CaliforniaNews Now
How California Actually Works, County by County
Minimum Wage Checker
Your city may set a higher wage floor than the state. Find the rate that applies where you actually work.
Rent Increase Calculator
Work out the maximum lawful increase under AB 1482: 5% plus regional inflation, capped at 10%.
Court Records Finder
All 58 counties run their own court records system. Find the right one and what to have ready.
Security Deposit Deadline
Your landlord has 21 calendar days to return it. Get your date, and check the deposit was lawful.
Latest California Guides
Why San Jose’s Mayor Has Less Power Than You Might Think
Measure F (1978) gave San Jose 10 council districts and a citywide mayor, under a council-manager system where an appointed city manager runs operations. Meeting times and how to take part.
How to Track What the LA City Council Is Actually Doing
Los Angeles publishes every Council action in the Council File Management System — searchable by file number, keyword or date, with RSS...
San Diego’s Nine Council Districts and How to Be Heard
San Diego has nine council districts plus a Mayor. How the Council passes ordinances and the budget, and the routes to comment...
How San Francisco Is Governed, and How to Track What It Decides
San Francisco is a combined City and County with 11 district-elected supervisors. What the Board does, and how to search legislation and...
Where California Home Price Numbers Actually Come From
County median prices come from a survey of 90+ REALTOR associations, cover existing single-family homes only, and publish last month's data in...
California Has Its Own Privacy Regulator. Here Is What It Does.
California built the only dedicated state privacy regulator in the US. What the CPPA enforces, why its rulemaking power matters, and how...
The Five Things That Can Appear on a California Ballot
Initiatives add, referendums review, and the Legislature can place amendments and bonds directly. Why the route a measure took decides how easily...
How a story gets published here
Three steps, applied to every brief and every guide.
Start at the primary record
A court filing, an agency notice or dataset, a council agenda, a regulatory filing, or published government figures. If no primary record can be identified, the story is not written.
Name the source, label the confidence
Every brief says where it came from and carries a status: Confirmed, Single-source or Developing. Every guide names the code section or agency that sets the rule.
Date it, and correct it in public
Each page carries the date its source was last checked. Substantive corrections are noted on the page with their date, never edited away silently.
The California Newsroom
City desks and statewide beats. Every story names its source and the record behind it.
Los Angeles News
City Hall, LAUSD, the LAPD, Metro and the county board — what changed in LA and what it means for the people who live there.
View Los Angeles News →San Francisco News
The Board of Supervisors, Muni and BART, housing and public safety across San Francisco and the wider Bay Area.
View San Francisco News →San Jose News
San Jose and Santa Clara County — city council decisions, VTA, development and the South Bay's cost of living.
View San Jose News →San Diego News
San Diego city and county: council votes, the border region, housing, and the coast from Oceanside to Chula Vista.
View San Diego News →Politics & Elections
Sacramento, the Legislature, statewide propositions, local ordinances and recalls — with the bill or measure number attached.
View Politics & Elections →Silicon Valley & AI
The AI build-out and its bill: funding, layoffs, chips, data centres and the regulation catching up with all of it.
View Silicon Valley & AI →Hollywood & Entertainment
Studios, streaming, production permits, the tax credit and the union deals that decide who works in California.
View Hollywood & Entertainment →Real Estate & Market Reports
Prices, inventory, rents and mortgage rates by metro — the numbers, their source, and what actually moved.
View Real Estate & Market Reports →Guides: How California Actually Works
Evergreen explainers that cite the statute, ordinance or agency page the rule comes from — and say what is different in your county.
California Money & Benefits
EDD, CalFresh, Medi-Cal, Covered California and unclaimed property — who qualifies and how to apply in your county.
View California Money & Benefits →Housing & Renters
Rent caps, just-cause eviction, security deposits and habitability — the statewide rule and the city ordinance that may override it.
View Housing & Renters →Courts & Legal Records
All 58 superior courts: looking up a case, filing small claims, what records are public and what each one costs.
View Courts & Legal Records →Taxes & Property
Prop 13 and Prop 19, assessed value, reassessment and the exemptions people miss — county assessor by county assessor.
View Taxes & Property →Jobs & Wages
Minimum wage by city, overtime, paid sick leave, final paychecks and how to file a wage claim.
View Jobs & Wages →Utilities & Energy
PG&E, SCE and SDG&E bills explained: baseline allowances, time-of-use rates, CARE and FERA discounts, and shutoff rules.
View Utilities & Energy →Wildfire, Disaster & Insurance
Nonrenewals, the FAIR Plan, what a wrap-around policy covers, evacuation orders and filing a claim after a declared disaster.
View Wildfire, Disaster & Insurance →Ballot Measures & Local Law
Propositions and local measures explained in plain language, plus the municipal codes and ordinances behind them.
View Ballot Measures & Local Law →DMV & Everyday California
REAL ID documents, registration, smog checks, title transfers and appointments — the combinations the DMV actually accepts.
View DMV & Everyday California →
Steve Levine
Editor & Publisher
Steve Levine runs California News Now, where he writes and edits plain-language guides to California rules — housing, courts, taxes, wages and benefits — each built from the statute or agency page that sets it. He also publishes OpenClassActions.com, where the same approach is applied to consumer settlements.
More about the author →
California, Explained From the Source.
California News Now publishes plain-language guides to the California rules people actually search for — rent caps, court records, property tax, wages, benefits, insurance — each one citing the statute, ordinance or agency page it comes from, and each one noting what is different in your county.
- The Rule, Not a Paraphrase
- County by County
- Dated and Rechecked
Coverage by County
California is 58 different answers. Click your county to see what applies there.