California must institute "Pre-K for All." We intend to put the needs of the youngest Californians and their families front and center. It’s fundamental to helping California reclaim its historic tradition of leading the nation in education, especially for its most vulnerable children.
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.
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.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law requiring California-based publicly traded corporations to add women to their boards. Qualified women are available. Women should be added for their skills, not simply to increase gender diversity. The recent California legislation, however, does not address how increasing diversity impacts boardroom deliberations.
The California Department of Water Resources signed three agreements updating how the state and federal projects share environmental and financial obligations associated with their operations. They could help define how California's water gets delivered. But significant decisions must be made in coming months.
A desire to work isn’t sufficient grounds for asylum. They needed to share their painful, personal, tragic stories, and document them if possible, in order to show a justifiable fear of returning to their country. Being married helps.
By John M.W. Moorlach Sen. John M.W. Moorlach is a Costa Mesa Republican representing the 37th Senate District, senator.moorlach@senate.ca.gov. He wrote this commentary for CALmatters. In his re-election statement posted on the secretary of state’s website, Secretary of State Alex Padilla boasts: “In my first term, I’ve worked to expand access to the ballot box.” […]
Californians voted their values of dignity, respect, and accountability at the polls in 2018. The SEIU's effort will continue through 2020. We’ll be looking to see whether House members stick to their promises and vote their values on Capitol Hill.
Los Angeles teachers’ issues are fundamental, among them: bloated class sizes, lack of full-time nurses in 80 percent of Los Angeles schools, annual waves of destructive layoffs, and a student-counselor ratio so bad that the United Teachers of Los Angeles’s demand is to bring it down to 500-1. The Los Angeles Unified School District has legitimate financial issues. However, the district has repeatedly projected deficits which don’t materialize. Moreover, the district’s reserve is now almost $2 billion, an unprecedented figure.
There’s reason for optimism that there can be a truce in California’s water wars. The State Water Board adopted the first phase of a far-reaching revision to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento‒San Joaquin Delta and its watershed. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom’s support and involvement will be essential to carry this effort to a positive conclusion.