Guest Commentary

Kathryn Phillips and Evan Gillespie, Sierra Club: Wildfires and blackouts show how wildly unprepared California is for the impacts of climate change. Californians, environmentalists included, have to talk more openly about what we must do to adapt to survive the effects we’re already experiencing.

Vern Pierson, El Dorado County District Attorney: The problem of mass shootings is not simple. An actual solution will not be simple either, but we can mitigate the threat by analyzing the commonality in mass shooters.

R.J. Taggueg and Katherine Nasol, Bulosan Center for Filipinx Studies: In a historic victory for renters and tenants, California will soon become the third state in the country to implement statewide rent cap. The legislation that created the cap is one of the strongest tenant protection laws in the country, and it shows what is possible. This is only the beginning of what tenants can achieve.

Mike Males, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice: The dismal reality is that America stumbles from crisis to crisis, allowing epidemics to soar out of control. If serious researchers can get the politicians, ideologues, and authorities who haven’t had a new idea in 50 years out of the way, perhaps the nation can learn from California’s unexpected trends.

Kevin R. Johnson, UC Davis School of Law: The outcome of the DACA case being argued on Tuesday will determine the fate of hundreds of thousands of young people. The long term reaction to the Trump immigration approach that the elimination of DACA exemplifies may ultimately lead to larger political changes across the nation similar to those that occurred in California after voters passed Proposition 187.

Josh Fryday, chief service officer of California: California is facing challenges such as homelessness, climate change, poverty, and natural disasters, to name a few. If we are going to be successful in tackling these issues, we need to harness the power of our greatest asset, the 40 million people who call California home. This is why California Volunteers is hard at work mobilizing Californians to serve in their communities.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, California Community Colleges chancellor: Our military veterans transitioning to colleges and universities face far too many challenges. This Veterans Day, when we honor the brave women and men who have served in our armed forces, all candidates seeking to become Commander in Chief should remember their duty to look after those who have looked after us. More must be done, not just in California, but for the 18.2 million military veterans nationwide.

Dean Drescher, policy director at EdVoice: Policy leaders have been loud and clear stressing patience and incremental improvement and cheerleading increased funding. But California’s children, the majority of whom live in poverty, cannot sit and wait at the bottom of the nation’s barrel. They deserve more than crickets.

Andrew Do, Orange County supervisor: Californians deserve a sensible justice system that protects victims and holds violent felons accountable. Instead, Sacramento sells us baloney about pizza thieves.

Kim Delfino, Defenders of Wildlife: Gov. Newsom, the Trump Administration’s water plan is an extinction plan and does not reflect California's values. We expect you to defend the health of our Bay Delta ecosystem for the benefit of all Californians.