Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks during a news conference about his department's investigation into alleged election fraud in the county on March 20, 2026. Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun via Getty Images
Emails obtained by CalMatters trace the development of a years-long case that ultimately led to the unprecedented seizure of 650,000 ballots. cal.news/4n1xEEV
TODAY Join Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social @ucanr.edu at noon to discuss the unusual spring weather & water outlook
4/21/26 9:30am Update:
#Snow began early this morning and we've accumulated 3.5" (9 cm). We are expecting 1-2 feet total from this storm.
Right now we have moderate to heavy snowfall rates with low winds but speeds are expected to increase this afternoon.
#weather #CAwater
“What I didn’t know was that measles can cause long-term complications. A child can seem fine while the virus slowly replicates in her brain… Because both Britain and the United States are confronting outbreaks, I am sharing my story. Parents should know just how dangerous this disease is.”
“As soon as it stops raining or snowing, we’re going to be back in the same situation with the salmon season closing,” said @jarosenfield.bsky.social, science director at San Francisco Baykeeper. “If we don’t protect river flows and cold water storage, then we’re not protecting salmon.”
ICYMI: Three years of cancelled salmon seasons have devastated CA's fishing industry. Now, salmon fishing is expected to finally reopen. But with CA and federal decisions poised to reshape the rivers the fish depend on, will it be enough for the industry to survive? calmatters.org/environment/...
A woman who worked for nearly two years for Rep. Eric Swalwell told the Chronicle she had sexual encounters with him while he was her boss and alleged he twice sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent. www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...
Congratulations Anat, and thank you @medillschool.bsky.social!
Read her investigation: calmatters.org/investigatio...
Gov. Newsom promised to help a Native tribe restore salmon to their ancestral river. Now California is ending the funding.
"It makes the tribe feel betrayed,” Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe told @ra-becks.bsky.social. “It’s like they just gave up.” calmatters.org/environment/...
SCOOP: Newsom promised to help a Native tribe restore sacred salmon to their ancestral river. Now California is ending the funding.
calmatters.org/environment/...
“I think everyone’s anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” @lenyaqd.bsky.social, @ucanrfirenetwork.bsky.social director, told @ra-becks.bsky.social
“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”
Significant wildland fire potential outlook for April to July shows areas of above normal risk that expand across the West through the period. the coastal southeast may be at risk through the period.
New seasonal fire outlook dropped. Stay safe this summer, y’all. www.nifc.gov/nicc-files/p...
What do you get when you mix schooling fish and metal music? 🐟🤘
Pure coordinated chaos.
No leader. No plan. Just instinct, motion, and energy—like an underwater mosh pit.
We channeled that into 1 hour of schooling fish to mosh to. Get ready to rockfish! mbayaq.co/4sMdpwU
The early snowmelt has complicated reservoir operations. And DWR Director Karla Nemeth said today that what's in the reservoirs is likely all we're going to get this water year. calmatters.org/environment/...
State engineers found zero measurable snow at today's symbolic snowpack measurement south of Lake Tahoe. Here's what to know about California's second-worst snowpack on record. calmatters.org/environment/...
april fools? really? in this economy?!
We are in uncharted territory. Both with respect to water and fire.
The cost of fresh vegetables is up a stunning FORTY EIGHT PERCENT from February 2025:
www.bls.gov/news.release...
To understand what mass deportations are really about, we must examine the systems that have long separated families of color across the Americas. bit.ly/3P3BWi1
“There will be no Miracle March” to bring California more snow, writes @climatedaddykqed.bsky.social
“We’re going to get to April 1st, and we’re going to have some scary snowpack numbers, essentially everywhere,” says @weatherwest.bsky.social @ucanr.edu
www.kqed.org/science/2000...
California's already poor snowpack is going to further shrink in the coming week as an unprecedented heat wave strikes the state.
Remember how to use #water carefully.
#climatechange
www.yahoo.com/news/article...
San Diego County Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer, left, and Paloma Aguirre, right, walk next to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, center, after he was denied a visit to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego on Feb. 20, 2026. Padilla's visit comes amid reports of inhumane conditions at the detention center following the Trump Administration’s surge of immigration enforcement efforts. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters
San Diego County filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday alleging the Trump administration illegally blocked a public health inspection of the Otay Mesa Detention Center. bit.ly/4dgj0Xb
📸 Adriana Heldiz
The number of accidents kept climbing. In February alone, skiers and snowboarders died at Northstar, at Heavenly, at Mammoth Mountain. But nobody could, or would, tell me if it was more than usual — if the risks of hitting the slopes had somehow changed. Here's why.
calmatters.org/environment/...
The problem facing California's wine industry: too many grapes and not enough buyers. Exports have also dropped as Canadians have boycotted American wine in response to Trump's tariffs, @iriskwok.bsky.social reports: www.latimes.com/business/sto...
California water officials issued a formal warning to the feds Monday, asserting that current draft plans for managing the Colorado River after 2026 lack a sound legal basis and unfairly shift the burden of drought onto Lower Basin states. #cawater www.ivpressonline.com/news/califor...
The Colorado River quagmire boils down to a simple question, @jfleck.bsky.social writes: "Secretary Burgum: Tell us what you’re going to do." www.inkstain.net/2026/02/in-w...
With cities like Phoenix and Tucson bracing for their allotments of Colorado River water to be slashed, San Diego County’s water agency could sell some of its water to other states by drawing on its ample supplies from the nation’s largest desalination plant. www.latimes.com/environment/...
All I can think about is Jeff Bezos saying that he slashed jobs at the Washington Post — including those of foreign correspondents in the Middle East — based on "the data," and a few weeks later a whole war breaks out in the Middle East that these laid off folks would have covered as true experts.
For a century, the United States dominated & influenced conservation around the world--for better and for worse. That era is over.
@biographic.bsky.social has a special issue on the next era of conservation--what it looks like, who's funding it, & what it means for people, species, & ecosystems 🌱
