California Voices

As our border becomes more of a battleground, it is high time for a set of Justice Department-style news media guidelines for Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to give journalists the protection they need to keep the public informed.

Public works project contracts are susceptible to insider dealing, and a pending bill in the Legislature might invite more misbehavior.

How the state's water supplies are divvied up over the next few years could shift them from agriculture to urban use and environmental enhancement.

Being a pregnant woman in California, in America, is fraught. I don’t feel supported, even as our society romanticizes motherhood. That's why Senate Bill 135 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson is so critical. It would expand our family leave laws to cover nearly all workers in California.

Good government is open, clear government. Citizens who are not accountants also should be able to easily read government financial documents. Senate Bill 598 encourages the adoption of a readily accessible digital reporting standard. Legislators should approve it.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised action on a wide range of societal ills, but now must deliver.

Stockton did not fall behind by accident. Years of redlining, tax structures that undercut development and missed opportunities led to California's fragmented economy. It doesn’t have to be this way. One way we can spur a resurgence of economic prosperity is to use a new tax incentive called opportunity zones.

Difficult negotiations on how to efficiently and fairly share water among farmers, cities including San Francisco, and fish and wildlife have been underway since 2012 with little resolution in sight—until last month. With the leadership of the Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration, representatives of farmers, cities and conservation groups are having productive negotiations.

California has struggled to cut cigarette butt litter for decades. But with the rise in popularity of small cigars with plastic filters and e-cigarettes, the waste problem is getting worse.

Los Angeles Unified School District wants voters to approve a new tax, but it's undermining its pitch by incompetent—or duplicitous—actions.