{"id":293491,"date":"2026-04-30T17:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T17:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293491\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T17:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T17:55:06","slug":"sacramento-morning-news-pensions-medi-cal-kiefer-landfill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293491\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento morning news: Pensions, Medi-Cal, Kiefer Landfill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777571706_515_SAC_1022_RCB_20260114_MiaBonta.JPG\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"Health care workers hold signs at a \u201cFight for Our Health\u201d rally at the state Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Sacramento. They were listening to Assemblymember Mia Bonta, chair of the Assembly Health Committee, speak.\" alt=\"Health care workers hold signs at a \u201cFight for Our Health\u201d rally at the state Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Sacramento. They were listening to Assemblymember Mia Bonta, chair of the Assembly Health Committee, speak.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Health care workers hold signs at a \u201cFight for Our Health\u201d rally at the state Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Sacramento. They were listening to Assemblymember Mia Bonta, chair of the Assembly Health Committee, speak.<\/p>\n<p>                REN\u00c9E C. BYER<\/p>\n<p>            rbyer@sacbee.com<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s busy news cycle includes stories about state pension costs, refugee healthcare cuts, budget battles, and environmental violations close to home.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a quick list of the top headlines this morning:<\/p>\n<p>Refugee healthcare cuts: Advocates rallied near the state Capitol Tuesday <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/capitol-alert\/article315565647.html\">urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to drop a proposed budget cut<\/a> that would strip Medi-Cal coverage from about 200,000 humanitarian immigrants. The cut would save roughly $1 billion a year as the state faces a multibillion-dollar deficit, according to the Department of Finance.Landfill fined: The U.S. EPA fined Sacramento County <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/article315573927.html\">about $197,000 after Kiefer Landfill violated the Clean Air Act<\/a> between Jan. 24 and Sept. 12, 2023, releasing excess hazardous pollutants including benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and vinyl chloride. These hazardous pollutants can cause cancer and damage the nervous system and liver.Kiley\u2019s GOP money: Rep. Kevin Kiley <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/capitol-alert\/article315566605.html\">raised more than $497,000 in the first quarter of 2026<\/a>, including $225,000 from Republican leadership political action committees, even after leaving the GOP to register as \u201cNo Party Preference.\u201d His largest donation came from House Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s Grow the Majority PAC.State pension costs: California\u2019s contribution rate for the largest category of state workers is <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/the-state-worker\/article315551440.html\">expected to drop from 31% to 29%<\/a> by fiscal year 2030-31, thanks to strong investment returns from the California Public Employees\u2019 Retirement System. For other groups of state employees, like firefighters and peace officers, the contribution rate is expected to drop even more.  <\/p>\n<p>This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/nation-world\/national\/article280707640.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health care workers hold signs at a \u201cFight for Our Health\u201d rally at the state Capitol on Wednesday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-293491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}