Dan Walters

California has retained its position as having the worst poverty of any state, thanks to its very high living costs and a large low-income underclass.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's promises to Black Californians about filling U.S. Senate seat and providing reparations for the lingering effects of slavery might be harder to fulfill than he originally thought.

The last days of the 2023 session of the California Legislature have produced two major bills to close loopholes that anti-housing interests employ to block projects. But housing policy suffered a setback in the settlement of a lawsuit against San Bernardino.

Southern California made a big economic bet that logistics, becoming a point for receiving and handling the shipments of goods, would be an economic boon, but it now faces big tests of viability.

There are just a few days remaining in the 2023 session of the California Legislature and it has nearly 1,000 bills still to process - and perhaps some late-blooming measures not yet drafted.

California is the cradle of the high-tech industry, yet the state's government continues to be chronically unable to effectively use information technology.

Studies and tests consistently demonstrate that Californians – both students and adults – are woefully deficient in vital math skills. The state is recommending a new math curriculum, but will it have a beneficial impact?

California law classifies some violent crimes, such as spousal abuse, as nonviolent for punishment purposes, and the Legislature has so far refused to make changes.

The harsh reality is that California's Employment Development Department botched the management of unemployment insurance for jobless workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed massive fraud in the dispersal of federal benefits, and still hasn't fixed its problems.

Tens of thousands of California workers have gone on strike this year to seek better wages and working conditions. As the strikes continue, unions are mounting a full-court press in the Legislature to achieve those same goals.