December 2018

Gavin Newsom's new governorship and California's bid for relevance in presidential politics are likely to dominate California's politics in 2019.

California turned even bluer in 2018, but it's still vexed by excruciating housing costs, an unrelenting student achievement gap, a precarious tax base, looming public pension obligations, unequal justice, and evidence that climate change is happening far faster than the state can fend off its disastrous consequences. At CALmatters, we traced the trajectory of each of these stories.

Politicians and agencies recite the same old playbook blaming recurring drug scourges on people they most fear and hate, especially immigrants and teenagers. In fact, teenagers and immigrants are the only groups showing hopeful trends. Teens were the only age group to show a decline in drug deaths in recent years. Ads should be advising teens to get the pills away from the grownups.

Jerry Brown's governorship was blessed by an expanding economy, but successor Gavin Newsom may not be so lucky.

Highlighting all of CALmatters' work over the past week

Over the course of his four-year $153.3 million contract, LeBron James could pay more than $20 million in California income taxes. That’s about $1 for everyone in the state workforce.

Through strategic land management, planning, and conservation practices, we can use our natural and working forests, parks, ranch land and farms to store carbon, and help cut greenhouse gas emissions while preparing for hotter, drier conditions.

A collection of commentaries by Dan Walters over the past week.

The threatened teachers' strike at Los Angeles Unified School District is already reverberating in public schools across California, and could be felt by taxpayers and communities throughout the state.

Minneapolis made national headlines earlier this month when the city council forced neighborhoods previously zoned only for single family homes to allow the construction of duplexes and triplexes. Is this the right cure for California's housing woes?