Dan Walters

The series of rain and snow storms buffeting California this month contains lessons for politicians, if they pay attention.

California's current state budget was enacted six months ago on the assumption that the state had a massive surplus, but it now faces a multi-billion-dollar deficit.

As a new year dawns, a raft of serious, even existential, old problems demand attention from California's politicians.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature passed a gun control law that was aimed at shaming a Texas law on abortion. A federal judge has now brought and end to the political posturing.

The biggest mystery in California's struggle to maintain water supplies is what will happen to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Legislation that would make it easier to build housing on church or college property has failed twice but a third chance is looming. However, it faces a conflict between two labor union interest groups.

A new article in Atlantic magazine lays bare the real reason California and other blue states have a homeless crisis while red states don't.

Multiple efforts to allow the California Legislature's employees to unionize have failed, but with a big turnover of legislative membership this year, a new attempt is being made.

A new on-line tool allows parents and voters to see how well their local school districts are prepared to make the reforms necessary to raise academic achievement in California.

As the California Legislature ramps up efforts to impose more regulation on business practices, those affected are increasingly using ballot measures to block the decrees.