With the sun high over the State Capitol, a coalition of California and national civil rights leaders gathered on Thursday, June 26, 2025, to deliver an urgent message to Governor Gavin Newsom: commute the death sentences of all 574 individuals currently on California’s death row.

The California Disability Leadership Alliance (The Alliance) held its “Day at the Capitol” event on June 16, organized to advocate for policies and services that improve the lives of people with disabilities. The effort’s leaders also want to strengthen what they refer to as “cross-disability collaboration” in the state. 

Eric Harris, Associate Executive Director at the Sacramento-based Disability Rights California (DRC), said voices representing people with disabilities need a seat at the table when decisions are being made.

This Friday on Pushing Limits, we dig into the escalating attacks on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) under the Trump administration. As backlash spreads nationwide, what does it mean for the disability community?

Our guest, Desiree Delonia, Director of DEIA at Disability Rights California (DRC), joins us to unpack what DEIA really is, why it matters, and how DRC is pushing back against efforts to dismantle it.

How far can a California private psychiatric hospital go in violating the rights and safety of people with disabilities—without being held accountable?

A new report from Disability Rights California (DRC) shines a harsh light on College Hospital in Cerritos (CHC), revealing a disturbing pattern of inappropriate restraint and seclusion, as well as questionable use of involuntary emergency medications. These are not isolated incidents—they point to systemic problems affecting some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Millions of Californians who rely on Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services could lose eligibility under a proposal requiring recipients to prove their assets total less than $2,000.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent revised budget proposal highlighted a stark $37.6 billion increase in funding costs associated with Medi-Cal between the 2024 and 2025 fiscal year, compared to $17.1 billion in the 2014 through 2015 fiscal year.

A damning new report released by Disability Rights California (DRC) has exposed years of systemic abuse at College Hospital in Cerritos, a private psychiatric facility located at 10802 College Place.

A bill in the state Senate would prohibit cities and counties from criminalizing people or groups who provide services to unhoused people.

Dez Martinez spoke Tuesday at a press conference for the state Senate bill. Written by state Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, a Pasadena Democrat, the bill seeks to restrict local governments from passing ordinances that prohibit people or groups from offering support services to unhoused people.

A citizens group whose leaders have been at the forefront of unverified claims of local election fraud are leaning heavily on Shasta's status as a charter county in their attempt to change its voting rules.

"Save Shasta Elections" started collecting signatures for a measure to require single-day, in-person voting with limited access to absentee ballots, voter identification and hand-counted ballots.

On Wednesday, a leaked draft Health and Human Services budget documentrevealed, among other sweeping cuts to health- and disability-related services, that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department plans to defund protection and advocacy services for people with developmental disabilities—including autistic people, about whom Kennedy also spreads harmful disinformation.

“Let’s call this what it is — a backdoor cut to Social Security benefits,” U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu declared Tuesday morning outside the Social Security Administration office in Pasadena, flanked by a small but resolute crowd of advocates, retirees, and former Social Security employees.

Chu spoke forcefully against a proposed $4.5 trillion tax cut backed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, which she warned could gut essential programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Tina Ewing-Wilson remembers the last time major Medicaid cuts slashed her budget. In the late 2000s, during the Great Recession, the pot of money she and other Medi-Cal recipients depend on to keep them out of costly residential care homes shrank.

The only way she could afford help was to offer room and board to a series of live-in caregivers who she said abused alcohol and drugs and eventually subjected her to financial abuse. She vowed to never rely on live-in care again.

The House of Representatives in February approved a budget framework tasking the committee overseeing Medicaid to cut $880 billion over 10 years. While there are still no specific provisions cutting Medicaid, Medicare, or other safety net programs, health care analysts say the magnitude of the spending reductions means they’re inevitable.

After losing his hearing later in life, Tremmel Watson became a fierce advocate for disability rights, uncovering tools like Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) to help those like him communicate. Now, he fights to strengthen accessibility policies, ensuring Section 504’s promise of equal access extends to all.

As California and other states fight President Donald Trump’s actions to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and its support for public schools, the department has already shut down seven of its civil rights offices — including the California one, based in San Francisco — that aid students with disabilities and those harassed because of their race, ethnicity or gender.

The announcement of a large-scale effort to reduce the workforce of the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday — or nearly half of the agency’s staff — is raising concerns among California educators and advocates about the future of civil rights enforcement and funding for vulnerable students.

San Diego County’s rollout of CARE Court hasn’t been what many expected – not even the author of the legislation that created the program. 

Proponents touted CARE Court as a way to get thousands of people with untreated psychotic disorders into treatment through court-ordered plans. San Diego County officials, however, have held back from forcing people into treatment and instead made the program voluntary. Not only that, but officials have also tapped into another group for CARE Court participation: people already in the strictest level of forced treatment. 

Tulare County Behavioral Health is dedicated to meeting the mental health needs of our community. We actively listen to residents and local partners to understand what services are necessary. Recently, Disability Rights California (DRC) looked into local mental health services and pointed out where we can improve.

Tulare County has reached a settlement with Disability Rights California that both agencies state will expand mental health care in the county. DRC referred to the settlement as groundbreaking.

“Tulare County Behavioral Health has been actively engaged in identifying community needs, meeting state standards, and enhancing the behavioral health system through community outreach and engagement with local partners, focus groups, community surveys, and advisory boards,” the county stated.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom first proposed CARE Court in 2022, he presented it as a game-changing solution to force people with serious untreated psychotic conditions into care.

San Diego County was one of the first to implement the new court system, but San Diego’s CARE Court program isn’t forcing anyone into treatment. Instead, county officials made the program voluntary.

Elon Musk has the ear of one of the most powerful people in the world – President Donald Trump – making him one of the most powerful people in the world, too. He's been given unfettered access to adjust the federal government's budget and headcount.