Cristina Garcia

Good morning, California. In 2016, Sen. Dianne Feinstein signed the ballot argument against Proposition 64, the initiative that legalized commercial sales of marijuana. She warned the measure would increase highway fatalities, allow cultivation near schools and increase cartels. On Tuesday, Feinstein, running for reelection, changed positions, saying she’s “open to considering federal protection for state-legalized […]

A huge twist emerged this week in the Capitol’s months-long reckoning over sexual harassment: A female lawmaker who helped spark the movement to end misconduct is taking a leave of absence while she herself is being investigated for sexual harassment. An explosive report in Politico quoted a former legislative aide who accused Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia […]

Patty Lopez “is the unusual candidate who can go back out there and say… ‘I am one of you. I got elected to office, the big machine came and took me out, then look what happened to the big machine,’” said Eric Bauman, chair of the California Democratic Party.

The electorate is a politician’s ultimate boss. But in recent weeks, as a wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations hits politicians in California's statehouse and the nation’s capitol, another force is proving to be as powerful as the electorate: peer pressure.

Last year’s drop in California emissions came not through drastic pollution reductions from oil refineries nor the state’s lauded cap-and-trade program. It was the rain.

The underbelly of cap and trade: Letting industries buy carbon credits or offsets, rather than modernize old equipment, means pollution in many poor communities could get worse.

As the quieter ‘companion bill’ to Monday’s cap-and-trade extension legislation, Assembly Bill 617 sought to placate environmental justice advocates who have increasingly complained that the state’s globally ambitious climate policy overlooks a local problem: poor California communities living in the shadow of polluters. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens, was […]

A new generation of legislators and the growing clout of eco-advocates from urban communities is changing the focus of environmental debates in California. Once sidelined as a fringe voice of activism, the “environmental justice” perspective—focused on how environmental decisions impact poor communities and people of color—is now at the center of high-profile deliberations.