Guest Commentary

Guest Commentary written by Hannah Mudgett Hannah Mudgett is a student at University of California, Berkeley, pursuing a master’s in public health Every day more than 5 million Californians rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known here as CalFresh, to keep food on the table. It is our state’s largest anti-hunger program.  Yet […]

Berkeley’s experience shows change is possible when local and state reforms align, and when communities let go of their fears about growth.

Like today, Americans in the 1930s were reeling from economic hard times. Leaders made Latinos scapegoats and deported immigrants and some US citizens.

With suicide and violence stalking students, counselors are often the first to notice kids in trouble. They're also among the first to lose their jobs to budget cuts.

Federal cuts imperil government and private water partnerships and hobble disaster planning. The state must maintain its water expertise.

Addiction recovery starts when California creates spaces to replace isolation with belonging, where people can gain the confidence to change their lives..

If California ditches fossil fuels for greener energy, we can still expect weekly rolling blackouts. But nuclear power is unaffected by weather.

Eight lab monkeys escaped and seven were killed, showing why animal experiments should give way to better, safer testing methods.

Gov. Newsom vetoed bills on virtual power plants, which deliver energy to the grid from such home devices as smart thermostats, solar panels, electric vehicle batteries and heat pumps. 

California parents of chronically absent students could be arrested, charged with a misdemeanor, fined up to $2,000 and face a year in jail. A new law will end the practice.