CalMatters has been honored for health, justice and education

from Sonya BarzaCalMatters

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

CalMatters won five of this year’s Golden State Journalism Awards for public health reporting, criminal justice reporting, education reporting, courage in journalism and impact journalism.

Prizes are awarded by Sacramento Press Club for statewide policy and public policy reporting.

Bironda Lyons won for influence in journalism.

The award recognizes “exceptional journalism that holds powerful institutions and/or individuals accountable for their actions, and in doing so, results in visible change that benefits Californians.”

Lyons is recognized for her reporting about how the California Department of Motor Vehicles made millions selling cars at auction and kept the money without notifying the owners that they were entitled to the proceeds. After CalMatters journalism engineer Mohamed Al Elyu created an interactive tool for towed vehicle owners to see if their car sold for a profit, the DMV decided to do the same. According to a CalMatters analysis of DMV data, between 2016 and 2024, the DMV collected more than $8 million in excess revenue from nearly 5,300 vehicle auctions. In March, Sen. Kelly Sejarto, R-Murieta, cited Lyons’ reporting on the introduction of SB 1029, which would require the California Department of Motor Vehicles to “notify vehicle owners when they may be owed excess proceeds from a foreclosure sale.”

“Thanks to CalMatters, Californians are getting their money back. This is the definition of community journalism.”

Judges for the Golden State Journalism Awards

The judges wrote: “Byrhonda Lyons of CalMatters followed the money — or perhaps more accurately, she followed the state that keeps the money — to root out the fact that the state’s DMV kept funds collected from auctioned cars beyond towing costs. Thanks to good old-fashioned reporting and the Public Records Act, Lyons learned that the DMV had pocketed more than $8 million belonging to the former owners of cars from 2016 to 2024. But CalMatters didn’t stop there. It’s the definition of public journalism that people can use to make money.

Sergio Olmos was one of the journalists awarded for courage in journalistic activity.

The Press Club judges said this year’s award for “outstanding courage in providing needed coverage to the public” was presented to “journalists who continued to report despite being beaten, detained or otherwise targeted while covering protests against federal immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles in 2025.”

The club honored all the journalists whose expertise was cited in legal actions brought by the Los Angeles Press Club and Status Coup against the Los Angeles Police Department. The lawsuit alleges that the journalists were attacked despite clearly identifying themselves as members of the press. A court later issued an injunction ordering law enforcement not to obstruct the journalists from carrying out their duties.

“This award recognizes the journalists who have continued to report the news with great courage,” Sacramento Press Club President Ashley Zavala said during the ceremony. “Please join me in honoring their courage and the role of a free press.”

Olmos, an investigative reporter for CalMatters, was brought in after him hit in the chest of crowd control munitions fired by police officers while covering an immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025. Olmos told The Washington Post he was wearing a press pass and filming a protest a few blocks from a federal building complex when Los Angeles police officers fired crowd control munitions at demonstrators. Olmos believes he was hit with a 40mm mushroom-shaped grenade.

Over the past year, Olmos has tirelessly pursued the real-world realities of California’s immigration crackdown. His investigative series shows that immigration agents used a pattern of force and questionable detention, aggressive tactics that courts have said likely violate the constitution, as they moved from Bakersfield to Los Angeles and then to Chicago and Minneapolis.

Anat Rubin earned for criminal justice reporting.

Rubin was honored for her investigation, “The man who didn’t solve a murder.” The project found that poor people accused of crimes, who make up at least 80 percent of defendants, are routinely convicted in California without anyone investigating the charges against them. Nearly half of California’s 58 counties do not employ full-time public defender investigators. Among the remaining counties, defendants’ access to investigators fluctuates widely, but is almost always insufficient.

The judges wrote: “This CalMatters package provided a sharp, well-reported and beautifully written look at the shortage of investigators in public defenders’ offices and the consequences for defendants. The package also included a well-reported look at the dangers of using flat-fee attorneys instead of public defenders.”

Joe Garcia was also a finalist in this category for his reporting in the California prison system: about the realities of shared cellsand how rehabilitation programs are increasing while the success rate of inmates deemed suitable for parole is gradually decreases.

The judges wrote, “This CalMatters package offers insightful reports and writing about the problems with California’s parole system, as well as the physical risks of housing people in communal cells.

Jocelyn Wiener, Marissa Kendall and Erica Yee won for public health reporting.

These CalMatters journalists have teamed up for an 8-part series exploring the realities of The California CARE Court Program – a program that allows families or first responders to petition the courts for care on behalf of a person with severe mental illness and gives judges the power to order treatment in some cases.

The judges wrote: “CalMatters reporters Jocelyn Winner, Marissa Kendall and Erica Yee left no stone unturned in ‘Courtship Disappointment,’ an 8-part series that both explains and intuitively demonstrates why Governor Newsom’s ambitious CARE Court program failed to deliver.” Through rigorous data collection, point-by-point analysis of the legislative process, and in-depth interviews with affected individuals, families, court members, state and county officials, the reporters captured the grueling and heartbreaking experiences of parents trying to get their mentally ill members off the street and into psychiatric treatment, as well as the legal limitations of the courts pursuing these petitions in this series, along with their impeccable writing and editing, deserves first place in the public health category of the Golden State Journalism Awards.”

Adam Echelman won for education reporting.

Echelman was honored for his reporting, which found that community colleges are seeing unprecedented fraud reportsas fraudsters have stolen millions of dollars more in student aid than in any previous period, according to reports filed by colleges with the Chancellor of California Colleges.

After CalMatters reported on the rise in fraud last year, urged Republican members of the US Congress federal investigationa Democratic state legislature launched a state audit, and the California College Chancellor’s Office later approved new identity verification policy for students. Colleges are now more vigilant about policing fraud, said Jory Hadsell, executive director of technology initiatives in the chancellor’s office, who pointed to better filtering practices and new fraud detection software.

The judges wrote: “Adam Echelman’s reporting on financial fraud in the California community college system highlights a critical issue for faculty and students with in-depth reporting, statistical evidence, clear writing and, importantly, voices from those most affected. The articles are not just collections of important information, they are engaging narratives that highlight what is at stake—not only for students, faculty, and staff, but for taxpayers as well.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.