Report: CA school kids receive insufficient vision care

A child places an eye occluder on their right eye and looks forward as a doctor sits next to them during a vision exam.

Though schools are required to check children’s vision starting in kindergarten, more California kids aren’t getting the continuing vision care they need compared to years past — raising concern among health experts.

As CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang reports, nationwide data suggests that at least one in four kids need glasses. But only a fraction of children who are flagged for vision problems receive follow-up care, such as going to the optometrist and getting fitted for glasses. Just 16% of school-age kids on Medi-Cal saw an eye doctor between 2022 and 2024, according to a report commissioned by the California Optometric Association. That’s down from 19% in 2015 and 2016.

Nearly all of California’s 58 counties showed a smaller proportion of kids receiving vision services, with rural areas seeing the steepest declines. Colusa County, a rural farming region north of Sacramento, had the sharpest drop — from 20% between 2015-16 to just under 2% between 2022-24.

David Maxwell-Jolly, report author and former director of the Department of Health Care Services, which oversees Medi-Cal: “The decline in performance here is so widespread that something really needs to happen. These numbers are way lower than what you would expect to be seeing if we’re doing a good job of detecting kids with treatable conditions.”

CA bill wants to block some annoying texts

Close-up of fingers interacting with a smartphone screen in a dark setting, illuminated by vivid blue and purple light from the device. The scene emphasizes digital engagement and the glow of technology. — Photo via iStock Photo

Getting promotional ads by phone text is already irritating enough, but getting them at night after 9 p.m. can be even more annoying. Unsurprisingly, a bill that would prohibit exactly that is finding strong bipartisan support among legislators.

Last week the Assembly’s committee on privacy and consumer protection passed a proposal that would ban businesses, political organizations and other industry groups from sending promotional text messages from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m., even if the user consented to receiving advertising texts. All lawmakers in the 15-member committee, including four Republicans, approved the measure.

The proposal is based on a Texas law, and violators could be fined up to $500 for every infraction. The California Chamber Of Commerce opposes the bill, arguing that most phones already enable users to silence texts at night, such as the “do not disturb” feature.

The bill now sits before the Assembly’s judiciary committee for consideration.

Judge rules Border Patrol must comply with previous order

A group of law enforcement officers in full riot gear stands in front of a crowd at night, illuminated by bright vehicle headlights behind them. The officers wear camouflage uniforms, helmets with visors, gas masks, and carry batons. — Federal immigration agents and protesters stand off near a facility in Camarillo on July 10, 2025. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

In a court decision made public Thursday, a federal judge ruled that federal immigration enforcement agents kept making unlawful stops and arrests in California even after she ordered them to stop, report CalMatters’ Wendy Fry and Sergio Olmos.

The ruling by Judge Jennifer Thurston, a Biden-appointee, grants a motion filed by the United Farm Workers to enforce a preliminary injunction Thurston issued last year barring Border Patrol agents from carrying out warrantless arrests without reasonable cause.

The case relates to an immigration sweep last July, when agents detained a group of day laborers outside a Home Depot in Sacramento. Thurston said that the Sacramento operation violated her order from last year, which stemmed from earlier immigration raids in Kern County.

Attorneys for the federal government argued that the Sacramento sweep was based on surveillance and intelligence, but Thurston said the agents detained people “without any legal basis for doing so.”

Though the recent ruling allows an opportunity for agents to comply with her order, legal experts say penalties could escalate if Border Patrol and the Trump administration continue to be noncompliant.

And lastly: Media outlets demand access to warrants

People wait in line on the sidewalk of a light brown building during election day. Some people hold their ballot envelops in their hands. — Voters wait in line at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office in Riverside on Nov. 5, 2024. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

A group of news outlets, including CalMatters, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to unseal the warrants Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco utilized to seize over 600,000 voting ballots. Bianco got the warrants from Judge Jay Kiel, whom Bianco endorsed when Kiel ran for the bench in 2022. Kiel sealed the warrants at the request of the sheriff’s office. Read more from CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow and Jeanne Kuang.

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The overcrowded field of Democratic candidates has rendered the contest for California governor less like a “race,” and more like an idle game of who blinks first.

Major water infrastructure failures, such as the rupture of a massive pipe on the Yuba River in February, will likely happen again as many dams, tunnels and canals across California are reaching their design lifespan, writes Keiko Mertz, director of Friends of the River.