/a> in December, along with a record fine of $130,500 against the city’s primary public hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reports from California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health arrive nearly six months after a patient allegedly stabbed and killed Alberto Rangel, a 51-year-old social worker at San Francisco General Hospital’s HIV clinic, Ward 86. The incident has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101912297/fatal-ucsf-stabbing-heightens-concerns-about-health-worker-safety\">sparked tough conversations\u003c/a> between staff and leadership at the Department of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco, which both oversee SF General, about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075387/hospital-security-debate-swirls-after-san-francisco-social-worker-stabbing\">healthcare worker safety and security\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also comes on the heels of a city investigation into the incident, which found that another social worker at the clinic pulled the attacker off Rangel, contradicting claims from local law enforcement that a sheriff’s deputy was the first to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF faces eight citations, with seven marked “serious.” Citations in the 38-page report say that the institution failed to immediately report the incident to Cal/OSHA and failed to provide records of workplace safety inspections and maintain violent incident logs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Since December, UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health have implemented meaningful improvements to security and response protocols, and we continue evaluating ways to further reduce risk across all settings where our employees provide care,” UCSF said in a statement. “Alberto Rangel’s death was a profound loss, and we remain focused on strengthening workplace safety in ways that are thoughtful, collaborative, responsive and enduring.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cal/OSHA report against SF General included seven citations, six of which were marked as “serious.” Those included that the hospital failed to develop a safety plan after the patient made threats of violence, no photo or physical description of the perpetrator was shared with clinical staff and the hospital did not notify staff about the threats of violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also pointed out that the clinic did not have security cameras or weapons screening at the building, and failed to provide security guards at all entrances to the building after threats were made. The suspect, Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, 35, was arrested at the hospital and has been charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068510\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12068510\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alex Alvarez, a clinical social worker, stands on a parking garage at UCSF Parnassus campus in San Francisco on Dec. 30, 2025. He said the view from the gym helps him recover, reflect and think following the fatal stabbing of his colleague Alberto Rangel at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Dec. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alejandro Alvarez, the social worker who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068599/salt-to-a-wound-social-workers-still-reeling-in-aftermath-of-ward-86-stabbing\">pulled the attacker off Rangel\u003c/a> the day of the stabbing, said the Cal/OSHA report findings were validating but unsurprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty upsetting to hear our security cameras weren’t working right in the hallway of the clinic,” Alvarez said. “The work is demanding, but at the same time, we still deserve to be working in a safe space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez added that the $130,500 fine against SF General, the largest so far from Cal/OSHA against the hospital, is “not accountability. It is a beginning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health have responded to the incident with a number of safety changes at Ward 86. Those changes have so far included hiring more security staff, launching a threat management team to triage reported threats and installing metal detectors at entrances.[aside postID=news_12080895 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/006_KQED_SanFrancisco_GeneralHospital_03102020_6321_qed.jpg']“The safety for our staff, our patients and our community is not negotiable, and we will continue to keep staff and patients safe with a strengthened and modernized approach to safety and security,” a spokesperson for the department said. “Countless additional security measures have been initiated or expedited to strengthen workplace safety, including enhanced physical security measures, expanded security staffing, increased crisis prevention and response training, and a fundamental change in security structure governance to better connect leadership to frontline staff and their concerns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080895/san-francisco-directs-15-million-to-health-department-security-after-fatal-stabbing\">committed $15 million annually\u003c/a> and $7.5 million in one-time infrastructure improvements for healthcare worker safety throughout the Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rangel’s husband, Stuart Moulder, meanwhile, plans to sue the city for his wrongful death and for failing to take necessary steps to protect workers after multiple reports of the alleged attacker’s violent behavior were reported to hospital management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Casper, the attorney representing Moulder, said the findings in the latest Cal/OSHA report dovetail with the allegations in their complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The findings really paint a picture of two specific-but-related failures,” Casper said. “There were longstanding systemic deficiencies involving security, training, coordination and workplace violence prevention. And there were specific failures about appropriately responding to a known and escalating threat posed by this patient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Casper pointed to previous workplace safety violations and resulting fines from Cal/OSHA at SF General, and a lack of proper recourse from the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066544\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial for social worker Alberto Rangel, who was fatally stabbed on Dec. 4 at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, outside the hospital on Dec. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2020, the hospital was fined more than $26,000 after a nurse was attacked and staff faced retaliation for complaining about a dangerous work environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, there have been prior Cal/OSHA investigations and citations from violent attacks on their frontline healthcare workers. And many of the same deficiencies that were cited in this same report relating to Alberto Rangel were also cited in those citations,” Casper said. “There were all these years of notice to the city, and they failed to act until one of their frontline healthcare workers was killed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The institution’s failure to act on known deficiencies in the hospital’s safety response has haunted Alvarez, who remains on leave from his position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their own leadership had already identified these exact deficiencies for Ward 86. Four years before Alberto was killed, someone inside that institution put it in writing. And nothing happened,” he said. I do not know how to sit with that. I am still trying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California occupational safety officials have issued a $142,700 fine against the University of California, San Francisco, after documenting multiple “serious” safety violations surrounding the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066248/stabbing-at-san-francisco-general-hospital-leaves-social-worker-in-critical-condition\">fatal stabbing of a social worker\u003c/a> in December, along with a record fine of $130,500 against the city’s primary public hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reports from California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health arrive nearly six months after a patient allegedly stabbed and killed Alberto Rangel, a 51-year-old social worker at San Francisco General Hospital’s HIV clinic, Ward 86. The incident has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101912297/fatal-ucsf-stabbing-heightens-concerns-about-health-worker-safety\">sparked tough conversations\u003c/a> between staff and leadership at the Department of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco, which both oversee SF General, about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075387/hospital-security-debate-swirls-after-san-francisco-social-worker-stabbing\">healthcare worker safety and security\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also comes on the heels of a city investigation into the incident, which found that another social worker at the clinic pulled the attacker off Rangel, contradicting claims from local law enforcement that a sheriff’s deputy was the first to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF faces eight citations, with seven marked “serious.” Citations in the 38-page report say that the institution failed to immediately report the incident to Cal/OSHA and failed to provide records of workplace safety inspections and maintain violent incident logs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Since December, UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health have implemented meaningful improvements to security and response protocols, and we continue evaluating ways to further reduce risk across all settings where our employees provide care,” UCSF said in a statement. “Alberto Rangel’s death was a profound loss, and we remain focused on strengthening workplace safety in ways that are thoughtful, collaborative, responsive and enduring.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cal/OSHA report against SF General included seven citations, six of which were marked as “serious.” Those included that the hospital failed to develop a safety plan after the patient made threats of violence, no photo or physical description of the perpetrator was shared with clinical staff and the hospital did not notify staff about the threats of violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also pointed out that the clinic did not have security cameras or weapons screening at the building, and failed to provide security guards at all entrances to the building after threats were made. The suspect, Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, 35, was arrested at the hospital and has been charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12068510\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12068510\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251230-SFSocialWorker-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alex Alvarez, a clinical social worker, stands on a parking garage at UCSF Parnassus campus in San Francisco on Dec. 30, 2025. He said the view from the gym helps him recover, reflect and think following the fatal stabbing of his colleague Alberto Rangel at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Dec. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alejandro Alvarez, the social worker who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068599/salt-to-a-wound-social-workers-still-reeling-in-aftermath-of-ward-86-stabbing\">pulled the attacker off Rangel\u003c/a> the day of the stabbing, said the Cal/OSHA report findings were validating but unsurprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pretty upsetting to hear our security cameras weren’t working right in the hallway of the clinic,” Alvarez said. “The work is demanding, but at the same time, we still deserve to be working in a safe space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez added that the $130,500 fine against SF General, the largest so far from Cal/OSHA against the hospital, is “not accountability. It is a beginning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health have responded to the incident with a number of safety changes at Ward 86. Those changes have so far included hiring more security staff, launching a threat management team to triage reported threats and installing metal detectors at entrances.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The safety for our staff, our patients and our community is not negotiable, and we will continue to keep staff and patients safe with a strengthened and modernized approach to safety and security,” a spokesperson for the department said. “Countless additional security measures have been initiated or expedited to strengthen workplace safety, including enhanced physical security measures, expanded security staffing, increased crisis prevention and response training, and a fundamental change in security structure governance to better connect leadership to frontline staff and their concerns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080895/san-francisco-directs-15-million-to-health-department-security-after-fatal-stabbing\">committed $15 million annually\u003c/a> and $7.5 million in one-time infrastructure improvements for healthcare worker safety throughout the Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rangel’s husband, Stuart Moulder, meanwhile, plans to sue the city for his wrongful death and for failing to take necessary steps to protect workers after multiple reports of the alleged attacker’s violent behavior were reported to hospital management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Casper, the attorney representing Moulder, said the findings in the latest Cal/OSHA report dovetail with the allegations in their complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The findings really paint a picture of two specific-but-related failures,” Casper said. “There were longstanding systemic deficiencies involving security, training, coordination and workplace violence prevention. And there were specific failures about appropriately responding to a known and escalating threat posed by this patient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Casper pointed to previous workplace safety violations and resulting fines from Cal/OSHA at SF General, and a lack of proper recourse from the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066544\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-SFGENERALMEMORIAL-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial for social worker Alberto Rangel, who was fatally stabbed on Dec. 4 at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, outside the hospital on Dec. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2020, the hospital was fined more than $26,000 after a nurse was attacked and staff faced retaliation for complaining about a dangerous work environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, there have been prior Cal/OSHA investigations and citations from violent attacks on their frontline healthcare workers. And many of the same deficiencies that were cited in this same report relating to Alberto Rangel were also cited in those citations,” Casper said. “There were all these years of notice to the city, and they failed to act until one of their frontline healthcare workers was killed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The institution’s failure to act on known deficiencies in the hospital’s safety response has haunted Alvarez, who remains on leave from his position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their own leadership had already identified these exact deficiencies for Ward 86. Four years before Alberto was killed, someone inside that institution put it in writing. And nothing happened,” he said. I do not know how to sit with that. I am still trying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "a-california-housing-bill-would-raise-wages-to-28-why-do-some-unions-hate-it",
"title": "A California Housing Bill Would Raise Wages to $28. Why Do Some Unions Hate It?",
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"headTitle": "A California Housing Bill Would Raise Wages to $28. Why Do Some Unions Hate It? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When is a minimum \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wages\">wage hike\u003c/a> of more than $11 per hour actually a pay cut?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That question has dominated the debate over a current \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1751\">California housing bill\u003c/a> that has riven the state’s two most powerful construction worker unions and many state legislative Democrats reluctant to get on the wrong side of either group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1751\">Assembly Bill 1751\u003c/a>, authored by Fullerton Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva, would kick aside regulatory barriers to building townhouses — tightly clustered, multistory homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for this fast-tracked approval process, townhouse developers would be required to pay their workers at least $28 per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a significant pay bump over the statewide minimum wage of $16.90.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fiercest opposition to the bill has come from what might seem like an unexpected source: The State Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella organization that represents electricians, plumbers, sheet metal workers and other skilled construction trade unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers continue building units at the Cerone Interim Housing Community on Feb. 5, 2026, in San José. The interim housing site is expected to house up to 200 people. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The trades — as the council is colloquially known — argue that the new wage floor could have the paradoxical side-effect of driving down the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-construction-workers-housing-20170512-htmlstory.html\">prevailing wages\u003c/a>” enjoyed by many of their members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prevailing wages are mandatory minimum pay rates for publicly-funded or supported construction projects, which include many affordable housing developments and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-housing-law-union-dispute-2/\">other projects\u003c/a> propelled forward by recent state law in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and federal regulators set prevailing rates based on surveys of the most common wages in each field and geographic area. Because union pay scales can cover hundreds of similarly employed workers, those union-level wages often set the prevailing wage.[aside postID=news_12086113 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/StonecutterGetty.jpg']In a testy debate on the Assembly floor earlier this month, Quirk-Silva stressed — repeatedly — that the bill would in no way affect the state-set wage rates. “It does not replace prevailing wage,” she said. “It does not undercut prevailing wage. This bill leaves prevailing wage exactly where it stands in current law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades aren’t buying it, noting that the federal government sets its own rates for federally-supported projects. But the group’s bigger beef may boil down to precedent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, the building trades have battled any legislation aimed at easing regulations on the construction of new housing unless it also included pro-union guarantees. Those are either union-level prevailing wage pay requirements or, in more recent years, even more restrictive “\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/06/california-affordable-housing-unions/\">skilled and trained\u003c/a>” rules that require developers to hire apprenticeship program graduates, the vast majority of whom are union members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quirk-Silva’s townhouse streamlining bill introduces a new standard: a minimum wage far lower than what most trades members already make.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making a meager minimum wage hike the new bone that pro-housing bills throw to construction workers would “signify the new norm,” said Chris Hannan, president of the Trades Council. “When you start a trend of doing a minimum wage, then that becomes the new go-to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The trades and carpenters, at it again\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Standing on the other side of the debate, supporting the new wage standard, are California’s unionized carpenters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades battling the carpenters is a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/07/california-construction-unions-housing/\">familiar face-off in Sacramento\u003c/a>. This isn’t even the first time the groups have publicly locked horns over this specific wage proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last summer, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2022/05/california-housing-crisis-unions/\">longtime ally\u003c/a> of the carpenters, inserted residential construction worker minimum wage of between $28 and $40 per hour \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/06/prevailing-wage-construction-california-ab130/\">into a budget bill\u003c/a> in the final hours of the fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044982\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044982\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers build at 750 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco on June 18, 2025, during a groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of two affordable housing projects. One will deliver 75 units prioritized for SFUSD and City College educators, and the other at 850 Turk will add 92 family apartments. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Aside from high-rise construction developments where the use of steel and concrete tend to draw more specialized workers, unions represent relatively few laborers who build California homes, the carpenters argued at the time. The new wage standard would be a modest corrective for those non-union laborers whose current wage floor is the state minimum wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, carpenters union leaders have argued that improving working standards for low-wage workers presents an “\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-housing-law-union-dispute-2/\">organizing opportunity\u003c/a>” for the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades were apoplectic. Dozens of union members crowded in the budget bill hearing to decry what they saw as an anti-union reversal of state labor policy. One representative likened the measure to \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/25/california-democrats-stage-intraparty-war-over-last-minute-push-to-build-more-housing-00425196\">“Jim Crow” laws\u003c/a>. Many labor-friendly Democrats on the committee recoiled; the proposal was shelved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the idea has been given a bit more time for debate, though the trades and some lawmakers have still complained of a process they see as rushed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Quirk-Silva’s bill was introduced in early February, it focused solely on townhouse regulations. The wage language was added only in time for its second committee hearing in late April. (Quirk-Silva’s staff declined to make her available for an interview to explain that delay or discuss the bill in general, citing personal family matters. On the Assembly floor, she explained the late addition in part by noting “severe health issues” among staff and family members.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then the entirety of the legislative debate has been focused on the wage issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That itself is a notable development: The bill exempts the construction of townhomes from both environmental review and the jurisdiction of elected local city councils and planning boards. Just a few years ago, such a proposal would have made for a capitol-shaking, headline-grabbing fight. But a year after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/06/ceqa-urban-development-infill-budget/\">exempting most urban housing\u003c/a> developments from environmental litigation, the land-use implications appear to be an afterthought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At an Assembly floor vote last month, San Diego Assemblymember Chris Ward referred to the minimum wage issue as the “900 pound gorilla.” He, like many Democrats who spoke on the bill, said that he supported the legislation in general, but that he remained wary of the “unresolved” questions about how the new wage rate would affect existing labor standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill needed 41 out of 80 “yes” votes to move onto the Senate. It passed with just 47.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hike or pay cut?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Quirk-Silva’s office tried to get around the prevailing wage fight early on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prevailing wages are required of publicly funded works, including many affordable housing projects. They are set by the California Department of Industrial Relations, which sets its rates based on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/oprl/FAQ_PrevailingWage.html#q1\">most common wage\u003c/a> for each job type in each region of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quirk-Silva’s bill specifically bars the state department from taking the new $28 per hour townhome wages into account when running those calculations, lest a glut of townhome builders inadvertently bring down the wages owed to union roofers and plumbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059484\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059484\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A construction worker operates machinery to move dirt at the site of new middle housing units at 2824 D Street in Sacramento on October 7, 2025. Developers are reviving “middle housing” such as duplexes and cottage clusters, but say California’s rollout of the new rules has been anything but smooth. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The trades aren’t satisfied with that concession. That’s because the federal government conducts its own wage surveys and set its own prevailing wage for federally-funded infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current federal prevailing wage required for a residential roofer in Sacramento, for example, is \u003ca href=\"https://sam.gov/wage-determination/CA20260019/5\">$46.73 per hour\u003c/a> plus benefits. That number is based on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/government-contracts/construction/faq#23\">most common wage paid\u003c/a> for that job in the area or — if no single rate is paid to at least 30% of the workers in the survey — on the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal government won’t give a rat’s ass about what this bill says,” Scott Wetch, a lobbyist for Trades-affiliated unions, said at the bill’s April hearing. “And they will set the prevailing wage rate for all the crafts at $28.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades “have a case” in this argument, said Kevin Duncan, an economist at Colorado State University Pueblo who has studied prevailing wage policy’s effect on construction costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine a smaller market with a relatively low unionization rate. If the bill uncorked a geyser of contractors paying all their low-wage workers exactly $28 per hour, “that would be the prevailing rate — and with zero benefits,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Backers of the bill dispute that, saying such a specific outcome is unlikely given how many contractors are likely to use this specific townhouse bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also argue that vanishingly few residential roofers do federal public works jobs in Sacramento — or anywhere in California — so changes in the federal prevailing wage for residential projects aren’t likely to affect many workers anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, most roofers are non-union on privately-funded projects and many are being paid less than $28 per hour, said Danny Curtin, director of the California Council of Carpenters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To say that raising those wages “will actually bring everybody else’s wages down, defies comprehension,” he said at the hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2026/06/ab-1751-trades-carpenters-fight/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "This is just the latest spat between two rival construction unions over the future of California housing policy.",
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"title": "A California Housing Bill Would Raise Wages to $28. Why Do Some Unions Hate It? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When is a minimum \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wages\">wage hike\u003c/a> of more than $11 per hour actually a pay cut?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That question has dominated the debate over a current \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1751\">California housing bill\u003c/a> that has riven the state’s two most powerful construction worker unions and many state legislative Democrats reluctant to get on the wrong side of either group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1751\">Assembly Bill 1751\u003c/a>, authored by Fullerton Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva, would kick aside regulatory barriers to building townhouses — tightly clustered, multistory homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for this fast-tracked approval process, townhouse developers would be required to pay their workers at least $28 per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a significant pay bump over the statewide minimum wage of $16.90.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the fiercest opposition to the bill has come from what might seem like an unexpected source: The State Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella organization that represents electricians, plumbers, sheet metal workers and other skilled construction trade unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/020526SJ-TINY-HOMES_GH_025-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers continue building units at the Cerone Interim Housing Community on Feb. 5, 2026, in San José. The interim housing site is expected to house up to 200 people. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The trades — as the council is colloquially known — argue that the new wage floor could have the paradoxical side-effect of driving down the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-construction-workers-housing-20170512-htmlstory.html\">prevailing wages\u003c/a>” enjoyed by many of their members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prevailing wages are mandatory minimum pay rates for publicly-funded or supported construction projects, which include many affordable housing developments and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-housing-law-union-dispute-2/\">other projects\u003c/a> propelled forward by recent state law in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and federal regulators set prevailing rates based on surveys of the most common wages in each field and geographic area. Because union pay scales can cover hundreds of similarly employed workers, those union-level wages often set the prevailing wage.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a testy debate on the Assembly floor earlier this month, Quirk-Silva stressed — repeatedly — that the bill would in no way affect the state-set wage rates. “It does not replace prevailing wage,” she said. “It does not undercut prevailing wage. This bill leaves prevailing wage exactly where it stands in current law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades aren’t buying it, noting that the federal government sets its own rates for federally-supported projects. But the group’s bigger beef may boil down to precedent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, the building trades have battled any legislation aimed at easing regulations on the construction of new housing unless it also included pro-union guarantees. Those are either union-level prevailing wage pay requirements or, in more recent years, even more restrictive “\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/06/california-affordable-housing-unions/\">skilled and trained\u003c/a>” rules that require developers to hire apprenticeship program graduates, the vast majority of whom are union members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quirk-Silva’s townhouse streamlining bill introduces a new standard: a minimum wage far lower than what most trades members already make.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making a meager minimum wage hike the new bone that pro-housing bills throw to construction workers would “signify the new norm,” said Chris Hannan, president of the Trades Council. “When you start a trend of doing a minimum wage, then that becomes the new go-to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The trades and carpenters, at it again\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Standing on the other side of the debate, supporting the new wage standard, are California’s unionized carpenters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades battling the carpenters is a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/07/california-construction-unions-housing/\">familiar face-off in Sacramento\u003c/a>. This isn’t even the first time the groups have publicly locked horns over this specific wage proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last summer, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2022/05/california-housing-crisis-unions/\">longtime ally\u003c/a> of the carpenters, inserted residential construction worker minimum wage of between $28 and $40 per hour \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/06/prevailing-wage-construction-california-ab130/\">into a budget bill\u003c/a> in the final hours of the fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044982\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044982\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250618-NEWTEACHERHOUSING-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers build at 750 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco on June 18, 2025, during a groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of two affordable housing projects. One will deliver 75 units prioritized for SFUSD and City College educators, and the other at 850 Turk will add 92 family apartments. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Aside from high-rise construction developments where the use of steel and concrete tend to draw more specialized workers, unions represent relatively few laborers who build California homes, the carpenters argued at the time. The new wage standard would be a modest corrective for those non-union laborers whose current wage floor is the state minimum wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, carpenters union leaders have argued that improving working standards for low-wage workers presents an “\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-housing-law-union-dispute-2/\">organizing opportunity\u003c/a>” for the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades were apoplectic. Dozens of union members crowded in the budget bill hearing to decry what they saw as an anti-union reversal of state labor policy. One representative likened the measure to \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/25/california-democrats-stage-intraparty-war-over-last-minute-push-to-build-more-housing-00425196\">“Jim Crow” laws\u003c/a>. Many labor-friendly Democrats on the committee recoiled; the proposal was shelved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the idea has been given a bit more time for debate, though the trades and some lawmakers have still complained of a process they see as rushed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Quirk-Silva’s bill was introduced in early February, it focused solely on townhouse regulations. The wage language was added only in time for its second committee hearing in late April. (Quirk-Silva’s staff declined to make her available for an interview to explain that delay or discuss the bill in general, citing personal family matters. On the Assembly floor, she explained the late addition in part by noting “severe health issues” among staff and family members.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then the entirety of the legislative debate has been focused on the wage issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12076525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12076525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260116-NewsomLuriePresser-33-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference at the Friendship House Association of American Indians in San Francisco on Jan. 16, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That itself is a notable development: The bill exempts the construction of townhomes from both environmental review and the jurisdiction of elected local city councils and planning boards. Just a few years ago, such a proposal would have made for a capitol-shaking, headline-grabbing fight. But a year after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/06/ceqa-urban-development-infill-budget/\">exempting most urban housing\u003c/a> developments from environmental litigation, the land-use implications appear to be an afterthought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At an Assembly floor vote last month, San Diego Assemblymember Chris Ward referred to the minimum wage issue as the “900 pound gorilla.” He, like many Democrats who spoke on the bill, said that he supported the legislation in general, but that he remained wary of the “unresolved” questions about how the new wage rate would affect existing labor standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill needed 41 out of 80 “yes” votes to move onto the Senate. It passed with just 47.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hike or pay cut?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Quirk-Silva’s office tried to get around the prevailing wage fight early on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prevailing wages are required of publicly funded works, including many affordable housing projects. They are set by the California Department of Industrial Relations, which sets its rates based on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/oprl/FAQ_PrevailingWage.html#q1\">most common wage\u003c/a> for each job type in each region of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quirk-Silva’s bill specifically bars the state department from taking the new $28 per hour townhome wages into account when running those calculations, lest a glut of townhome builders inadvertently bring down the wages owed to union roofers and plumbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059484\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059484\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251007-SACRAMENTOMIDDLEHOUSING_00145_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A construction worker operates machinery to move dirt at the site of new middle housing units at 2824 D Street in Sacramento on October 7, 2025. Developers are reviving “middle housing” such as duplexes and cottage clusters, but say California’s rollout of the new rules has been anything but smooth. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The trades aren’t satisfied with that concession. That’s because the federal government conducts its own wage surveys and set its own prevailing wage for federally-funded infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current federal prevailing wage required for a residential roofer in Sacramento, for example, is \u003ca href=\"https://sam.gov/wage-determination/CA20260019/5\">$46.73 per hour\u003c/a> plus benefits. That number is based on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/government-contracts/construction/faq#23\">most common wage paid\u003c/a> for that job in the area or — if no single rate is paid to at least 30% of the workers in the survey — on the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal government won’t give a rat’s ass about what this bill says,” Scott Wetch, a lobbyist for Trades-affiliated unions, said at the bill’s April hearing. “And they will set the prevailing wage rate for all the crafts at $28.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trades “have a case” in this argument, said Kevin Duncan, an economist at Colorado State University Pueblo who has studied prevailing wage policy’s effect on construction costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine a smaller market with a relatively low unionization rate. If the bill uncorked a geyser of contractors paying all their low-wage workers exactly $28 per hour, “that would be the prevailing rate — and with zero benefits,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Backers of the bill dispute that, saying such a specific outcome is unlikely given how many contractors are likely to use this specific townhouse bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also argue that vanishingly few residential roofers do federal public works jobs in Sacramento — or anywhere in California — so changes in the federal prevailing wage for residential projects aren’t likely to affect many workers anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Instead, most roofers are non-union on privately-funded projects and many are being paid less than $28 per hour, said Danny Curtin, director of the California Council of Carpenters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To say that raising those wages “will actually bring everybody else’s wages down, defies comprehension,” he said at the hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2026/06/ab-1751-trades-carpenters-fight/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-parents-on-waitlist-for-subsidized-childcare-anxious-over-proposed-budget-cuts",
"title": "California Parents on Waitlist for Subsidized Childcare Anxious Over Proposed Budget Cuts",
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"headTitle": "California Parents on Waitlist for Subsidized Childcare Anxious Over Proposed Budget Cuts | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Ever since her 1 ½-year-old son was born, Carmen Perez has been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Novato mom said she didn’t have to wait this long a couple of years ago when she needed to enroll her daughters in preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/23/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-supporting-working-families-and-child-care-providers/\">increased funding for subsidized childcare\u003c/a> with the goal of paying for more than 200,000 new slots to support low-income families. Perez got subsidies for her girls, now 7 and 5 years old, which enabled her to work and take classes at College of Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was awesome,” she said. “I didn’t apply for [public assistance] because I was working and providing along with my husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after adding almost 130,000 slots, the state paused the expansion for three years with \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=10212.6&lawCode=WIC\">a commitment to resume the roll-out \u003c/a>in the 2026-27 fiscal year. But instead of sticking to the plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to cut funding for slots as part of a push to eliminate the state deficit even after his term ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Assembly opposes the cuts, and the Senate wants to add 44,000 new slots. As state leaders negotiate a budget deal by June 30, parents like Perez are pushing for more childcare support, especially as President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, H.R. 1, threatens their access to basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the federal government forces work requirements on CalFresh and Medi-Cal, this is when we are supposed to be doubling down on childcare, so that families can not only work, but have their food security, have their health security,” said Mary Ignatius, executive director of the advocacy group Parent Voices California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086168\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086168\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez (center left) and her husband Dyson Sanchez (center right) pose for a portrait with their children at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Julia Forte Frudden, a policy analyst at Child Care Law Center in Berkeley, called Newsom’s proposals, which also include reducing a cost-of-living adjustment for childcare providers, a major setback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is the governor not recognizing that childcare has a high return on investment,” she said. “So this could actually help the state’s financial strains that it’s dealing with right now, not add to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration initially proposed in January to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083461/california-advocates-want-newsom-to-fulfill-promise-to-fund-child-care-spaces\">cut funding for 4,200 “general childcare” slots\u003c/a> in licensed centers and homes when it projected a $2.9 billion shortfall. But in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083617/newsom-touts-dominance-of-california-in-final-budget-proposal\">revised budget released last month\u003c/a>, it proposed cutting 6,800 slots —mostly vouchers for home-based childcare arrangements and some childcare center slots. Newsom said, despite a recent surge in tax revenue from the booming A.I. industry, he proposed further cuts to balance the budget for two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administration officials say the cuts are necessary to offset more than $86 million in reductions from the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Proposition 64, which sets aside a portion of the state’s cannabis tax revenues for early childhood programs. They say the cuts wouldn’t affect families currently receiving subsidies for childcare. Instead, they’re taking back funds that were not spent by community-based agencies responsible for enrolling eligible families and reimbursing providers.[aside postID=news_12083461 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260428-VallejoChildCare-37-BL_qed.jpg']The justification doesn’t make sense to Cristina Alvarado, executive director of Child Care Alliance Los Angeles, which represents 10 agencies that altogether have more than 22,000 kids on waitlists for childcare vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said sometimes agencies that don’t fully spend their funds by the end of the fiscal year can transfer the money to others to enroll as many families as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No L.A. agency has offered any additional funding,” she said, because of the high demand for slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis of state spending over the last five years shows California dedicates \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/rGm2r/?v=5\">only about 2% of its total budget to childcare\u003c/a>. While the additional slots initiated by Newsom have helped tens of thousands of families afford childcare, the California Budget & Policy Center estimates that only 16% of eligible children are enrolled in subsidized childcare programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Marin County, Perez’s son, Dyson, is among nearly 680 children eligible for subsidies who are on a waitlist because there’s no more funding for new slots, according to Aideen Gaidmore, CEO of Marin Child Care Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The promise of additional funding gave Perez hope that she could go back to work and catch up financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you are in the water and somebody is trying to take you out, but then they push you into the water again, that’s a game. That’s not fun. It’s playing with their feelings, playing with their mental health,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desperate for relief, she joined Parent Voices to advocate for more funding in Sacramento. At a state Assembly budget hearing in April, she held her babbling boy in her arms while testifying about her mounting credit card debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086166\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez holds her son, Dyson, while testifying about the impact of waiting for a childcare subsidy at a California Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing on human services on April 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California State Assembly)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My husband makes $800 a week, and we live in Marin. Everything is expensive. We barely make … afford the rent,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez’s voice began to crack as she wondered how she could “work more to take some pressure off of my husband” and afford extracurricular activities, maybe a trip to Disneyland, for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we met at a park near her home recently, Perez said she tried to hire a nanny so she could provide in-home care to an elderly person. But she couldn’t keep up with the nanny’s $35 per hour rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she resorted to taking Dyson to her gig job and strapping him to her back, but when he cried out of frustration, her employer told her not to come back until she finds childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She dreams of obtaining a Certified Nursing Assistant license so she could find a good job providing eldercare. Marin County has the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2023/california-population-age-projections/\">largest elderly population in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, and there’s a future in that career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez, a mother of four who has been waiting for more than a year for an open subsidized childcare slot for her 18-month-old son, poses for a portrait with her son at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perez said waiting for an open childcare slot brings back bad memories of when her eldest son, who is 14, waited for a slot for 10 years until he was too old to qualify for a subsidy. She said she paid neighbors to care for him and enrolled him in preschool part-time. But that arrangement became too expensive, and she eventually pulled him out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He went straight to kindergarten, and it was so hard,” she said. “He struggled with reading and math, and I can still see the hard work he has to do by himself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughters, on the other hand, are doing well in school, Perez said, because preschool helped them prepare for kindergarten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She fears Dyson may have the same struggle as his older brother if he doesn’t get off the waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s very important to invest in the children and provide childcare for all, because a lot of families are on the waiting list,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Newsom administration proposes cutting childcare slots to help balance the budget. But parents and advocates are pushing for more childcare support to bring down their costs of living.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ever since her 1 ½-year-old son was born, Carmen Perez has been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Novato mom said she didn’t have to wait this long a couple of years ago when she needed to enroll her daughters in preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/23/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-supporting-working-families-and-child-care-providers/\">increased funding for subsidized childcare\u003c/a> with the goal of paying for more than 200,000 new slots to support low-income families. Perez got subsidies for her girls, now 7 and 5 years old, which enabled her to work and take classes at College of Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was awesome,” she said. “I didn’t apply for [public assistance] because I was working and providing along with my husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after adding almost 130,000 slots, the state paused the expansion for three years with \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=10212.6&lawCode=WIC\">a commitment to resume the roll-out \u003c/a>in the 2026-27 fiscal year. But instead of sticking to the plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to cut funding for slots as part of a push to eliminate the state deficit even after his term ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Assembly opposes the cuts, and the Senate wants to add 44,000 new slots. As state leaders negotiate a budget deal by June 30, parents like Perez are pushing for more childcare support, especially as President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, H.R. 1, threatens their access to basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the federal government forces work requirements on CalFresh and Medi-Cal, this is when we are supposed to be doubling down on childcare, so that families can not only work, but have their food security, have their health security,” said Mary Ignatius, executive director of the advocacy group Parent Voices California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086168\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086168\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00251_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez (center left) and her husband Dyson Sanchez (center right) pose for a portrait with their children at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Julia Forte Frudden, a policy analyst at Child Care Law Center in Berkeley, called Newsom’s proposals, which also include reducing a cost-of-living adjustment for childcare providers, a major setback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is the governor not recognizing that childcare has a high return on investment,” she said. “So this could actually help the state’s financial strains that it’s dealing with right now, not add to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration initially proposed in January to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083461/california-advocates-want-newsom-to-fulfill-promise-to-fund-child-care-spaces\">cut funding for 4,200 “general childcare” slots\u003c/a> in licensed centers and homes when it projected a $2.9 billion shortfall. But in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083617/newsom-touts-dominance-of-california-in-final-budget-proposal\">revised budget released last month\u003c/a>, it proposed cutting 6,800 slots —mostly vouchers for home-based childcare arrangements and some childcare center slots. Newsom said, despite a recent surge in tax revenue from the booming A.I. industry, he proposed further cuts to balance the budget for two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administration officials say the cuts are necessary to offset more than $86 million in reductions from the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Proposition 64, which sets aside a portion of the state’s cannabis tax revenues for early childhood programs. They say the cuts wouldn’t affect families currently receiving subsidies for childcare. Instead, they’re taking back funds that were not spent by community-based agencies responsible for enrolling eligible families and reimbursing providers.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The justification doesn’t make sense to Cristina Alvarado, executive director of Child Care Alliance Los Angeles, which represents 10 agencies that altogether have more than 22,000 kids on waitlists for childcare vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said sometimes agencies that don’t fully spend their funds by the end of the fiscal year can transfer the money to others to enroll as many families as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No L.A. agency has offered any additional funding,” she said, because of the high demand for slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis of state spending over the last five years shows California dedicates \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/rGm2r/?v=5\">only about 2% of its total budget to childcare\u003c/a>. While the additional slots initiated by Newsom have helped tens of thousands of families afford childcare, the California Budget & Policy Center estimates that only 16% of eligible children are enrolled in subsidized childcare programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Marin County, Perez’s son, Dyson, is among nearly 680 children eligible for subsidies who are on a waitlist because there’s no more funding for new slots, according to Aideen Gaidmore, CEO of Marin Child Care Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The promise of additional funding gave Perez hope that she could go back to work and catch up financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you are in the water and somebody is trying to take you out, but then they push you into the water again, that’s a game. That’s not fun. It’s playing with their feelings, playing with their mental health,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desperate for relief, she joined Parent Voices to advocate for more funding in Sacramento. At a state Assembly budget hearing in April, she held her babbling boy in her arms while testifying about her mounting credit card debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086166\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-California-Budget-Child-Care-01-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez holds her son, Dyson, while testifying about the impact of waiting for a childcare subsidy at a California Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing on human services on April 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California State Assembly)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My husband makes $800 a week, and we live in Marin. Everything is expensive. We barely make … afford the rent,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez’s voice began to crack as she wondered how she could “work more to take some pressure off of my husband” and afford extracurricular activities, maybe a trip to Disneyland, for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we met at a park near her home recently, Perez said she tried to hire a nanny so she could provide in-home care to an elderly person. But she couldn’t keep up with the nanny’s $35 per hour rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she resorted to taking Dyson to her gig job and strapping him to her back, but when he cried out of frustration, her employer told her not to come back until she finds childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She dreams of obtaining a Certified Nursing Assistant license so she could find a good job providing eldercare. Marin County has the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2023/california-population-age-projections/\">largest elderly population in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, and there’s a future in that career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00101_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carmen Perez, a mother of four who has been waiting for more than a year for an open subsidized childcare slot for her 18-month-old son, poses for a portrait with her son at Pioneer Park in Novato on May 31, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perez said waiting for an open childcare slot brings back bad memories of when her eldest son, who is 14, waited for a slot for 10 years until he was too old to qualify for a subsidy. She said she paid neighbors to care for him and enrolled him in preschool part-time. But that arrangement became too expensive, and she eventually pulled him out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He went straight to kindergarten, and it was so hard,” she said. “He struggled with reading and math, and I can still see the hard work he has to do by himself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughters, on the other hand, are doing well in school, Perez said, because preschool helped them prepare for kindergarten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She fears Dyson may have the same struggle as his older brother if he doesn’t get off the waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s very important to invest in the children and provide childcare for all, because a lot of families are on the waiting list,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-lawmaker-pushes-immunity-for-stone-makers-amid-silicosis-epidemic",
"title": "California Lawmaker Pushes Immunity for Stone Makers Amid Silicosis Epidemic",
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"headTitle": "California Lawmaker Pushes Immunity for Stone Makers Amid Silicosis Epidemic | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>U.S. Republican lawmakers voted to advance a federal bill on Wednesday that would shield artificial stone manufacturers and distributors from liability as their products are increasingly linked to an incurable lung disease, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084053/california-stoneworkers-with-silicosis-struggle-to-get-workers-comp\">disabling and killing stoneworkers in California\u003c/a> and other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5437\">H.R. 5437\u003c/a>, authored by California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock, would dismiss about 500 filed lawsuits — and prohibit additional ones — by workers seeking monetary damages for injuries after inhaling toxic silica dust generated when cutting artificial stone to make kitchen and bathroom countertops. Most of the civil cases are from California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s vote along party lines on Wednesday recommended the proposed legislation for a full floor vote, over the objections of Democratic members who argued it would primarily benefit one major U.S. manufacturer and multiple foreign ones while denying recourse for young, ill workers in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is tragic that the Republican majority showed no interest in stopping this epidemic that is killing workers,” David Michaels, a former assistant secretary of labor at OSHA and an epidemiologist at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, said in a statement. “Passage of this legislation will undoubtedly result in more workers being disabled by deadly dust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing scientific evidence shows that the crystalline silica dust released by artificial stone is uniquely toxic, and stonecutters get sick with often deadly silicosis even when following safety regulations in sophisticated fabrication shops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Measures such as cutting slabs under a layer of water to suppress dust, ventilation systems and wearing masks are insufficient to protect people, according to multiple doctors and workplace safety experts, including those at agencies such as Cal/OSHA and the California Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone countertop fabricator wears a mask to help protect against airborne particles which can contribute to silicosis at a shop on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, in Sun Valley, California. \u003ccite>(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But in his comments on Wednesday, McClintock \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069714/as-california-silicosis-cases-rise-engineered-stone-industry-seeks-immunity-in-dc\">echoed a main argument\u003c/a> by Cambria, a Minnesota-based company, and Cosentino, headquartered in Spain, that artificial stone slabs are safe to handle as long as countertop fabrication shops downstream in the supply chain follow proper measures. McClintock and other Republican committee members said the bill is needed to protect businesses targeted by what they called frivolous lawsuits and jobs in a multibillion-dollar industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This legislation addresses a fundamental question of fairness in our civil justice system. Who should be held responsible when workplace safety laws are violated? Who is liable when an otherwise safe product is misused?” McClintock, whose congressional district covers parts of the Central Valley and Sierra foothills, said. “We’re now seeing crippling lawsuits that ignore the guilty fabricators and instead sue the manufacturers, because that’s where the money is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as California took a key step last month \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084910/california-steps-closer-to-ban-on-engineered-stone-after-silicosis-surge\">toward a ban\u003c/a> on artificial stone with more than 1% crystalline silica, in an effort to prevent hundreds more workers from contracting an aggressive form of silicosis that has killed at least 31 people in the state’s industry since 2019.[aside postID=news_12084910 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-5-KQED.jpg']More than 560 people have been confirmed with silicosis in California, the only state \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/OHB/Pages/essdashboard.aspx\">actively tracking\u003c/a> the disease. Dozens have undergone lung transplants, while dozens more were found ineligible. The surge in silicosis coincides with a rise in popularity of artificial stone, which has become the top countertop material in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly all silicosis patients in California are low-income Latino men, many of them immigrants who said they didn’t know about the dangers of cutting and polishing artificial stone, also known as engineered stone or quartz, until they or co-workers got sick. The cost of their expensive medical treatment has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084053/california-stoneworkers-with-silicosis-struggle-to-get-workers-comp\">largely shouldered \u003c/a>by state taxpayers, and not by workers’ compensation benefits through employers’ insurance, even though silicosis is job-related.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several lawsuits against manufacturers have led to settlements, said James Nevin, an attorney with Brayton-Purcell, a Novato-based law firm that represents workers in most silicosis claims. So far, two of the three cases that reached verdicts have resulted in jury awards: $52.4 million for a Los Angeles former stonecutter in 2024, which was appealed, and $17.4 million for a 28-year-old stoneworker in Colorado last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevin said only 1% of crystalline silica engineered stone is manufactured in the U.S., with Cambria as the largest domestic producer. The $500 million company employed \u003ca href=\"https://www.cambriausa.com/news-events/press-room/quartz-processing-shift\">1,800 workers \u003c/a>in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Australia became the first country to ban artificial stone in 2024, several major manufacturers have started selling products in the U.S. with lower or no crystalline silica, but Cambria has not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone countertop fabricator wears a mask to help protect against airborne particles, which can contribute to silicosis, at a shop on Oct. 31, 2023, in Sun Valley, California. \u003ccite>(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A Cambria representative did not immediately respond to KQED’s request for comment on the bill’s progress. Cambria spent $250,000 on lobbying last year, and $50,000 in this year’s first quarter, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2025&id=D000095438\">Open Secrets\u003c/a>, a nonprofit tracking money in politics. \u003ca href=\"https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000100492\">Cosentino\u003c/a> Group spent more than $350,000 on lobbying in 2025 and $80,000 during the first quarter of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hearing, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin lambasted the proposed legislation as preferential treatment for Cambria’s CEO Marty Davis, a Trump supporter who has asked the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/17/nx-s1-5726366/ceo-trump-donor-quartz-kitchen-countertop-tariffs\">to impose significant tariffs\u003c/a> on imported engineered stone slabs. Raskin noted the bill does not address the growing silicosis epidemic or any solutions to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Check out this legislation, which would protect one super-powerful, super-rich Donald Trump campaign donor from facing any accountability in the courts as young working men die from avoidable lung failure,” Raskin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A federal proposal by California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock could block hundreds of silicosis lawsuits, as California workers suffer a deadly lung disease linked to engineered stone countertops.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>U.S. Republican lawmakers voted to advance a federal bill on Wednesday that would shield artificial stone manufacturers and distributors from liability as their products are increasingly linked to an incurable lung disease, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084053/california-stoneworkers-with-silicosis-struggle-to-get-workers-comp\">disabling and killing stoneworkers in California\u003c/a> and other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5437\">H.R. 5437\u003c/a>, authored by California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock, would dismiss about 500 filed lawsuits — and prohibit additional ones — by workers seeking monetary damages for injuries after inhaling toxic silica dust generated when cutting artificial stone to make kitchen and bathroom countertops. Most of the civil cases are from California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s vote along party lines on Wednesday recommended the proposed legislation for a full floor vote, over the objections of Democratic members who argued it would primarily benefit one major U.S. manufacturer and multiple foreign ones while denying recourse for young, ill workers in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is tragic that the Republican majority showed no interest in stopping this epidemic that is killing workers,” David Michaels, a former assistant secretary of labor at OSHA and an epidemiologist at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, said in a statement. “Passage of this legislation will undoubtedly result in more workers being disabled by deadly dust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing scientific evidence shows that the crystalline silica dust released by artificial stone is uniquely toxic, and stonecutters get sick with often deadly silicosis even when following safety regulations in sophisticated fabrication shops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Measures such as cutting slabs under a layer of water to suppress dust, ventilation systems and wearing masks are insufficient to protect people, according to multiple doctors and workplace safety experts, including those at agencies such as Cal/OSHA and the California Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/StoneworkerGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone countertop fabricator wears a mask to help protect against airborne particles which can contribute to silicosis at a shop on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, in Sun Valley, California. \u003ccite>(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But in his comments on Wednesday, McClintock \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069714/as-california-silicosis-cases-rise-engineered-stone-industry-seeks-immunity-in-dc\">echoed a main argument\u003c/a> by Cambria, a Minnesota-based company, and Cosentino, headquartered in Spain, that artificial stone slabs are safe to handle as long as countertop fabrication shops downstream in the supply chain follow proper measures. McClintock and other Republican committee members said the bill is needed to protect businesses targeted by what they called frivolous lawsuits and jobs in a multibillion-dollar industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This legislation addresses a fundamental question of fairness in our civil justice system. Who should be held responsible when workplace safety laws are violated? Who is liable when an otherwise safe product is misused?” McClintock, whose congressional district covers parts of the Central Valley and Sierra foothills, said. “We’re now seeing crippling lawsuits that ignore the guilty fabricators and instead sue the manufacturers, because that’s where the money is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as California took a key step last month \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084910/california-steps-closer-to-ban-on-engineered-stone-after-silicosis-surge\">toward a ban\u003c/a> on artificial stone with more than 1% crystalline silica, in an effort to prevent hundreds more workers from contracting an aggressive form of silicosis that has killed at least 31 people in the state’s industry since 2019.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>More than 560 people have been confirmed with silicosis in California, the only state \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/OHB/Pages/essdashboard.aspx\">actively tracking\u003c/a> the disease. Dozens have undergone lung transplants, while dozens more were found ineligible. The surge in silicosis coincides with a rise in popularity of artificial stone, which has become the top countertop material in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly all silicosis patients in California are low-income Latino men, many of them immigrants who said they didn’t know about the dangers of cutting and polishing artificial stone, also known as engineered stone or quartz, until they or co-workers got sick. The cost of their expensive medical treatment has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084053/california-stoneworkers-with-silicosis-struggle-to-get-workers-comp\">largely shouldered \u003c/a>by state taxpayers, and not by workers’ compensation benefits through employers’ insurance, even though silicosis is job-related.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several lawsuits against manufacturers have led to settlements, said James Nevin, an attorney with Brayton-Purcell, a Novato-based law firm that represents workers in most silicosis claims. So far, two of the three cases that reached verdicts have resulted in jury awards: $52.4 million for a Los Angeles former stonecutter in 2024, which was appealed, and $17.4 million for a 28-year-old stoneworker in Colorado last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevin said only 1% of crystalline silica engineered stone is manufactured in the U.S., with Cambria as the largest domestic producer. The $500 million company employed \u003ca href=\"https://www.cambriausa.com/news-events/press-room/quartz-processing-shift\">1,800 workers \u003c/a>in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Australia became the first country to ban artificial stone in 2024, several major manufacturers have started selling products in the U.S. with lower or no crystalline silica, but Cambria has not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/StoneworkerGetty1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone countertop fabricator wears a mask to help protect against airborne particles, which can contribute to silicosis, at a shop on Oct. 31, 2023, in Sun Valley, California. \u003ccite>(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A Cambria representative did not immediately respond to KQED’s request for comment on the bill’s progress. Cambria spent $250,000 on lobbying last year, and $50,000 in this year’s first quarter, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2025&id=D000095438\">Open Secrets\u003c/a>, a nonprofit tracking money in politics. \u003ca href=\"https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000100492\">Cosentino\u003c/a> Group spent more than $350,000 on lobbying in 2025 and $80,000 during the first quarter of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hearing, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin lambasted the proposed legislation as preferential treatment for Cambria’s CEO Marty Davis, a Trump supporter who has asked the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/17/nx-s1-5726366/ceo-trump-donor-quartz-kitchen-countertop-tariffs\">to impose significant tariffs\u003c/a> on imported engineered stone slabs. Raskin noted the bill does not address the growing silicosis epidemic or any solutions to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Check out this legislation, which would protect one super-powerful, super-rich Donald Trump campaign donor from facing any accountability in the courts as young working men die from avoidable lung failure,” Raskin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California regulators voted Thursday to take a key step toward \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079653/california-fabricators-face-artificial-stone-ban-as-silicosis-cases-mount\">banning a popular countertop material\u003c/a> linked to a surging lung disease that is disabling and killing hundreds of stoneworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board came after dozens of physicians, job safety experts, and people gravely ill with silicosis testified that artificial stone’s unique toxicity is causing a public health emergency. Current workplace regulations, enforcement and education are insufficient to save lives, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We as a board have to recognize that we do not know better than the scientists, the physicians, the workers that we’re hearing from. And we have to take effective action to prevent further cases now,” said board member Derek Urwin, a UCLA chemistry professor and Los Angeles County Fire Department engineer. “Control measures are not working, and it’s not the fault of the workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, major manufacturers of artificial stone, opposed to the move, argued that their factory-made product is not the problem, but countertop fabrication shops that fail to follow proper safety measures, such as covering stone slabs with water while cutting to suppress dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for Minnesota-based Cambria, Cosentino, headquartered in Spain, and other companies in the multi-billion dollar industry sought to cast doubt on the need for a prohibition, proposing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12070138/stone-industry-proposes-self-policing-as-california-weighs-artificial-stone-ban\">fabricator certification\u003c/a> program and more enforcement instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Banning a product to compensate for failed enforcement is irresponsible,” said Matt Thurston, regional director of Cosentino North America, during the marathon-length public testimony that preceded the vote in Los Angeles. “Allowing illegal fabricators to keep exposing workers to silica dust from other materials like natural stone is not worker protection. Number two, many shops already use these products safely and legally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12080596 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">José Andrade Peña holds his wife Susana Sanchez’s hand during a presentation on silica at an Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) meeting in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Statewide, more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/OHB/Pages/essdashboard.aspx\">560 stoneworkers\u003c/a> have contracted a more aggressive form of silicosis after inhaling toxic crystalline silica dust generated by artificial stone when it’s cut or polished. At least 31 people have died from the disease since 2019, and nearly 60 have undergone lung transplants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 75% of these cases were confirmed over the last three years. Nearly all of the patients are Latino men, many of them low-income immigrants who said they didn’t know about the hazards of working with artificial stone, also known as quartz or engineered stone, until they or their co-workers got sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rapid rise of silicosis in the industry — with about 1,000 new cases expected in the state over the next two years — coincides with skyrocketing consumer demand for engineered stone countertops in the last two decades, according to officials at the California Department of Public Health and Cal/OSHA. The state is the only one in the U.S. actively tracking the disease, even though more than a hundred cases linked to artificial stone have been identified in Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Florida and other states.[aside postID=news_12084053 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/ELEAZAR-RESENDIZ-CORTES-KQED-LEOPO-2026-1438-KQED.jpg']“I’ve had a lot of suffering. Last time, I vomited a lot of blood, and my nightmare did not end there,” Demetrio Luna, a California silicosis survivor who recently underwent a lung transplant, said in Spanish as board members neared a vote. “You can stop this because it is not just the patient who suffers, but the entire family. And despite what they say about wearing masks and cutting with water, the particles are so tiny that they enter the lungs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silicosis lung transplants among miners and all other occupations were relatively rare in the past three decades, with only 93 total nationwide between 1990 and 2022, said Dr. Betsey Noth, a senior industrial hygienist with Cal/OSHA. Since then, artificial stone workers in California have undergone 58 lung transplants, with additional patients found ineligible for the medical procedure because they were too sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Successful lung transplants, which cost $1 million or more each, extend patients’ lives by only a handful of years on average. Dr. Jane Fazio, a UCLA pulmonologist, told OSHSB board members that lung transplantation for the surge in engineered stone silicosis cases is a “very expensive band-aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a terrible use of resources, and it is endless human suffering,” said Fazio, who has cared for most silicosis patients in the San Fernando Valley, in the U.S. silicosis epicenter. “Do we want to prolong a problem, or do we want a swift solution to a problem that is only getting worse unless we remove a dangerous product that’s really at the heart of the problem?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080590\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080590\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joseph M. Alioto Jr., chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB), speaks during a board meeting in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A medical association petitioned the state in December to start expedited rulemaking to prohibit the use of engineered stone with more than 1% crystalline silica to make and install countertops. As part of the petition’s review, a detailed Cal/OSHA evaluation and the board’s own staff determined that removing the product upstream in the distribution chain would be the quickest and most cost-effective way to stem the silicosis epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the OSHSB proposed decision language released to the public last week seemed to require two committees to study the matter further, a path championed by chair Joseph Alioto Jr., a trial attorney who has advocated for the criminal prosecution of countertop fabrication shop employers found violating current silica rules. The move raised alarm bells among worker advocates who worried that the additional steps would create unnecessary delays — and derail a ban — in the face of an urgent occupational hazard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the concerns, only three board members were present for the high-stakes vote, instead of seven. Gov. Gavin Newsom, responsible for appointments to the body that approves workplace safety rules, has left two seats vacant for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the active board members — Alioto, Urwin and industrial hygienist Nola Kennedy — decided to grant the physicians’ petition and kickstart a fast-track process for Cal/OSHA to develop a regulation prohibiting the use of artificial stone with crystalline silica, which would take several months and still require another vote before approval. In a parallel track, the agency was tasked with convening two additional advisory committees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080597\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED-1536x1021.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">José Andrade Peña, left, sits with his wife Susana Sanchez, right, during a presentation on silica at an Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) meeting in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>José Andrade Peña, an Oakland resident who was diagnosed with advanced silicosis in 2024 and who testified in person before the board last month while carrying the oxygen machine he needs to breathe, applauded the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What great news,” Andrade Peña, 53, said in a text message. “It comes as a huge relief to me and to many of my colleagues that are still working with this highly dangerous material. God is great.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decadeslong countertop fabrication worker, who used to be proud of lifting 60-pound stone slabs and being his family’s main breadwinner, said he can no longer work and is mostly confined to his home. Coughing fits and exhaustion rule days filled with worry for his five children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s painful and frustrating to know that the government still allows these toxic products to continue being sold,” Andrade Peña said. “Artificial stone should have been removed from the market a long, long time ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California regulators voted Thursday to take a key step toward \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079653/california-fabricators-face-artificial-stone-ban-as-silicosis-cases-mount\">banning a popular countertop material\u003c/a> linked to a surging lung disease that is disabling and killing hundreds of stoneworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board came after dozens of physicians, job safety experts, and people gravely ill with silicosis testified that artificial stone’s unique toxicity is causing a public health emergency. Current workplace regulations, enforcement and education are insufficient to save lives, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We as a board have to recognize that we do not know better than the scientists, the physicians, the workers that we’re hearing from. And we have to take effective action to prevent further cases now,” said board member Derek Urwin, a UCLA chemistry professor and Los Angeles County Fire Department engineer. “Control measures are not working, and it’s not the fault of the workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, major manufacturers of artificial stone, opposed to the move, argued that their factory-made product is not the problem, but countertop fabrication shops that fail to follow proper safety measures, such as covering stone slabs with water while cutting to suppress dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for Minnesota-based Cambria, Cosentino, headquartered in Spain, and other companies in the multi-billion dollar industry sought to cast doubt on the need for a prohibition, proposing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12070138/stone-industry-proposes-self-policing-as-california-weighs-artificial-stone-ban\">fabricator certification\u003c/a> program and more enforcement instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Banning a product to compensate for failed enforcement is irresponsible,” said Matt Thurston, regional director of Cosentino North America, during the marathon-length public testimony that preceded the vote in Los Angeles. “Allowing illegal fabricators to keep exposing workers to silica dust from other materials like natural stone is not worker protection. Number two, many shops already use these products safely and legally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12080596 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">José Andrade Peña holds his wife Susana Sanchez’s hand during a presentation on silica at an Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) meeting in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Statewide, more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/OHB/Pages/essdashboard.aspx\">560 stoneworkers\u003c/a> have contracted a more aggressive form of silicosis after inhaling toxic crystalline silica dust generated by artificial stone when it’s cut or polished. At least 31 people have died from the disease since 2019, and nearly 60 have undergone lung transplants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 75% of these cases were confirmed over the last three years. Nearly all of the patients are Latino men, many of them low-income immigrants who said they didn’t know about the hazards of working with artificial stone, also known as quartz or engineered stone, until they or their co-workers got sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rapid rise of silicosis in the industry — with about 1,000 new cases expected in the state over the next two years — coincides with skyrocketing consumer demand for engineered stone countertops in the last two decades, according to officials at the California Department of Public Health and Cal/OSHA. The state is the only one in the U.S. actively tracking the disease, even though more than a hundred cases linked to artificial stone have been identified in Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Florida and other states.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’ve had a lot of suffering. Last time, I vomited a lot of blood, and my nightmare did not end there,” Demetrio Luna, a California silicosis survivor who recently underwent a lung transplant, said in Spanish as board members neared a vote. “You can stop this because it is not just the patient who suffers, but the entire family. And despite what they say about wearing masks and cutting with water, the particles are so tiny that they enter the lungs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silicosis lung transplants among miners and all other occupations were relatively rare in the past three decades, with only 93 total nationwide between 1990 and 2022, said Dr. Betsey Noth, a senior industrial hygienist with Cal/OSHA. Since then, artificial stone workers in California have undergone 58 lung transplants, with additional patients found ineligible for the medical procedure because they were too sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Successful lung transplants, which cost $1 million or more each, extend patients’ lives by only a handful of years on average. Dr. Jane Fazio, a UCLA pulmonologist, told OSHSB board members that lung transplantation for the surge in engineered stone silicosis cases is a “very expensive band-aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a terrible use of resources, and it is endless human suffering,” said Fazio, who has cared for most silicosis patients in the San Fernando Valley, in the U.S. silicosis epicenter. “Do we want to prolong a problem, or do we want a swift solution to a problem that is only getting worse unless we remove a dangerous product that’s really at the heart of the problem?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080590\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080590\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-1-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joseph M. Alioto Jr., chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB), speaks during a board meeting in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A medical association petitioned the state in December to start expedited rulemaking to prohibit the use of engineered stone with more than 1% crystalline silica to make and install countertops. As part of the petition’s review, a detailed Cal/OSHA evaluation and the board’s own staff determined that removing the product upstream in the distribution chain would be the quickest and most cost-effective way to stem the silicosis epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the OSHSB proposed decision language released to the public last week seemed to require two committees to study the matter further, a path championed by chair Joseph Alioto Jr., a trial attorney who has advocated for the criminal prosecution of countertop fabrication shop employers found violating current silica rules. The move raised alarm bells among worker advocates who worried that the additional steps would create unnecessary delays — and derail a ban — in the face of an urgent occupational hazard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the concerns, only three board members were present for the high-stakes vote, instead of seven. Gov. Gavin Newsom, responsible for appointments to the body that approves workplace safety rules, has left two seats vacant for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the active board members — Alioto, Urwin and industrial hygienist Nola Kennedy — decided to grant the physicians’ petition and kickstart a fast-track process for Cal/OSHA to develop a regulation prohibiting the use of artificial stone with crystalline silica, which would take several months and still require another vote before approval. In a parallel track, the agency was tasked with convening two additional advisory committees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080597\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20260416_SICKSTONECUTTERS_GC-19-KQED-1536x1021.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">José Andrade Peña, left, sits with his wife Susana Sanchez, right, during a presentation on silica at an Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) meeting in Santa Rosa on April 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>José Andrade Peña, an Oakland resident who was diagnosed with advanced silicosis in 2024 and who testified in person before the board last month while carrying the oxygen machine he needs to breathe, applauded the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What great news,” Andrade Peña, 53, said in a text message. “It comes as a huge relief to me and to many of my colleagues that are still working with this highly dangerous material. God is great.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decadeslong countertop fabrication worker, who used to be proud of lifting 60-pound stone slabs and being his family’s main breadwinner, said he can no longer work and is mostly confined to his home. Coughing fits and exhaustion rule days filled with worry for his five children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s painful and frustrating to know that the government still allows these toxic products to continue being sold,” Andrade Peña said. “Artificial stone should have been removed from the market a long, long time ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gov-gavin-newsom\">Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> issued on Thursday what his office called a “first-of-its-kind”\u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/5.21.26-AI-Workforce-EO-FINAL-SIGNED.pdf\"> executive order\u003c/a> directing state agencies to prepare workers and businesses for artificial intelligence-driven workforce disruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has never sat back and watched as the future happened to us — and we won’t start now,” Newsom said, in a statement accompanying the order. “We have taken the lead on advancing innovation, safety, and transparency. But we must think bigger. This moment demands that we reimagine the entire system — how we work, how we govern, how we prepare people for the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order mandates agencies to explore a range of policy options, including severance standards, expanded unemployment insurance, job retraining programs aimed specifically at white-collar workers, worker ownership models and a concept the governor called “universal basic capital,” giving all residents a stake in assets such as corporate stocks, bonds or wealth funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move reflects \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079472/stanford-study-ai-experts-are-optimistic-about-ai-the-rest-of-us-not-so-much\">growing tension among Americans\u003c/a> over how AI is disrupting their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034490/ai-companions-seductive-risk-teens-senators-want-more-guardrails\">personal lives\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076726/ai-is-changing-tech-work-heres-why-it-matters-for-the-rest-of-us\">jobs\u003c/a>, even as many business leaders continue to express optimism about the technology’s capabilities. Layoffs tied to AI are snowballing across many sectors of the economy, including Silicon Valley, and labor leaders are growing increasingly impatient with the governor’s cautious approach to regulating the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, Meta announced it was laying off roughly 8,000 workers, about 10% of its workforce, as the company accelerates its shift toward AI. Intel, Cisco, Amazon and other tech giants have also dramatically reduced their headcounts in recent months, citing the need to shift spending to AI-focused employees and data center construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei has predicted that roughly half of all white-collar jobs could disappear within five years. Most other tech leaders disagree with the specific timeline but broadly agree that AI will displace white-collar workers in engineering, communications and law in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left to right: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger and Head of Communications Sasha de Marigny give a press conference during Anthropic’s first developer conference in San Francisco, California, on May 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The economic logic driving those cuts has alarmed policymakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/CAgovernor/status/2057507319139750057\"> posted to the social media platform X\u003c/a> shortly after signing: “California will pursue new policies that make sure working Californians — not just Big Tech — benefit from the wealth and breakthroughs coming out of this space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom telegraphed Thursday’s order earlier this week, when he appeared at the Center for American Progress IDEAS Conference in Washington. “Businesses are going to make a fortune, and that’s why you cannot continue to have a payroll tax system that taxes jobs and then subsidizes automation,” Newsom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Kemp, executive director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, applauded the fact that the order named data privacy as a consumer protection concern and highlighted the CPPA’s automated decision-making technology regulations, which he called “the nation’s most comprehensive.”[aside postID=news_12084499 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/TeenagersMetaSocialMediaGetty.jpg']Others are more skeptical. “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Catastrophic job loss from AI is not inevitable, it’s a political choice\u003c/span>,” Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, wrote in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Gonzalez noted one area of genuine agreement: the order’s emphasis on collective bargaining as a tool for protecting workers from AI displacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That database of AI provisions in collective bargaining agreements exists, and we have introduced bills that mirror those protections over the past few years,” she wrote, going on to chide the governor for vetoing a number of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079472/stanford-study-ai-experts-are-optimistic-about-ai-the-rest-of-us-not-so-much\">Stanford HAI’s 2026 AI Index\u003c/a>, software developers ages 22 to 25 are among those most likely to see their skills made redundant earliest. This year, U.S. employment fell nearly 20% from 2024, even as headcount for older developers continued to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the job cuts announced at Meta, a union of Alphabet workers in the U.S. and Canada released a statement that suggests Silicon Valley’s own labor force may seek to organize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As Big Tech companies attempt to nudge ahead of each other in the AI race, our daily work lives are shifting,” Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Local 9009 said in a statement. “It’s undeniable that our whole industry is being transformed by the corporate push to adopt new AI tools. It’s hard not to feel anxiety and fear when we can see more and more tech companies cutting huge portions of their workforce both in anticipation of replacing them with AI, and to fund their multi-billion-dollar bets on AI as the future of the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036125\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Meta, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads logos are screened on a mobile phone on Jan. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meta declined to comment, and Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepMind and Amazon did not respond in time for this report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Gonzalez delivered what amounted to an ultimatum to Newsom: regulate AI or lose labor’s support for any future presidential run. Shuler called a potential AI-driven economic collapse a coming “crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August 2025, Newsom announced a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051433/california-teams-with-google-microsoft-ibm-adobe-to-prepare-students-for-ai-era\"> partnership with Google, Microsoft, IBM and Adobe\u003c/a> to expand AI education in California schools and community colleges, a workforce preparation push that now looks like a precursor to Thursday’s more sweeping order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom also announced the statewide expansion of Engaged California, a digital platform originally launched to help coordinate recovery after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, which will now be used to gather public input on AI’s impact on the workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A backdrop of federal inaction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s order comes as President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he was postponing signing a long-anticipated AI executive order, telling reporters, “I didn’t like what I was seeing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planned federal order would have created a system for the government to vet powerful new AI models before public release, a process the administration had been negotiating with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and xAI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074482\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074482\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/GettyImages-2262729717-scaled-e1773182284895.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1413\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. \u003ccite>(Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trump has argued that aggressive AI oversight could hobble the United States in its technology competition with China, calling AI “a critical engine of the economy.” He told reporters he discussed AI safeguards with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a recent trip to China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it remains unclear whether the federal administration will allow California and other states to take dramatic action as AI reshapes the American labor force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2025, Trump faced\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066910/trumps-ai-order-provokes-pushback-from-california-officials-and-consumer-advocates\"> backlash\u003c/a> from California officials and consumer advocates after he issued an executive order curtailing states’ ability to regulate AI, though the order didn’t directly preempt state AI laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gov-gavin-newsom\">Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> issued on Thursday what his office called a “first-of-its-kind”\u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/5.21.26-AI-Workforce-EO-FINAL-SIGNED.pdf\"> executive order\u003c/a> directing state agencies to prepare workers and businesses for artificial intelligence-driven workforce disruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has never sat back and watched as the future happened to us — and we won’t start now,” Newsom said, in a statement accompanying the order. “We have taken the lead on advancing innovation, safety, and transparency. But we must think bigger. This moment demands that we reimagine the entire system — how we work, how we govern, how we prepare people for the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order mandates agencies to explore a range of policy options, including severance standards, expanded unemployment insurance, job retraining programs aimed specifically at white-collar workers, worker ownership models and a concept the governor called “universal basic capital,” giving all residents a stake in assets such as corporate stocks, bonds or wealth funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move reflects \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079472/stanford-study-ai-experts-are-optimistic-about-ai-the-rest-of-us-not-so-much\">growing tension among Americans\u003c/a> over how AI is disrupting their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034490/ai-companions-seductive-risk-teens-senators-want-more-guardrails\">personal lives\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12076726/ai-is-changing-tech-work-heres-why-it-matters-for-the-rest-of-us\">jobs\u003c/a>, even as many business leaders continue to express optimism about the technology’s capabilities. Layoffs tied to AI are snowballing across many sectors of the economy, including Silicon Valley, and labor leaders are growing increasingly impatient with the governor’s cautious approach to regulating the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, Meta announced it was laying off roughly 8,000 workers, about 10% of its workforce, as the company accelerates its shift toward AI. Intel, Cisco, Amazon and other tech giants have also dramatically reduced their headcounts in recent months, citing the need to shift spending to AI-focused employees and data center construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei has predicted that roughly half of all white-collar jobs could disappear within five years. Most other tech leaders disagree with the specific timeline but broadly agree that AI will displace white-collar workers in engineering, communications and law in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/AnthropicAIGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left to right: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger and Head of Communications Sasha de Marigny give a press conference during Anthropic’s first developer conference in San Francisco, California, on May 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The economic logic driving those cuts has alarmed policymakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/CAgovernor/status/2057507319139750057\"> posted to the social media platform X\u003c/a> shortly after signing: “California will pursue new policies that make sure working Californians — not just Big Tech — benefit from the wealth and breakthroughs coming out of this space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom telegraphed Thursday’s order earlier this week, when he appeared at the Center for American Progress IDEAS Conference in Washington. “Businesses are going to make a fortune, and that’s why you cannot continue to have a payroll tax system that taxes jobs and then subsidizes automation,” Newsom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Kemp, executive director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, applauded the fact that the order named data privacy as a consumer protection concern and highlighted the CPPA’s automated decision-making technology regulations, which he called “the nation’s most comprehensive.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Others are more skeptical. “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Catastrophic job loss from AI is not inevitable, it’s a political choice\u003c/span>,” Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, wrote in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Gonzalez noted one area of genuine agreement: the order’s emphasis on collective bargaining as a tool for protecting workers from AI displacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That database of AI provisions in collective bargaining agreements exists, and we have introduced bills that mirror those protections over the past few years,” she wrote, going on to chide the governor for vetoing a number of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12079472/stanford-study-ai-experts-are-optimistic-about-ai-the-rest-of-us-not-so-much\">Stanford HAI’s 2026 AI Index\u003c/a>, software developers ages 22 to 25 are among those most likely to see their skills made redundant earliest. This year, U.S. employment fell nearly 20% from 2024, even as headcount for older developers continued to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the job cuts announced at Meta, a union of Alphabet workers in the U.S. and Canada released a statement that suggests Silicon Valley’s own labor force may seek to organize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As Big Tech companies attempt to nudge ahead of each other in the AI race, our daily work lives are shifting,” Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Local 9009 said in a statement. “It’s undeniable that our whole industry is being transformed by the corporate push to adopt new AI tools. It’s hard not to feel anxiety and fear when we can see more and more tech companies cutting huge portions of their workforce both in anticipation of replacing them with AI, and to fund their multi-billion-dollar bets on AI as the future of the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036125\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/MetaGetty2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Meta, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads logos are screened on a mobile phone on Jan. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meta declined to comment, and Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepMind and Amazon did not respond in time for this report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Gonzalez delivered what amounted to an ultimatum to Newsom: regulate AI or lose labor’s support for any future presidential run. Shuler called a potential AI-driven economic collapse a coming “crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August 2025, Newsom announced a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051433/california-teams-with-google-microsoft-ibm-adobe-to-prepare-students-for-ai-era\"> partnership with Google, Microsoft, IBM and Adobe\u003c/a> to expand AI education in California schools and community colleges, a workforce preparation push that now looks like a precursor to Thursday’s more sweeping order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom also announced the statewide expansion of Engaged California, a digital platform originally launched to help coordinate recovery after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, which will now be used to gather public input on AI’s impact on the workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A backdrop of federal inaction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s order comes as President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he was postponing signing a long-anticipated AI executive order, telling reporters, “I didn’t like what I was seeing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planned federal order would have created a system for the government to vet powerful new AI models before public release, a process the administration had been negotiating with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and xAI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074482\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074482\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/GettyImages-2262729717-scaled-e1773182284895.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1413\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. \u003ccite>(Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trump has argued that aggressive AI oversight could hobble the United States in its technology competition with China, calling AI “a critical engine of the economy.” He told reporters he discussed AI safeguards with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a recent trip to China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it remains unclear whether the federal administration will allow California and other states to take dramatic action as AI reshapes the American labor force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2025, Trump faced\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066910/trumps-ai-order-provokes-pushback-from-california-officials-and-consumer-advocates\"> backlash\u003c/a> from California officials and consumer advocates after he issued an executive order curtailing states’ ability to regulate AI, though the order didn’t directly preempt state AI laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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},
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
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