Commentary

A group of five people, dressed in professional attire, sit on chairs on a stage in front of a crowd, with a banner behind them reading “Governor Candidate Forum.” Four of the five people sitting on stage have their hands up to answer the question while a crowd of people watches in the dark.

No clear frontrunner for governor, but new poll names five with the best shot

A poll shows three Democrats and two Republicans have voter support percentages in the teens. The top two vote-getters in June will face off in November.

Dan Walters

A person in medical protective clothing, wearing a face mask and a hair net, pushes a hospital gurney through a hallway inside a hospital, viewed from an open door.

She spent six of her last years in arbitration with her HMO. Her husband’s still fighting the system

Arbitrators in medical disputes are supposed to be unbiased, but this couple suspected there is an incentive to favor HMO’s in arbitration.

By Stephen Martinez

Two people face each other as they speak: the person on the left has a happy expression and her arm to her chest, while the person on the right wears a grey suit jacket and glasses. Both people are standing in a park area on a sunny day. In the background is a fence to a baseball field.

A former political ally tests LA liberals’ allegiance to Mayor Karen Bass

Mayor Karen Bass isn't vulnerable on her right, but she may be on her left, as City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialist and ex-supporter, runs against her.

Jim Newton

A close-up view of a person's hand holding a sign that reads "We wants answers! No more deaths!" and they stand at the front steps of a building surrounded by other people holding signs.

California promised accountability for inmate deaths in jails. A year later, no results.

Lawmakers passed a law creating a state department to review inmate deaths, but it hasn’t completed a single death review in its first year.

By David Myers

Commentary

How NCAA athletes and your privacy are linked

Will legislators consider that two seemingly different policy choices debated currently share a similar principle and therefore require a like solution? I’m looking at Senate Bill 206 by Sens. Nancy Skinner of Berkeley and Steven Bradford of Gardena to allow college athletes to be paid for the money-making use of their name, image, and likenesses, and the […]

Guest Commentary

• July 5, 2019

California Wildfires

Hedge funds’ proposal to ‘rescue’ PG&E is probably too good to be true

The Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom are grappling with the most significant utility-related public-policy issue our state has faced in some time–California’s wildfire vulnerability and the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Crafting a legislative solution is challenging. Add an active bankruptcy court proceeding and billions of dollars at stake, and the stage is […]

Guest Commentary

• July 5, 2019

Dan Walters

New state budget a windfall for unions

The state budget package that Democratic legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom just enacted is sprinkled with billions of dollars in extra goodies for their most important political constituency, labor unions. Take, for example, Senate Bill 90, the budget’s omnibus education measure. It would allocate $3.1 billion to reduce mandatory payments that local school districts would otherwise […]

Dan Walters

• July 4, 2019

Commentary

Why California’s fight against climate change must include clean water

California’s political leaders have made the long-overdue decision to clean up the Central Valley’s contaminated drinking water, and help cash-strapped rural water districts. The catch: rather than assess a fee on water users or tapping into the state’s budget surplus, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature relied on cap-and-trade money to pay for a portion […]

Guest Commentary

• July 3, 2019

Dan Walters

Newsom’s housing deal just a baby step

Every Californian should be aware by now that the state’s housing shortage not only causes personal angst for millions of the state’s residents, but is a key factor in its economic future. The latter was underscored last month in an analysis of the state’s employment picture by Christopher Thornberg, founder of Beacon Economics and director […]

Dan Walters

• July 3, 2019

Commentary

If the courts won’t give us fair elections, maybe our high schools will

The Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld partisan gerrymandering as a political practice for which there is no federal judicial remedy will be taken as a green light by some state legislatures to draw political maps to favor the party in power. Even if that is not a risk to us in California, the case should […]

Guest Commentary

• July 2, 2019

Commentary

Here’s how California can help farm workers sleep at night

We know their stories because they have told them to us: The hardship of sleeping in the fields with no shelter except a blue tarp and the grape vines that they picked; the awkwardness felt by elderly parents who slept on the couches of their adult children’s apartments and trailers already crammed beyond capacity; the […]

Guest Commentary

• July 2, 2019

Commentary

Prosecutors should stop the scare tactics. Reforming felony murder rule improves our justice system

In January, California ended a decades-old legal doctrine that put numerous people behind bars for murders they did not commit. Yet six months after the new state law—Senate Bill 1437—took effect, some prosecutors are trying to overturn it, resorting to scare tactics and false distortions. We are the legislators who wrote and supported this critical […]

Guest Commentary

• July 1, 2019

Commentary

Californians could breathe easier if legislators pass this bill

Since 1984, Californians have been pulling their older cars and pickups into smog-check stations and pulling out their wallets to pay for a test to certify that their vehicles meet state emission standards. The average cost for a vehicle-inspection in 2018 was $48.60. It has been money well spent. Every day the program prevents 400 tons of tailpipe […]

Guest Commentary

• July 1, 2019

Dan Walters

Can Newsom break string of tech failures?

For years – many years – journalists and government watchdogs have cataloged an almost unbroken, extremely expensive string of failed attempts to bring information technology into state government operations. Dozens of IT projects have either failed completely or functioned undependably, costing taxpayers countless millions of dollars. The current poster child for faulty IT is “The […]

Dan Walters

• July 1, 2019

California Voices

Viewpoints from across California