Elections

Oh, to be a plastic bag. Helpful, ubiquitous and ever useful. Carefree, wafting on the wind, and alive for a thousand years. On the other hand, you are cheap and trashy. Discarded, your presence mars beautiful landscapes. You and your trillions of clones clog sewers, accumulate in the worlds’ oceans, and entangle and choke wildlife […]

Sure, this presidential campaign has been nasty, divisive and frequently in need of parental control settings. But for how hard it’s been to stomach at times, this election season may be producing a civic upside: Californians are registering to vote at rates not seen in 20 years. The state’s voter rolls are surging. Nearly three-quarters […]

In California’s Democrat-dominated statehouse, big business usually plays defense. Liberal groups—like labor unions and environmentalists—typically push for new bills, while corporate interests work to kill them. Legislators feel that push and pull. A similar dynamic is now at play on California’s ballot, where major industries are spending big bucks to defeat policies backed by progressives. […]

Andrew Naylor was working at a digital advertising firm in Silicon Valley when the “a-ha” moment struck. It was 2008, and money—more than $83 million—was gushing into the advertising world as Californians prepared to vote on Prop. 8, the measure to limit marriage to heterosexual couples (later ruled unconstitutional.) “I saw what was happening with […]

This fall, California voters will decide whether to approve the biggest jump in cigarette taxes since the state began taxing tobacco in 1959. Prop. 56, backed by a wide coalition of public health, healthcare and union groups, would impose an additional $2 per-pack excise tax on cigarettes—raising the current state levy from 87-cents per pack […]

1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: Tobacco is often the target of politicians seeking money for state programs, with mixed success across the country. In California, voters have rejected multiple ballot box attempts over the years to raise taxes on cigarettes, and the state is among […]

1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: Four decades ago, Gov. Jerry Brown embraced tough-on-crime laws that filled the state’s prisons. The overcrowding led the U.S. Supreme Court to rule the state must reduce its prison population and improve medical care to inmates. California has moved lower-level […]

1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: Swept up by anti-immigrant politics nearly 20 years ago, California voters approved an initiative that required school children be taught almost exclusively in English. The measure triggered anger in some immigrant communities, where it was viewed as an attack on […]

1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: The U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United has become a political flashpoint for Americans turned off by the billions of dollars spent to sway elections. The 2010 ruling allowed unions and corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political […]

1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: This is the rare ballot measure that requires you to think about sex. Because here in California—home to a $9 billion pornography industry—that most personal of acts is also a jobs issue and a public health concern. Four years ago, […]