my-turn

Rose Elizabeth Bird, the court’s first woman, remains Jerry Brown’s most consequential judicial appointment. It's possible to trace bare-knuckled fights over the judiciary to the ones over her confirmation and retention. Today’s court again is led by a woman, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, and its rulings rarely resonate beyond legal circles. But the war on the judiciary continues.

A new centrist third party movement should look for allies among the Legislature’s moderate Democratic caucus and New Way Republicans to facilitate productive trans-partisan conversation. Political centrists believe a balanced approach is the best path forward for California, but would be foolish to ignore ideas from others who with different ideological perspectives.

Why are California Republicans so misaligned with voter sentiment? They delude themselves into believing there is a silent conservative majority out there somewhere, if only they can put up the right candidates.

Oakland, long synonymous with gun violence, is suddenly emerging as a national leader in the field of violence prevention. Since 2012, shootings are down more than 50 percent and are on pace to reach their lowest levels in decades. California leaders have much to learn from how people in Oakland came together to rewrite the violence reduction playbook.

By Mara W. Elliott Mara W. Elliott is San Diego City Attorney, cityattorney@sandiego.gov. She wrote this commentary for CALmatters. Mass shootings and everyday gun violence have become so commonplace in America that many people are losing hope that we can stop the senseless loss of innocent lives. But in collaboration with the San Diego Police […]

Up to this point, information technology systems have been the province of system administrators.  Now, a digital transformation must be a focus of incoming Gov. Newsom. The choice is simple. California can continue its role as a lighthouse state or let others pass us by.

It has been 132 years since a Democrat governor of California last turned over the keys to the Capitol’s corner office to another Democrat. Social and technological changes of the past 132 years have been vast. But some political rhetoric is uncomfortably similar.

By Dick Ackerman and Mel Levine Dick Ackerman, dickackerman33@gmail.com, and Mel Levine, mlevine@gibsondunn.com, co-chair the California Coalition for Public Higher Education. Ackerman is a former California legislator representing Orange County, Levine is a former member of Congress from Los Angeles. They wrote this commentary for CALmatters. Pat Brown was a true champion of higher education, […]

The historical record no longer brackets what we can expect in intensity or duration from drought, flood, or wildfire. So we cannot move quickly enough to cut emissions from our millions of tailpipes in California, and we must change state governance, funding, and planning as necessary—no matter how difficult—to get ready for the worst.

A child’s earliest months and years are critical to her or his life trajectory. We know that 90 percent of a child’s brain develops before age 5. That’s why it’s so important to invest early in our children. First 5 L.A. and First 5 organizations across the state are eager to support our governor-elect in his efforts to build strong children. Like Gavin Newsom, we know we can and should do more to build strong children today.