Orange County

California still must count 4.5 million ballots, a bigger job than what it faced two days after the election in 2016.

Despite limited testing requirements, California schools that have reopened for in-person instruction have largely avoided COVID-19 outbreaks. Still, some teachers and legislators say large scale surveillance testing is necessary to the rest of the state’s schools and that lack of data is a problem.

Vertiginous blue spires on the urban coast and crimson plateaus stretching from the Central Valley to suburban SoCal — this is the presidential race for California cash, in 3D. In the map below, each ZIP code is colored according to the candidate who amassed more individual contributions from its residents. That’s blue for former Vice […]

Standing in line at their local polling place, a longtime ritual for many Californians, will be a thing of the past this Election Day for half of the state’s voters.  That’s because in 2016 the California Legislature passed the Voter’s Choice Act, which allows counties to transition from polling places to a vote center and […]

California election officials assure voters their ballot is safe in drop boxes and the mail, yet some voters are hand delivering anyway.

Tens of thousands of people convicted of misdemeanors would have their DNA stored. District attorneys disagree about whether it would help solve violent crimes.

In a press conference seemingly designed to deescalate a week-long legal standoff, declare victory and profoundly confuse the California press corps, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla said they would not be taking legal action against the California Republican Party for its makeshift ballot box program.  But the two Democrats insisted […]

Desalination is a proven technology with more than 20,000 facilities worldwide, providing millions with safe drinking water every day.

After the electoral hammering California Republicans took in 2018, the party decided to put aside any misgivings it had about “ballot harvesting” and set up its own operation. In so doing, it’s now earned itself a cease-and-desist letter from California’s Democratic secretary of state. At issue: Unofficial ballot drop boxes that the state GOP purchased […]

The proposed desalination plant in Orange County would damage sea life in our precious coastal waters and use a tremendous amount of power.