Commentary

A group of five people, dressed in professional attire, sit on chairs on a stage in front of a crowd, with a banner behind them reading “Governor Candidate Forum.” Four of the five people sitting on stage have their hands up to answer the question while a crowd of people watches in the dark.

No clear frontrunner for governor, but new poll names five with the best shot

A poll shows three Democrats and two Republicans have voter support percentages in the teens. The top two vote-getters in June will face off in November.

Dan Walters

A person in medical protective clothing, wearing a face mask and a hair net, pushes a hospital gurney through a hallway inside a hospital, viewed from an open door.

She spent six of her last years in arbitration with her HMO. Her husband’s still fighting the system

Arbitrators in medical disputes are supposed to be unbiased, but this couple suspected there is an incentive to favor HMO’s in arbitration.

By Stephen Martinez

Two people face each other as they speak: the person on the left has a happy expression and her arm to her chest, while the person on the right wears a grey suit jacket and glasses. Both people are standing in a park area on a sunny day. In the background is a fence to a baseball field.

A former political ally tests LA liberals’ allegiance to Mayor Karen Bass

Mayor Karen Bass isn't vulnerable on her right, but she may be on her left, as City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialist and ex-supporter, runs against her.

Jim Newton

A close-up view of a person's hand holding a sign that reads "We wants answers! No more deaths!" and they stand at the front steps of a building surrounded by other people holding signs.

California promised accountability for inmate deaths in jails. A year later, no results.

Lawmakers passed a law creating a state department to review inmate deaths, but it hasn’t completed a single death review in its first year.

By David Myers

Commentary

Weekly Walters 06/07/2019

A collection of commentaries by Dan Walters over the past week.

Dan Walters

• June 7, 2019

Commentary

Politicians missing in action on housing

Midway through the legislative session, there's no discernible progress on solving California's housing crisis.

Dan Walters

• June 6, 2019

Commentary

President Trump, Please don’t go to Normandy

Thomas Umberg and Robin Umberg: President Donald Trump's presence at D-Day ceremonies in Normandy will remind the world that he disdains NATO and insults our coalition partners, while at the same time extolling the virtues of the dictators who lead our enemies.

Guest Commentary

• June 5, 2019

Commentary

How nurses and investment can help people rise from poverty

Lois Capps: Over 40 years of evidence shows that Nurse-Family Partnership reduces preterm birth, improves child health and school readiness, and reduces child abuse and juvenile crime. In addition, there are cost savings on medical care, child welfare, special education, and criminal justice.

Guest Commentary

• June 5, 2019

Commentary

Vaccination, abortion debates intertwined

California's vaccination controversy has a symbiotic relationship with the nation's abortion debate.

Dan Walters

• June 5, 2019

House surrounded by swirling cyclones of cash. Image by Nazneen Rydhan-Foster

Commentary

California lawmakers seem to think our housing crisis can wait. It can’t

Jared Martin: In this legislative session, our state’s leaders have spoken with great passion about solving the housing crisis. They say this is the most critical issue facing California. They question how our state’s future will look if we don’t act now. Yet lawmakers haven’t been willing to take the tough votes to move forward meaningful policy that advances the solution: supply.

Guest Commentary

• June 4, 2019

Commentary

Russia’s historians aren’t the only ones who distort D-Day history. Our textbooks do, too

Glenn Sacks: During the Cold War, Americans were rightly dismayed by 1970s Soviet history textbook’s portrayal of D-Day and America’s role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Current Russian textbooks and statements by some Russian leaders are similarly problematic. But they’re not the only ones distorting the truth. I know because I am a high school history teacher in the largest public school district in California.

Guest Commentary

• June 3, 2019

Aerial view of Shasta County's Keswick Dam area after the Carr Fire, Aug. 21, 2018. Kathleen Galligan, USA TODAY network. Used by permission.

California Wildfires

New budget omits an important piece of California’s disaster preparedness

Christian Giller: Inexplicably, the state budget process has left out support for air ambulance. The emergency services provided by air ambulances could disappear if a funding stream that expires at the end of this year is not replaced in the pending state budget.

Guest Commentary

• June 3, 2019

Commentary

A political deal comes full circle

It was late one night 40 years ago and Gov. Jerry Brown’s most important piece of legislation was in trouble. Brown wanted the Legislature to approve a 42-mile-long “peripheral canal” to carry water around the environmentally fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, thus closing the last major gap in the massive state water system that had been […]

Dan Walters

• June 3, 2019

Commentary

‘Moving the rain,’ creating California

We Californians grabbed nothing less than the edge of a continent, 1,000 miles in length. Highest mountain, lowest desert, longest coast, most epic valley, riparian forest, redwood forest, wetland, grassland and inland sea. The rain fell 125 inches a year in one place and seven inches a year in the other place. A land this crazy makes people crazy.

Guest Commentary

• June 2, 2019

California Voices

Viewpoints from across California