Dan Walters

The socioeconomic disparity between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles metropolitan area was wide before COVID-19 struck and the gap is widening as the pandemic takes its toll.

Would California voters accept tax increases in the midst of a severe recession? That's the question of the moment.

California is accidentally conducting an experiment in parliamentary government, which allows the executive to govern by decree.

California has seen strong population growth for the past 170 years, but new data indicate that we may be reaching our population peak and could begin seeing a drop.

A Republican won a special election for a Southern California congressional seat this month, but it would be incorrect to read too much into the outcome.

The California Chamber of Commerce annually designates bills unfriendly to business as "job killers" and has been remarkably successful in defeating them. There are 10 bills on its new list, most related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

California has a big, recession-caused budget problem, but its true dimensions are open to debate.

A perennial issue in the California Legislature is the scope of personal injury lawsuits, known to insiders as "tort wars." This year's skirmish is over using lawsuits to go after alleged tax cheats.

A pot of special state school aid is supposed to close the "achievement gap," but has often been diverted to other purposes. A new bill aims to close one loophole.

The Capitol's perennial jousting over workers' compensation has been jolted by Gov. Gavin Newsom's order extending eligibility for benefits to all workers deemed to be essential who are infected with coronavirus.