California Voices

María P. Aranda, Governor’s Task Force on Alzheimer’s Prevention and Preparedness: As California’s older adult population grows, Alzheimer’s is on pace to increase by more than 29% over the next five years, focusing on this issue now is a statewide imperative. Overcoming stigma and taking the disease head-on as my father did will make the difference.

The federal government is poised to give California's huge Westlands Water District a long-sought permanent supply contract, and it's shaking up the state's water picture.

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.

A project by journalists reveals that dozens of California cops who committed serious crimes are still on the job.

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.

Two reports from state Auditor Elaine Howle frame the fiscal distress being felt by many school districts and cities.

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.