COVID-19 ravaged Indigenous tribes in New Mexico. State and federal data reveal how a long legacy of uranium exposure may have made them uniquely vulnerable.
The uneven impact of the pandemic has fallen heaviest on the most vulnerable students in the state.
Reflecting on the changes that have occurred during the pandemic, Dr. Manuel Pastor discusses how society can reverse the bad and build on the good. The future is forged through our every day actions.
L.A. County’s labor federation, spurred by the pandemic, will launch a massive mutual aid initiative to address hunger, housing insecurity and other community needs.
Exploring income inequality in the land of milk and money.
The long-time activist talks about the El Sereno community’s struggle for autonomy in the midst of a global pandemic.
Two years on, with mandates lifting, what’s changed about COVID — and what hasn’t.
Marking two years of pandemic times, Rubén Martínez takes stock of what he has seen. Do you remember?
While $5.2 trillion brought swift recovery, U.S. workers still lack the security of those in other advanced economies.
What are Gov. Newsom’s plans for protecting workers who have suffered disproportionately?
California health care workers feel worn out, denied the staffing and support that would let them do what they do best.
The California surplus is available to some, but for 61 local public health department workers there’s little but tough love.
Taking care of California means taking care of those with disabilities and comorbidities.
Gov. Newsom calibrates the right time for schools to drop the mask mandate.
The Los Angeles-based Zapotec organizer shares how “mutual aid” has always been traditional.
Promising new legislation to keep California workers safe would leave many uncovered.
An ‘onslaught’ of school protest aims to do what California’s government has struggled to achieve: keep students safe.
New state protocols allow health care workers who test positive but are asymptomatic to immediately return to work.
“Hungry at the Table” singles out pay and conditions at grocery giant, whose profits have soared during the pandemic.
First-in-the-nation legislation takes aim at egregious violations in the fashion industry.
Agricultural workers in New York just formed the state’s first farmworker union, but a new law guaranteeing overtime protections and organizing rights for the first time has been delayed.
They understand the need to extend sick leave. They have the money. Do they have the will?
Just because medical institutions see another surge coming doesn’t mean they’re equipped to handle it.
Less than half of the state’s nursing home residents have received the booster, which provides crucial protection against new variants.
Michelle Burton of the Social Change Institute talks about structural racism and its effect on generations of vulnerable communities.
The California Immigrant Policy Center’s Sarah Dar makes the case for universal health care.
Venice Family Clinic’s Elizabeth Benson Forer explains how the dramatic growth of her essential facility reflects the breakdown of our health care system.
Forty years into her career, RN Cathy Kennedy believes the poor and people of color will never get fair treatment until we make systemic change.
In a special podcast series, Mark Kreidler talks to experts and advocates about the economic and racial determinants of health in the Golden State.
Though imperfect, the city’s mandate shows promise for the likely holiday COVID surge.
A ‘Community Equity Fund’ empowered neighborhood groups to reach 1.9 million people, but organizations say more needs to be done.
The state is waiting for a federal court case to be resolved before implementing regulations meant to prevent further deaths.
While vaccine protests may draw media coverage, the mandates actually get results.
Expiring insurance waivers are sending out-of-pocket payments through the roof.
Politics have divided the state on masks and vaccinations, but there may still be hope for underserved communities.
A new UCLA study could help make EMS agencies more efficient throughout the state.
So far, Gov. Gavin Newsom has given no indication that he’s inclined to extend supplemental paid leave.
The findings align with what experts have been saying for more than a year.
The election outcome shouldn’t be mistaken by the Newsom administration as an endorsement of the governor’s handling of the pandemic.
The fraying of the state’s safety net is about to be put on full display.
A Capital & Main photo essay honors the American workers whose critical work keeps our nation moving forward.
Other districts may well be watching — and wondering how soon they can enact a similar policy.
As the Delta variant rages, caregivers face dual battles against the virus and burnout.
The stark progress of the highly transmissible Delta variant has obliterated much of last year’s confidence regarding children and COVID.
Amid rising infection rates and changing state and federal guidelines, districts are struggling to navigate the reopening of schools.
An entirely different approach is needed to turn the tide on COVID vaccinations among the 18-29 group.
With case rates rising once again, businesses with everything to lose are doing what the government will not.
Health experts feared this would happen when mask restrictions were lifted. Now, children’s COVID rates have increased fivefold.
Some local governments around the country are already mandating shots for public employees.
Vaccine mandates will make campuses safer. It could do the same for workplaces.
The stakes are high for a region that is home to roughly four million unvaccinated residents.
Experts fear hyperlocal outbreaks in communities with low vaccination rates.
As the state gradually emerges from the pandemic, an economic hangover lingers over the wine industry.
As summer rolls on, some are predicting kids will be vectors for new, more contagious COVID strains.
Is it too late for L.A. County to learn from its pandemic mistakes?
Pandemic restrictions are ending, whether we’re ready or not.
For millions in the Golden State, economic inequality brings a different kind of peril to daily life.
Issues with death certification have led to unreliable mortality data, leaving families, vulnerable communities and epidemiologists in the dark.
With a full reopening less than a month away, 60% of the state’s Latino population remains unvaccinated.
How the pandemic brought festering problems into a new light.
Can California dodge the latest surge?
California workers say McDonald’s and other fast food chains repeatedly disregarded pandemic safety precautions.
Critics accuse the medical provider of not matching the level of its treatment of mental illnesses with that of its care for physical health.
Co-published by Fast Company
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would likely lead to enormous increases in the number of workers brought to the U.S. by growers.
It’s been a particularly brutal few days for America’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, most recently due to the Johnson & Johnson rollout.
Some workers fear revealing their undocumented status at vaccination sites. It takes the spread of only a few stories to stoke those fears.
A first look at a new law meant to give laid-off hotel and other hospitality workers a shot at jobs lost during the COVID crisis.
The Johnson & Johnson pause threatens to exacerbate vaccination hesitancy.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s comments underscore how ethnicity and economic inequity place heavy thumbs on the scale of health outcomes.
Kids are more susceptible to new coronavirus strains, leading some experts to rethink their stance on reopening classrooms.
It could be a case of California vs. Californians, as policy and politics clash with the latest medical information and suggested guidance.
LAUSD survey data shows most families prefer online instruction for the remainder of the school year.
A look at how L.A.’s top universities treated their students, campus workers and professional staff during the pandemic.
Los Angeles County’s reopening leads to anxiety for workers, families and advocates — and to hope, too.
America’s governors and mayors are loosening safety restrictions, while a pandemic weary populace behaves as if the crisis is over.
New legislation requiring paid time off for COVID-related issues excludes businesses with 25 employees or less.
Some public health experts warn the state is loosening restrictions too soon, and fear a new surge.
Governor Newsom asked a major campaign donor to manage his state’s vaccine distribution. But Blue Shield has met with pushback.
MIS-C disproportionately affects children of color.
Key takeaways about the roles of power, money and race in shaping America’s response to the pandemic.
Local rates of infection have driven most school districts’ decisions on whether to reopen, and families’ decisions on whether to attend.
HVAC standards are the elephant in the living room of debates over reopening classrooms. Many schools can’t afford needed upgrades.
Speed bumps on the path to mass immunity.
During the pandemic, legal safeguards were created to help unemployed renters. But some families can still fall through the cracks.
Experts describe the winter surge as a “perfect storm” driven in part by poor planning, staffing woes and a tardy governmental response.
New collaborations with community organizations may produce innovative solutions that could make the pandemic recovery more equitable.
Pro bono law firms say L.A. court system prioritizes nonessential operations over community safety.
Why are whites more likely to get their shots when people of color suffer more from COVID-19?
Life expectancy for U.S. whites declined by 0.8 years in 2020’s first half. For Latinos it was 1.9 years, while for Blacks it dropped 2.7 years.
Differences among school districts are ignored at California’s peril.
As COVID vaccines are rolled out, a critical health care network is underused.
In the San Joaquin Valley, the homeless are being evicted in the middle of the pandemic.
What happens when pandemic fighters are at risk themselves with preexisting medical conditions?
Lowest-paid workers take the worst hit while pandemic continues its damage.
Translators claim working within whisper distance of defendants makes them especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Gov. Gavin Newsom says schools can reopen safely, but many campuses can’t meet the state’s most recent guidelines for being open.
A look at one of the country’s largest COVID-19 vaccination centers.
An interview with Shenita Anderson, an ER nurse at L.A.’s for-profit Olympia Medical Center, which is closing despite the COVID-19 crisis.
Critics of the state’s move to an age-based priority system say it defies statistical evidence that workplace transmission is a major source of the virus’s spread.
New numbers show that just 29% of the people receiving vaccines are Latinos, who account for 52% of L.A. County’s COVID deaths.
How much retail shopping contributed to January’s surge is hard to know. Critics charge the county’s policy has been fatally flawed.
The rent moratorium extension worked out in Sacramento is a flawed and incomplete emergency measure.
While California struggles to distribute COVID-19 shots, Latino Los Angeles takes a hit.
County sources say the Board of Supervisors is trying to balance the health crisis with economic considerations.
A 204-bed hospital in L.A.’s Mid-Wilshire district is shuttering, despite the city’s need for intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients.
California’s workplace safety agency has received complaint after complaint about COVID-related cases fueled by lax labor protections.
The state’s slow-footed distribution of COVID-19 shots is the result first and foremost of a federal botch-job of the highest order.
How could only 29% of Black Californians be willing to take a vaccine that might save them?
A look back at some of Capital & Main’s coverage of 2020.
From street protests to COVID coverage to wildfires and beyond, our photographers were in the thick of the action.
A look at L.A.’s best and worst year.
She has heard no plan for a federal relief package that might somehow lessen her burden. And, hotel worker Liliana Hernandez says, the whole notion of a vaccine getting the country back on track might be way too late for her and her colleagues. In a state of inequity, relief remains elusive.
Michelle Burton of the Community Health Councils discusses the systemic and pervasive racism that lies at the root of a deep distrust of the health care system among African Americans.
Mark Kreidler speaks with Erin McIntosh, a rapid-response nurse in Riverside, about the burnout plaguing health care workers in the final stretch of the pandemic.
CommuniCare’s CEO explains how community clinics will receive and administer the vaccine to patients who don’t often see doctors.
The pandemic highlighted the homeless crisis. Will California’s search for solutions continue after COVID-19 fades from the headlines?
Who gets the coronavirus vaccine first — and who decides this? Mark Kreidler talks with California health care advocate Anthony Wright.
We knew this day could come. Why did California hospitals still run out of beds?
California’s new goal is to COVID-test hospital workers. But will the state’s health care behemoths follow the nonbinding recommendation?
Mark Kreidler speaks to Jenny Wong-Swanson, a Kaiser Permanente nurse in Woodland Hills, about the pandemic’s explosion.
A new program would divert 500,000 Georgians out of the ACA exchange and nudge them into private insurance company offerings.
“We’re going into a very dark winter,” says President-elect Biden. By spring there could be nearly half a million COVID-19 American deaths.
The actions — or inaction — of the lame duck president may further the spread of the pandemic.
Mark Kreidler speaks to Dr. Jeanne Noble about the new president-elect and his impact on how the country deals with COVID-19.
As COVID-19 surges, service sector workers’ necks are again on the chopping block. Joe Biden’s new programs are 10 long weeks away.
The president’s disavowal of COVID-19 on the campaign trail did not escape the electorate’s notice.
Mark Kreidler speaks to Elvia Martinez, a food service worker at LAX.
The Trump administration’s failure to respond to the health crisis has led to job losses that could take decades to rebuild.
Donald Trump’s inability to reckon with the truth of the coronavirus is apparent by the numbers: 8.2 million COVID cases, 221,000 deaths.
The disparate impacts of COVID could ensure this battleground state stays blue in 2020.
Polls show Joe Biden ahead by as many as nine points in Michigan, a state Trump won in 2016 by just 10,704 votes.
Mark Kreidler speaks to Eunice Balencio, a South San Francisco nurse on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle.
What is the president’s obligation to those sickened or killed by a virus he could have done far more to tame?
Employees call for leadership change as inspector general prepares to release first report.
Some observers say it’s time to hand over L.A. County’s oversight of its nursing homes to California. But would state control be any better?
Will Gov. Newsom sign a bill that would require employers to rehire service workers laid off in hotels, airports and event centers?
A last-minute reversal by the USDA will allow schools to provide free meals to all students through 2020.
Mark Kreidler speaks to Kirsten Tobey, co-founder of Oakland’s Revolution Foods.
Co-published by The Guardian
Even before the pandemic, ICE consistently failed to provide adequate medical care to detainees on its flights — with dire outcomes.
How ICE moves detainees under the cover of darkness.
A UCLA study says that over a three-month period, three age groups of Latino workers suffered a nearly five-fold increase in death rates.
The nation’s largest hospital chain faces a lawsuit alleging it failed to protect employees.
Mark Kreidler speaks to Eileen Saltman, a worker at Reem’s California, a restaurant and bakery in Oakland.
What California’s nursing home COVID crisis can teach us about taking better care of essential health workers.
In an eleventh hour move, Sacramento extended the statewide eviction moratorium for renters suffering COVID-related hardships.
Are COVID deaths going unreported? Or has living on the street become more dangerous?
While many struggle in the shadow of COVID-19, CEO compensation has never been so good.
Frank Lara, a teacher in San Francisco’s Mission District, discusses the challenges of distance learning as the fall semester begins.
Defenders of L.A.’s public health chief see a fierce advocate for equity but many question her record and leadership style.
Co-published by L.A. Taco
The dual public health and economic crisis has driven Native American leaders to ponder diversifying gaming-dependent tribal economies.
Could lives have been saved if the state had a 90-day supply of PPE on hand when COVID-19 erupted?
The headless-chicken days of March. Zoom crashes. Parents against PPE. And yet teacher stress levels are returning to normal.
Middle school is where many students branch out academically. Some seem to thrive online, while others have “dropped off the map.”
Teachers are trying new ways to make online learning work. Getting students to turn on their screens can sometimes be the hardest part.
This week a new series examines the fears and frustrations of teachers facing a new year of distance learning.
While some kids spend class time looking at age-inappropriate YouTube videos, their teachers search for ways to connect with them.
The rural county of Tulare has become a hotspot for the virus, with Latino communities and essential workers hit especially hard.
How Florida Has Become the Epicenter of ICE’s Shameful COVID Response
Demonstrators call for the mass release of prisoners and immigrant detainees in the name of public health.
In less than two months, over half the inmates of San Quentin have become infected with the coronavirus.
A Bay Area rent strike could be a harbinger of tenant unrest as California prepares for an eviction tsunami triggered by the pandemic.
It doesn’t take the wisdom of hindsight to know that the way state and local officials barreled ahead with reopening would lead to disaster.
From Dodger Dogs to tires: A list of sellers, manufacturers and offices hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Detainees at the Mesa Verde Detention Facility stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
In March Elon Musk tweeted, “Coronavirus panic is dumb.” Now Tesla has moved forcefully against self-quarantining workers.
Racial unrest and economic uncertainty collide in the industrial Midwest.
A union representing 25,000 L.A. County hospitality workers is seeking a pause of hotel reopenings until safety issues are addressed.
Health experts say the Grand Canyon State has “lost control of the epidemic.”
An East L.A. family leans on community during the pandemic as government lets down low-income immigrants.
The Adelanto Detention Facility is again in the center of controversy, allegedly using protests taking place outside the facility as an excuse to mistreat detainees.
Advocates ask supervisors to act now as fatalities mount and public health dept. allows COVID patients into facilities with poor track records.
Hospitals and clinics that recently faced financial collapse are reopening waiting rooms. But PPE shortages and staff-risk issues remain.
The Sunshine State shows there is more than one way to suppress the kinds of figures that reveal the virus’s true human cost.
In the midst of a pandemic, some insurance companies’ profits may be even higher than had been predicted before the coronavirus hit.
Since 2003, 19 detainees have died within Arizona’s detention centers.
The agency also scrubbed statistics on coronavirus deaths and cases at designated nursing homes from its website.
They died in parking lots, in hospitals, in train stations and in encampments. Now the county’s homeless must face the coronavirus.
Health experts worry that Los Angeles County officials might let COVID-19 “burn” through the population.
More than a third of Americans are showing signs of clinical anxiety or depression, a 300 percent increase over last year.
The bleakest chapter of the history of COVID-19 in Los Angeles will be devoted to the demise of nursing home residents.
Long-established inequities in America’s health care system have put poor people in the crosshairs of a medical disaster.
As eviction bans lift and temporary housing provisions end, what happens to those who can’t afford rent?
As California reopens, essential home care workers may have their hours cut.
A coronavirus outbreak swept through one Bay Area facility, leaving 16 dead. Was the home a disaster waiting to happen?
Thousands of California stylists and barbers are anxiously wondering: What’s the best way to reopen and start doing hair again – safely?
Capital & Main’s new series examines the challenges and concerns of employees working in close contact with the public or each other.
The COVID-19 crisis hits the state after a decade of rising economic inequality.
Even porn actors must work from home as one of the most intimate industries remains in lockdown.
Critics charge DeVos is exploiting a national public-health crisis to promote her agenda of privatizing public education.
A survey of 23,000 nurses found that 87 percent of respondents must still reuse disposable masks while attending to COVID-19 patients.
More than half of the county’s COVID-19 deaths have occurred at nursing homes. Where was the public health department?
To break the corporate grip on our food, we need to stop looking to fields far away and look closer to home.
Gov. Newsom’s revised budget puts programs aimed at addressing disparities in access to vital services on the chopping block.
COVID-19 is spreading throughout central Washington state. One agricultural county has the highest infection rate on the West Coast.
The lights are going out in America’s rural hospitals and clinics at the moment they are most needed.
Pandemic-battered California faces another falling domino as paychecks vanish and rents come due.
A veteran photographer records the stories of Los Angeles street vendors pushed to the edge by a pandemic.
Why ICE’s immigration detention facilities throughout the country have become COVID-19 hotspots.
The Mayor’s Fund has raised $20 million to fund debit cards for impoverished residents hit hard by the COVID-19 economic crisis.
Demands for safer working conditions and extra hourly hazard pay during the pandemic are powering a strike wave in the Yakima Valley.
In a Capital & Main interview, State Controller Betty Yee casts doubt about the prospects for Prop. 13 reform and other initiatives.
A new study, citing historical precedent, claims 42 percent of recent layoffs will result in permanently lost jobs.
Co-published by Fast Company
There are signs that another foreclosure crisis may be looming in this swing state.
The deaths of young, previously healthy COVID patients show the danger of ignoring personal safety precautions.
Trumpers, conspiracists and anti-vaxxers attack shelter-in-place orders: “I can’t just work, work, work and watch Netflix!”
The firings of company whistleblowers, Tim Bray wrote, were further evidence “of a vein of toxicity running through the company’s culture.”
How a safety net became “a house of cards” under the economics of a pandemic.
As the pandemic’s cruelest month gave way to the merry month of May, Los Angeles was filled with demands and unrest.
Two Kaiser RNs look back on a week of having to use “reprocessed” N95 masks. Meanwhile, COVID cases have leveled off.
The Trump administration says no to family immigration, but yes to guest workers.
Amid a raging pandemic, immigrant detainees say they are double bunked in cells and that guards don’t wear protective equipment.
Los Angeles reports that its county’s low-income COVID deaths are triple the number of those of wealthier neighborhoods.
The 60-day ban, which originally targeted all forms of immigration, now freezes the issuing of green cards.
Everything from chronic physician shortages to the county’s political culture seemed aligned against a rapid response to the virus.
As pandemic-driven unemployment figures skyrocket, the once-unthinkable is being discussed: A universal basic income for Americans.
A new report shows that some American billionaires are making substantial gains during the global health crisis.
With the pandemic showing no signs of slowing, nurses at Peter Sidhu’s hospital are allowed to bring in their own masks from home.
From health care workers to immigrant detainees, efforts to acquire protective face coverings are complicated by bureaucratic resistance.
The ongoing threat of vector-borne disease is reshaping our understanding of the dangers of a warming climate.
San Francisco’s early lockdown spared it from the brunt of COVID-19, but the city has failed to shelter its homeless during the crisis.
“The public should not think one location is safer than the other,” says the county’s health department.
Food insecurity skyrockets in the key battleground state.
A new Los Angeles program distributes farm-fresh food to struggling families.
The crisis has hit marginalized communities especially hard, deepening inequities in access to housing and child care.
From corporations to street vendors to mariachi tailors, entrepreneurs face huge challenges.
More than 2 million Californians have recently lost their jobs and many are now without health coverage.
Policies for PPE (personal protective equipment) have become streamlined, but a fear of cross-contamination remains.
A trio of Democratic lawmakers is attempting to correct Congress’ omission of undocumented workers from the CARES Act.
Co-published by Fast Company
Americans stricken by COVID-19 face another pandemic threat: crushing medical bills.
California struggles to protect its health care workers as they fight the pandemic.
California now has 19,472 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 541 deaths.
Despite warnings from public health experts, ICE still holds nearly 35,000 detainees in close quarters.
Unclear policies and protective equipment shortages are stirring heated confrontations in the hallways of Kaiser Permanente hospitals.
Some neighbors support the Reclaimers with donations of food and clothing. Others are loudly opposed to their presence.
For registered nurse Peter Sidhu, every work shift is hand-to-hand combat with a virus that sickens – and kills — more Californians daily.
SB 943 would expand the state’s Paid Family Leave program, extending benefits to parents impacted by school closures.
“I’m here fighting for my community,” said Eva García, who had come to a Food Not Rent protest in Boyle Heights.
Cheering the clear skies of the COVID-19 epoch is a little like celebrating the return of wildlife to Chernobyl’s exclusion zone.
Critics charge that the poor and people of color will be left out
“How are you going to pay for it?,” a standard retort to Medicare for All, seems to have melted away. Today, how can we not pay for it?
With ridership in free fall, transit agencies face a long road back to normalcy.
Farmworkers may be considered “essential,” but the undocumented workers who pick the nation’s food are excluded from the CARES Act.
As uncertainties and conflicting data swirl around COVID-19, a few truths about the poor bear repeating.
Co-published by Fast Company
An eviction ban failed by a single vote when two council members recused themselves because of what they said were conflicts of interest.
Restaurant workers at a Los Angeles eatery were looking forward to the high season of tips and extra hours. Then came the pandemic.
Co-published by Fast Company
Supermarket and pharmacy employees are “essential workers” who are still on the job. The say they need more COVID-19 protections.
The president of the Economic Policy Institute discusses the COVID-19 financial tailspin and attempts by lawmakers to mitigate the damage.
L.A.’s City Council will vote on a far-reaching aid package for workers and renters. Business groups are fighting the plan.
Even as Californians are ordered to shelter in place, renters face the prospect of homelessness.
Frontline nurses claim that a lack of both N95 masks and coronavirus testing is putting hospital populations at risk.
The economist says Republicans must stop pushing for a corporate slush fund in order to pass the emergency stimulus bill.
After a week of private negotiations, the state is no closer to filling empty hotel rooms with at-risk homeless people.
Co-published by Fast Company.
The mishandling of COVID-19 has unfolded just as the response to global warming has — only at a faster clip.
Officials accuse the president of stoking xenophobia and violence against Asian-Americans.
Co-published by Newsweek
Facing a health crisis, California legislators call for a moratorium on evictions, utility shutoffs and foreclosures.
LAUSD will begin a new program Wednesday to keep district students fed during the closure of schools due to the coronavirus.
Today veteran journalist Mark Kreidler begins a new weekly column covering the coronavirus and its social impacts.
Co-published by Fast Company
What is the connection between a lack of commitment to collective well-being and social disaster in a time of crisis?
Co-published by The Guardian
The coronavirus story involves governmental response times and political spin. But economic inequality issues also play a large part.
Co-published by Fast Company