Dan Walters

With a new leader at the helm, California's labor unions achieved major gains in this year's legislative session, even though only 17% of the state's workers belong to unions.

An 11th hour compromise in the Legislature settled a conflict over whether a new state agency would set wages and working conditions in the fast food industry and implicitly undermine the franchise business system.

Three measures to overhaul state oversight of water use, giving the state water board more authority over holders of senior water rights, were introduced in the Legislature this year but the most important two died.

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?