Government

As more homes in California are built in areas at high risk for wildfire, new research shows that disclosing wildfire risk potential to homebuyers lowers home sale prices. Also, the Chico City Council voted to approve the city budget including a 20% raise for the city’s police department, and a building was vandalized with homophobic hate speech in Susanville on the first day of Pride Month, now the community is coming together to fight hate.

Gavin Newsom hinted he wants to pursue kidnapping charges against Ron DeSantis over migrant flights to California. Can the California governor do that?

Members of the Chico Police Department may get a 20% raise as the city council prepares to vote on a new budget today. Also, the town of Paradise will coordinate an emergency exercise on June 15 to simulate response actions during a wildfire or other disaster, and officials are investigating whether Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis was behind a flight that picked up asylum-seekers on the Texas border and flew them to California’s capital.

Allstate has announced it will no longer sell new home insurance policies in California following State Farm as the latest company to deem the state “uninsurable.” Also, health officials urge individuals to get the mpox vaccine ahead of Pride festivities, and Chico State renames Sutter Hall after an examination showed the building’s namesake mistreated Indigenous people.

CalMatter’s housing reporter Ben Christopher discusses what’s behind State Farm’s decision to halt new home insurance policies in California. Also, Dave Rickert starts as Shasta County’s new CEO and a state bill aims to limit renter security deposits to one month’s rent rather than three.

All criminal charges have been dropped against PG&E for its role in the deadly 2020 Zogg Fire. Also, it’s Pride Month, where to celebrate in Chico, and California’s gas tax will increase on July 1.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting pressure from his political allies to begin spending money on health care that the state raised by fining Californians who go without health insurance. But Newsom says the state can't afford to.

A new channel has been dug off the Sacramento River south of Redding to create a year-round spawning habitat for critically endangered chinook salmon. Also, State Farm has announced it will no longer accept new applications for home insurance in California due to wildfires, and Cal Fire will perform prescribed burns in Oroville and Thermalito as early as this week.

A Shasta County Superior Court judge has ruled the county must turn over documents requested by the Redding Record Searchlight in 2021. Also, excess snowpack from the winter might stick around longer than usual and help reduce severe wildfire risks in higher elevations, but not lower ones, and the Susanville Indian Rancheria received funding last week to clean up contaminated land.

While the bill raises the debt ceiling, it also affects a wide range of people by limiting spending and changing guidelines around food stamps and student loans.