Native American

A bill on the governor's desk would acknowledge tribal sovereignty over cultural burning for the first time in California history. As state embraces prescribed burns to help reduce wildfire risk, Native American tribes still face legal barriers to performing a cherished cultural practice.

The UC Native American Opportunity Plan seeks to make the system a viable option for Native students in California by offering them free tuition. But Native students enrolled at UC campuses report that strains on their budgets along with insufficient resources and faculty representation have been obstacles to academic success.

California’s powerful tribal casinos and their longtime rivals, privately owned gambling halls, are spending huge sums of money to influence lawmakers. The legislative fight could reshape the state’s multi-billion dollar gambling industry.

At some rural schools construction projects are left undone, teaching jobs are unfilled and students who need specialized services don’t get them.

When and if California legalizes sports gambling, the policy should honor the laws established in partnership with tribes decades ago, says Assemblyman James Ramos.

Sunday's Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the world capital of gambling, symbolizes the new alliance between professional sports leagues and the gambling industry. However, residents of the states with teams in the game, California and Missouri, cannot legally bet on it.

Chinook and other salmon runs are collapsing. Conservation groups call it too little, too late. Plan includes dam removals and restoring river flows.

As offshore wind faces setbacks on the East Coast, California has a chance to establish long-term success. Developers and policymakers at all levels can get there by embracing "ocean justice" principles.

Successive state audits of the University of California and the California State University found both systems have failed to comply with decades old state and federal laws mandating the return of Native ancestral remains and cultural artifacts, an act known as repatriation. Only UCLA and Cal State Long Beach have returned a majority of their collections back to local tribes.

Wet weather and planned cuts by California, Arizona and Nevada averted declines that could have threatened water deliveries and power production — but long-term threats to the Colorado River remain.