Immigration

The California Supreme Court has embarked on a project to improve service to people whose native language is not English. It's not easy. But when Californians get shut out of our courts because they can’t communicate in English—whether the person is a witness in a criminal trial, a small business owner trying to clear her name, or a potential victim of elder abuse—the public ends up paying the price.

Imagine if California’s undocumented workers were to stop working. Unharvested crops would rot in the fields. The hospitality industry would shut down. Residential construction would plummet. It would be an economic catastrophe.

What if Donald Trump had used those nine minutes, or even a portion of them, to convey a different message, one that reminded us of what binds us rather than what separates us, reminded us to help those, as the song says, who are walking on the boulevard of broken dreams? What if?

Yosemite was a refuge where I could momentarily escape thoughts of petty politics and news of the day that typically consume most of my waking hours as a journalist. This time, though, a political stunt encroached into this natural refuge.

A huge surprise surplus, a big push on affordable housing, help for college students, working poor tax credits, credit cards at the DMV, kindergarten potties.

Newsom reveals his budget, Republicans slam Trump on FEMA threats, shutdown could worsen wildfires, CA vs. Big Pharma, DMV reinvention and why tiny toilets matter.

Newsom baits Trump, Governor Dad is in the building, Pelosi, Huerta and other bigs turn out for Kounalakis and California school kids get a superintendent that can relate.

Ricardo Lara opens the revolving door for a pharma lobbyist, an immigrant teen sues Trump for her parents, Jerry Brown's judges by the numbers and Pelosi and Becerra get the band back together again.

A California teenager has become the lead plaintiff in a landmark class-action lawsuit to keep hundreds of thousands of Temporary Protected Status immigrants in the U.S.

Politicians and agencies recite the same old playbook blaming recurring drug scourges on people they most fear and hate, especially immigrants and teenagers. In fact, teenagers and immigrants are the only groups showing hopeful trends. Teens were the only age group to show a decline in drug deaths in recent years. Ads should be advising teens to get the pills away from the grownups.