Justice

A new California law aims to reduce police shootings and the use of deadly force by law enforcement. Here's a deep look at the issue in the Golden State.

The whole business began with a backyard barbecue. Tim Terral, a 50-year-old cable company worker recently elected city councilman in Needles, on the rural eastern edge of California, planned a cookout for some buddies who live just over the state line in Arizona. Nobody wanted to come. Under California law, they couldn’t bring their loaded […]

Aiming to reduce police shootings in a state that has more than 100 of them each year, the California legislature passed a bill Monday setting a tougher standard for police to use deadly force, allowing officers to fire their guns only “when necessary in defense of human life.”  Gov. Gavin Newsom said he intends to […]

A California bill threatens the likes of Uber, Lyft, Postmates and DoorDash. But Assembly Bill 5 could also sweep up some 2 million workers from truck drivers and general contractors to strippers and nail salons.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to disgorge tens of thousands of inmates from its overcrowded prison system in 2011, Justice Antonin Scalia warned in his dissent of "the terrible things sure to happen as a consequence" including the "inevitable murders, robberies, and rapes to be committed by the released inmates." But researchers who've looked at how how often those released from the state's prisons and jails in the ruling's aftermath say such fears have not come to pass.

Two California Democrats took rival approaches to reduce police shootings. Yet as mothers—one African American, the other Latina—both lawmakers have had remarkably similar experiences in one respect: They instructed their teenage sons to cautiously navigate encounters with police, and they ultimately felt the police did not treat their sons fairly.

For more than a year, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber has been working on a bill meant to curb police shootings by limiting when police can use deadly force. The San Diego Democrat persevered through political setbacks and failed attempts at compromise before landing on a version that now appears likely to become law. A sharecropper’s daughter […]

For more than a year, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber has been working on a bill meant to curb police shootings by limiting when police can use deadly force. She persevered through political setbacks and failed attempts at compromise before landing on a version that now appears likely to become law.

As the Capitol passes the halfway point for making new laws this year, the progressive policies that are advancing amount to less of a torrent than a trickle.