Dan Walters

Will California force local communities to shelter the homeless? Gov. Gavin Newsom may be leaning in that direction.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget presentation indicates anew that he wants to become president.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to ramp up spending on "entitlements" but the state's economy is showing signs of slowing.

State and federal demographers differ on California's population and the 2020 census will settle the conflict. California could lose a congressional seat due to slow population growth.

Separating the Capitol's grain (serious legislation) from the chaff (symbolic fluff) is now always easy.

Although it's a presidential election year, most of California's significant political action will be elsewhere on the ballot.

Hundreds of bills will be introduced in the Legislature this year but there are a few items that should top the session's agenda.

California politicians often make sweeping policy decrees, then fail to check how the money to implement the policies is spent.

The state Supreme Court is making it easier for conflicts of interest in local bond issue transactions to go undetected. Think: baseball.

It's a new year and a new decade, but California still faces a mélange of contradictions.