Dan Walters

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a number of climate-related bills surrounded by state legislators at a press conference at the USDA Forest Service Regional Office on Mare Island in Vallejo on Sept. 16, 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

Commentary

Newsom steps up his (nonpresidential?) campaign

California Gov. Gavin Newsom insists that he's not running for president but continues to cultivate a national political profile that may indicate otherwise.

By

Dan Walters

• October 3, 2022

Commentary

Is California’s economy headed for recession?

California's economy, which contracted into recession during the COVID-19 pandemic and then exploded, may be headed downward again due to national and global economic trends.

By

Dan Walters

• October 2, 2022

California Capitol, home of the Assembly and Senate. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Commentary

State puts lipstick on its porcine IT project

For nearly two decades, California's state government has struggled to design and implement a comprehensive financial management system called FI$Cal but although it remains unfinished a new law declares it to be complete.

By

Dan Walters

• September 28, 2022

California test scores regressed this year for 11th graders.

Commentary

California refusing to release school test results

The California Department of Education is - for no rational reason - refusing to release results of last spring's academic tests, which are likely to be negative.

By

Dan Walters

• September 27, 2022

An Amazon worker delivers boxes in Los Angeles on Oct. 1, 2020. Photo by Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo

Commentary

Pressure builds for workers’ compensation overhaul

Pressure is building for another overhaul of workers' compensation, California's multi-billion-dollar system of dealing with job-related illnesses and injuries, but what form it will take is still uncertain.

By

Dan Walters

• September 26, 2022

State test results show California students overall performed much worse in math and English language arts than pre-pandemic, but a persistent achievement gap didn't worsen, as initially feared. Students at a classroom at St. HOPE’s Public School 7 Elementary in Sacramento on May 11, 2022. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Commentary

COVID-19 school closures undermined learning

The closure of California's public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic had a hugely negative impact on children's educations that will reverberate for decades.

By

Dan Walters

• September 18, 2022

Commentary

Tax-the-rich dynamics are different this time

Once again, California voters are being asked to raise income taxes on the state's most affluent taxpayers, but this time around the dynamics are different and the outcome less certain.

By

Dan Walters

• September 14, 2022

A McDonald’s sign in south Fresno on Sept. 12, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Commentary

California’s fast food regulation headed to ballot

A newly signed law to regulate wages and working conditions in fast food restaurants is being challenged by the industry via a ballot measure.

By

Dan Walters

• September 13, 2022

A row of colorful Victorian houses, known as the Painted Ladies, with the San Francisco skyline in the background under a pastel pink and purple sunset sky.

Commentary

Can superagencies crack California’s housing logjam?

As California struggles to close its huge shortage of housing, two new superagencies, one for the San Francisco Bay Area, the other for Los Angeles County, are experiments aimed at breaking the housing logjam.

By

Dan Walters

• September 12, 2022

An aeriel view of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the world’s largest solar thermal power station, in the Mojave Desert near Nipton on February 27, 2022. Photo by Bing Guan, Reuters

Commentary

Can California really make power grid 100% green?

New legislation accelerates California's self-mandate to convert to a carbon-free electrical grid by 2045. But can California actually do it?

By

Dan Walters

• September 11, 2022