Early returns suggest smoking drop in response to state tax
It’s early, but it looks like good news for public health advocates.
Dental lobby prevails again: Grieving parents shelve Caleb’s Law rather than dilute it
It has become a familiar routine for the Sears family: Gather the medical experts, trek to Sacramento, and tell another panel of lawmakers how their 6-year-old son died from the anesthesia a dentist...
Newly passed pollution bill is ‘downpayment’ to environmental justice
As the quieter ‘companion bill’ to Monday’s cap-and-trade extension legislation, Assembly Bill 617 sought to placate environmental justice advocates who have increasingly complained that the state’s...
California lawmakers chip away at state’s college affordability crisis
California’s economy is one of the world’s largest, and according to a new report, the state needs 1 million more workers with bachelor’s degrees by 2030 to keep up with economic demand. The Public...
Building Trump’s wall? Six things to know about the U.S.-Mexico border
1. There already is a “wall” along about a third of the border The border runs about 1,900 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Some sort of barrier—made from concrete,...
Despite backlog of rape kits, California’s not requiring they be tested or tallied
After a man held a knife to her throat, forced her into her car and repeatedly raped her, Helena Lazaro underwent a painful and humiliating medical forensic examination. The 17 year old wanted her...
Politics - Laurel Rosenhall
Lawmakers torn over whether to reveal true funders behind campaign ads
Who pays for all those political ads that bombard voters every election season? An effort to make the answer clearer to the public is squeezing California Democrats between two liberal...
Commentary - Dan Walters
Will California politicians really address housing crisis or settle for tokenism?
Having checked gas taxes and cap-and-trade off their 2017 agenda, California political leaders will turn to the state’s housing crisis after a month-long midsummer vacation. It’s high time, because...
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SHORING UP THE STATE: Is California’s response to rising seas enough?
For Will Travis, it began 12 years ago, with an eye-opening article in the New Yorker magazine about rising seas and the widespread flooding and dislocation that would bring.
Shifting sands: The struggle to save California’s washed-up beaches
Within California’s gargantuan bureaucracy there is a group of experts that more or less counts the grains of sand on state beaches? Pretty much. The scientists and agency officials work from a statewide ‘sand budget’ that determines the volume of sand that should reside on the beach. These are not people with rakes, bagging the red cups from last night’s party. Or the guys in small tractors smoothing the beach in front of luxury hotels. No, this is the California Coastal Sediment Management Working Group. It figures that in a state where famed beaches are manicured and sand curated, there would be attention paid to movement and disposition of sand itself.
California gives gig workers a break—just a little one, but it’s a start
Angelo Henry describes himself as “unemployed,” but that isn’t entirely right. Under California labor law, he’s a self-starting freelancer. An entrepreneur. A 25 year old...
Discharged. Deported. Why California may cover vets’ legal bid to return
Andy de Leon thought he was the only one. Deported to Mexico, the Vietnam-era Army cook struggled to find a way to live in Tijuana—landing in the sprawling border city after serving time for a drug...
Bitter or sweet, trailer bills let California lawmakers slip new policies into budget
“Trailer bills,” said Sen. Richard Roth—referring to pieces of legislation tied to the budget but often bearing little connection to it—“are a box of chocolates. And you never know what you’re going to get.” Surprises abound each year as lawmakers craft the annual budget that keeps the state running. While most of the budget involves big-ticket items such as how much to spend on public education ($74.5 billion) or health care for the poor ($105.6 billion), a few extra nuggets are always thrown in that don’t involve much money but make significant policy changes.
Is California’s investment in needy students paying off? Few signs yet that achievement gap is closing
California’s new system for funding public education has pumped tens of billions of extra dollars into struggling schools, but there’s little evidence yet that the investment is helping the most...