Dan Walters

Eight weeks out, the June 5 primary election’s biggest uncertainty is whether Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will have an unobstructed pathway to becoming California’s next governor or will have to fight for it. All candidates, regardless of party, will appear on the ballot and the top two vote-getters will advance to the November election. Democrat […]

The first thing to remember about precipitation in California is that it’s unpredictable, as the past several winters have once again shown us. Several years of severe drought ended in the 2016-17 winter with near-record rain and snow storms that filled the state’s badly depleted reservoirs. The 2017-18 “water year,” as hydrologists call it, began […]

When governments seek permission to borrow money through bonds, telling voters how much and for how long taxes will be increased to repay those loans is just common sense. In fact, the Legislature last year passed such a law, requiring bond measures or taxes proposed by local governments or school districts to state “the amount […]

As the capital of the nation’s most complex and populous state, Sacramento is no stranger to protest marches and other forms of political expression. However, the city has never experienced anything as emotionally powerful as the almost daily marches and rallies to condemn the city police shooting death of 22-year-old Stephon Clark in the backyard […]

In the superheated conflict between President Donald Trump and the nation state of California, no issue is too trivial. Every week, it seems, brings some new point of friction, giving the combatants another opportunity to issue searing denunciations and file new lawsuits. Last week was no exception. The Trumpies announced plans to add a citizenship […]

California’s economy is booming with record-high employment, record-low unemployment and billions of extra tax dollars flowing into the state treasury. The official jobless rate dropped to 4.3 percent in February, only slightly above the national rate of 4.1 percent and nearly a full percentage point lower than it was a year earlier. “The record low […]

A proposed ballot measure would raise property taxes on commercial sites such as retail stores, warehouses and factories but not on homeowners.

Left-wingers, who have never liked Feinstein's pragmatic approach, are incensed by her apparent unwillingness to fully embrace the "resistance" to President Trump.

Over the past few years, voters in hundreds of California cities and other local governments were asked to pass tax increases, and indications are that another big batch of local tax measures will be on this year’s ballots. All but a handful of the previous tax hikes were approved, although one failed sales tax, in […]

The Assembly Higher Education Committee unanimously endorsed Assembly Bill 1936 this month, which would seem to bode well for its enactment. It would create an Office of Higher Education Performance and Accountability to plan how California is to meet its ever-rising demand for post-high school education and coordinate the state’s three college and university systems. […]