California taxpayers will pay $15 million to hire journalists
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California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom jammed through a $322-billion budget last month. The biggest headline: Spending to provide healthcare for many undocumented immigrants went away.
But there’s a nugget that you might have lost in the fine print: Taxpayers will fork out $15 million to hire, train and deploy dozens of journalists around the state. Yes, we’re all in the publishing business, together!
It’s actually been this way since 2023, when state Sen. Steve Glazer of the Bay Area town of Orinda secured $25 million to start the California Local News Fellowship program. That paid for the first three years of the program, and the hiring of about three dozen journalists in 2023 and again in 2024, and soon in 2025, to cover subjects like education, healthcare, the environment, social services and the criminal justice system.
The new spending approved last week will create a fourth round of reporters in 2026 (each cohort is hired for two years) and launch a new program to help train news editors.
The expenditure once again puts California into stark contrast with Republicans and the Trump administration, which last week slashed $1.1 billion over two years in support for public ratio and television. (You might have noticed local stations like LAist and KCRW cranking up their fundraising appeals to backfill the missing funds.)
Paying to support one of America’s least popular professions might strike some as a) foolhardy b) wasteful c) unjust. But I am going to go with d) wise. Specifically, penny-wise. Here’s why:
Stepping in where the private shrinks away
Accurate news and information has become an increasingly fleeting resource. But it’s one that should rank not far behind clean air, food and water on the list of things we need to maintain a healthy and fair society.
You might have noticed that information you can trust is becoming as rare as a parking space in San Francisco’s North Beach. That’s largely because one-third of California’s newsrooms have closed in the last 25 years, and more than 65% of journalists have lost their jobs, Glazer noted in a Sacramento Bee op-ed.
That’s meant “leaving many communities exposed to unchecked misinformation and government opacity,” Glazer wrote, along with Martin G. Reynolds, co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. That’s the institute that will be helping train editors to meld the next generation of journalists.
The first-rate journalism school at UC Berkeley has overseen the fellowship program and matched journalists, who make $60,000 to $65,000 a year, with news outlets.
Covering stories others have missed
I haven’t had a chance to review all the work of the dozens of journalists who have been deployed around California. But I have seen that one reporter, assigned to the Modesto Bee, wrote about a small community’s struggle to get safe drinking water. KVCR radio in the Inland Empire got a news fellow who has doggedly reported on the reaction to recent immigration raids. Another of the fellows wrote about how inflation and food insecurity had pushed more people to seek food from nonprofits in Chico.
All of this, and a lot more, has been produced for a relative pittance, 0.005% of a state budget of $322 billion.
Make no mistake, funding of a few dozen fellowships, alone, will not solve the information crisis. A much bigger investment will be required. That’s why the Legislature has been looking toward the information economy’s biggest companies as a potential source of support for journalism.
Internet giants like Google — with a recent annual revenue of $359 billion — have been enriched by high-quality news content while news outlets have been cutting staff. Some in the state want the digital giants to pay to support outlets that employ reporters, editors and photographers.
They’re the ones, after all, who provide the stories that often pop up at the end of Web searches. But the final outcome of that fight remains to be decided.
Today’s top stories
As west Altadena burned, county fire trucks stayed elsewhere
- Data obtained and analyzed by The Times show that during a critical moment in the Eaton fire, only one L.A. County fire truck was west of Lake Avenue, where nearly all of the deaths took place.
- Many county fire trucks had already been deployed to the Palisades fire and to east Altadena. Few shifted to west Altadena after the conflagration erupted there.
- Six months after L.A.’s firestorms, the remains of a 31st victim have been found in Altadena.
A family memorializes the man who died in a Camarillo immigration raid
- In a ceremony that ended in tears and hugs, the family of Jaime Alanís Garcia said goodbye to the husband and father who died after trying to escape from federal agents during an immigration raid at Glass House Farms in Camarillo.
- Family members remembered him as a joyful, hardworking man whose death came too soon.
- “He was hiding, trying to stay alive,” said his niece, Yesenia Duran. “He was loved by the community.”
The suspect in the ‘American Idol’ exec’s killing allegedly called 911 from victims’ home
- Yet it still took four more days to discover their bodies.
- New details in the slayings of Robin Kaye and Tom DeLuca were revealed during a Monday town hall meeting in Encino, where hundreds of residents gathered to express frustration about a string of recent break-ins plaguing the area.
- The revelation raises questions over how police handled the initial situation and when exactly they learned about the couple’s deaths.
What else is going on
- Latino neighborhoods were overwhelmingly targeted in immigration raids, according to data from an immigrant rights group.
- The end of transgender care at Children’s Hospital L.A. signals a nationwide shift under Trump.
- When a Latino tenant filed a lawsuit against a landlord and real estate agent for selling the home she was evicted from, an opposing lawyer suggested she’ll likely be deported by ICE before trial.
- The LAPD is undergoing it first major leadership shake-up with McDonnell as its chief.
- Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath singer, solo artist and reality TV star, has died at 76.
Commentary and opinions
- Gavin Newsom is threatening to end-run California voters. It reflects a terrible trend, argues columnist Mark Z. Barabak.
- Columnist Anita Chabria warns about three things that should scare us about Trump’s fake video of Obama.
- Given the number of universities, law firms, TV networks and news outlets trying to appease President Trump, July is shaping up to be a bend-the-knee month like no other, argues news and culture critic Lorraine Ali.
- Stephen Colbert’s swan song is a zeitgeist moment, writes columnist Jonah Goldberg.
This morning’s must-reads
There’s no magic formula for knowing when —or if — to euthanize a beloved pet, but preparation and trusting your gut can help smooth the way.
Other must-reads
- Venus Williams returns to tennis with a new perspective and a victory.
- Here’s what Stephen Colbert’s cancellation says about the future of TV.
For your downtime
Going out
- Travel: Already looking ahead to a weekend with your furry friend? Here are eight California weekend destinations to escape to with your dog.
- Dining: The Tesla Diner is officially open “from now until forever.” Here’s what we learned on Day 1.
Staying in
- Entertainment: As Stephen Colbert drops the F-bomb on a gloating Trump, his late night counterparts join the fray.
- Television: “Washington Black,” now streaming on Hulu, amplifies the action and adventure from the prizewinning novel.
- Recipes: Here’s a recipe for spicy watermelon and tahini salad with pistachios and mint.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.
A question for you: What are some ways you pamper your dogs?
Alexandra says, “I don’t know if it’s pampering per se, but my furry angel Oliver has enrolled in sheep-herding classes in Malibu, swim classes when he was a baby, and last year he got a David Bowie-themed lightning bolt tattoo from the WeHo spa Dogue for a birthday party.”
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally ... your photo of the day
Today’s great photo is from Times contributor Mariah Tauger at the property of Lindsay and Daniel Sheron, who designed and built their own home on a vacant hillside lot in Mount Washington over the course of three years.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff writer
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
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