In summary
Highlighting all of CALmatters’ work over the past week
Recent Articles
Who’s coming and who’s going: California in 5 interactive charts and maps
By Matt Levin
The California Dream is a global brand. For more than a century, the state has been a magnet for migrants from around the world and now has the largest foreign-born population of any state in the country. Here are five maps and charts illustrating the past and present of who’s moving in and, lately, moving out.
A million independent voters risk being irrelevant in California’s presidential primary
By Ben Christopher
Presidential challengers hoping to glide to victory through California’s newly relevant primary, a heads-up: Your electoral fate may hinge on convincing enough left-leaning millennials to send postcards over the winter holiday season.
Newsom’s new proposals on wildfire costs walk a political tightrope
By Julie Cart
Officials had to slap utilities for starting blazes—but not inflict undue financial damage or bail them out—and avoid punishing fire victims or further burdening electricity customers.
It’s been a mess for decades. Can Gov. Newsom fix the state’s technology?
By Elizabeth Castillo
Spending $40 million to create an Office of Digital Innovation, Gov. Gavin Newsom is betting the move will push state government into the 21st century.
Beneath their rival efforts to reduce police shootings, two lawmakers share one common experience as mothers
By Laurel Rosenhall
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.
Does California State University have a $1.5 billion slush fund?
By Felicia Mello
A state audit found CSU failed to fully disclose the existence of a budget surplus to legislators and students even as it raised tuition and lobbied for more funding. CSU disputes the audit’s conclusions.
Immigrant entrepreneurs continue to shape California’s economy
By David Wagner, KPCC
Immigrants tend to be bigger risk-takers than people born in California when it comes to starting a business. Here’s why that’s good for the economy.
How Redding, California, became an unlikely epicenter of modern Christian culture
By Vanessa Rancano, KQED
Some residents, saying Bethel Church’s civic influence threatens the city’s integrity, hand out “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid” stickers.
Why fighting for clean water with climate-change money worries some California lawmakers
By Rachel Becker
Combat climate change, or clean up the water? Legislators chose to dip into a greenhouse-gas fund to fight California’s drinking-water problem. The move alarmed environmentalists and legislators on both sides of the aisle—but it could soon become the norm.
Commentary
Lessons from the Old Courthouse in El Centro
By Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
My responsibility goes beyond deciding cases. We must help the public understand what we do and share our collective knowledge. Nowhere is that mission more urgent than when it comes to improving the lives of our state’s children.
Wall Street salivates at the housing ‘solution’ offered by Senate Bill 50
By John Mirisch
Scores of housing bills circulate in Sacramento, one worse than the next. Collectively, they threaten to destroy our unique and dynamic communities to various degrees, many in the service of Wall Street and other special-interest groups. Wall Street is notorious for not caring about the path of destruction it leaves in its wake in search of ever-greater profits.
Cities pledge to find solutions to California’s homeless crisis
By Carolyn Coleman
There is no single or easy solution to address homelessness, but building more affordable housing is a major part of the answer. That is why the League of California Cities strongly supports Gov. Newsom’s budget proposals, which provide more resources, and Senate Bill 5 to help support the construction of more housing for low- and very-low-income Californians.
Bill reduces ballot measure transparency
By Dan Walters
A new bill would water down the requirement that local governments be upfront on the taxation effects of their tax and bond ballot measures.
California wildfires threaten water supply. Here’s how
By Marc Marcantonio
Public drinking-water suppliers’ financial stability is threatened if they are saddled with the cost of damage caused by fires they don’t start. And that could put the safety of our drinking water at risk.
California Legislature must act to protect environment from Trump’s assaults
By Terry Tamminen
Federal agencies plan to ignore new state requirements in order to deliver more San Francisco Bay-Delta water to powerful San Joaquin Valley farmers in the Westlands Water District. This would do more than harm salmon fishermen and the West Coast’s largest estuary. An elegant solution lies in Senate Bill 1 by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins.
George Tyndall’s ‘patients’ turn to the Legislature for justice
By Nicole Haynes and Mai Mizuno
AB 1510 would give Dr. George Tyndall’s “patients” a choice: Join the federal class action, or fight it out alone in state civil court, a venue that could more fully hold Tyndall and USC accountable. We are fighting to put the past and our shared secret behind us and move forward with our lives. We hope California legislators will understand, and not suppress our individual voices and rights.
New workers’ compensation battle on horizon
By Dan Walters
Once a decade, powerful interests do battle over the system compensating workers for job-related disabilities, and a new clash may be on the horizon.
Big caveats in new state budget
By Dan Walters
While politicians tout the state’s new budget, there are some very large caveats attached to it.
Democratic voters more centrist than their party
By Dan Walters
The recent state Democratic Party convention was dominated by the party’s left-wing activists, but the broader array of Democratic voters doesn’t lean as far to the port.