California lags in testing toddlers for lead exposure
A third of young California children at risk for lead poisoning are not being tested despite state and federal laws that require it, according to a new study—a problem at least partly addressed by legislation now on the governor’s desk.
Should California look to Massachusetts to fix its housing crisis?
While California tops the list of states with insane housing costs, it’s by no means a uniquely Golden State phenomenon. Building affordable housing—and particularly getting cities and other localities to permit its construction—is a tough endeavor that has bedeviled state policymakers across the country. So where should Californians look to solve a problem that feels so intractable? Affordable housing experts suggest legislators find inspiration in Massachusetts. For more than 40 years, the state’s signature affordable housing policy—Massachusetts “40B”—has served as a model for how states can motivate and sometimes bully reluctant localities into meeting their fair share of affordable housing.
Here we go again: California does the Taxes Two-Step
At this point, it’s practically a California tradition. First, state judges find a loophole in California’s constitutional bulwark against new, higher taxes. Then conservative legislators and anti-tax activists rush in to patch the hole with a new ballot proposition. This week, the state Supreme Court made the first move in this familiar two-step by issuing a ruling that both anti-tax crusaders and proponents of more local investment say could make it much easier for city and county governments to raise new taxes. Now California conservatives are counter-punching.
Drinking lead—why California may force all schools to test their water
When a therapy dog refused to drink at a San Diego grade school, it was the first clue that something was wrong with the water. Tests revealed why the pup turned up its nose—the presence of polyvinyl chloride, the polymer in PVC pipes that degrade over time. But further analysis found something else that had gone undetected by the dog, the teachers and students of the San Diego Cooperative Charter School, and the school district: elevated levels of lead. Nor is this an isolated situation. Tests have turned up harmful levels of lead in water fountains and taps at other schools in San Diego and Los Angeles.
California tries to goose electric car sales with rebates—but is it enough?
California electric car buyers are getting a mixed bag of news this week, some of which could have profound implications for the future of the state’s effort to get 1.5 million drivers out of emission-spewing vehicles and into electric alternatives.
Chased out of Arkansas as a child, Shirley Weber won’t back down in California Capitol
HOPE, Ark. — When Shirley Weber and her siblings fled this place as children in 1951 on a midnight train bound for California, their destination seemed so distant and unfamiliar to the relatives who...
Paying doctors more—now will they treat more poor Californians?
It seems like a simple solution. Raise what you pay doctors for treating low-income patients, and they’ll treat more of them. All those waits for appointments and physician shortages that have long plagued the state’s low-income health insurance program—a program that one out of every three Californians now relies on—could be remedied with a simple dose of economics. But in health care, nothing is that simple.
Beyond Confederacy: California confronts its legacy of slavery and genocide
California has its own Civil War history, but it also has a painful colonization history—one academics believe ought to be told more in schools. It’s a tale of a state founded by white colonists who wiped out much of the Native American population by bringing disease, forcing relocation, imposing starvation, and carrying out what its more severe critics describe as a forgotten, state-sanctioned genocide of a people.
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California’s Resistance to Trump? So far, semi-successes and a few fizzles
The 2017 legislative session now wrapping up began with a rhetorical punch in the face to Donald Trump, but California Democrats have a mixed record when it comes to turning their anti-Trump talk into action.
The Suspense Files: California bills vanish almost without a trace
As befits a good murder plot, California lawmakers target potential victims by placing the bills on what they call the “suspense file.”
They come hat in hand for California’s ‘green’ money
It should come as no surprise that when the California Legislature recently began the process of divvying up proceeds from the state’s cap-and-trade auctions, a cavalcade of local officials,...
Ousted leader’s advice to fellow Republicans: Stop ‘repelling’ Californians
Days after losing his position as leader of Assembly Republicans, Chad Mayes was entertaining lobbyists and lawmakers at a bar near the state Capitol, raising money for his re-election with a live...
Key senator vows to block climate deal that would aid polluters
An irritated chairman of a state Senate Budget subcommittee says he intends to thwart a recent move by the state Air Resources Board that could give California’s biggest polluters a cushion of more than $300 million.
In a sharp rebuke of the board, Sen. Bob Wieckowski said Thursday that he’ll insert language into the 2018-19 budget bill instructing regulators to reduce the free compensation they’re giving oil refineries and other industries covered under cap and trade, California’s signature climate policy.
Gender X? California may be first state to create broad “nonbinary” option
A bill advancing in the California Legislature would allow residents to opt for a “nonbinary” gender marker on all forms of state identification—”M” and “F” would likely be followed by “X.” That would make California the first state in the nation to fully depart from the rigid either/or categorization of gender, embracing a more fluid understanding of the term—at least on paper.