Pacific Gas and Electric’s customers were warned about the cost of massive wildfires that it may have sparked. Even before California’s largest utility filed bankruptcy proceedings at the start of the year, lawyers, policymakers and consumer advocates all cautioned that the company’s liabilities in those fires would, one way or another, hit...
At UC Merced, a Pipeline for More Diverse Faculty
Alejandra Santoyo is drawn to the thrill of scientific discovery: identifying challenging questions and seeking her own answers. But even after declaring a major in cognitive science, the interdisciplinary study of how the mind works, the UC Merced student still didn’t know if she wanted to be a researcher. “I...
Newsom Signs Landmark Police Use-of-Force Bill
By Dan Morain and Laurel Rosenhall, CalMatters California will soon have a tougher new legal standard for the use of deadly force by police, under legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Monday that was inspired by last year’s fatal shooting of a young, unarmed man in Sacramento. Newsom signed the legislation...
Tired of Plastic Junk? Recycling Bills Propose Dramatic New Rules
As bills that take aim at plastic waste make their way through California’s legislature, the damage they intend to fix already is rippling through the state’s recycling economy. On Monday, rePlanet, a major collector of beverage bottles and cans, shut its 284 collection centers in California, citing lower subsidies from the...
Tired of Plastic Junk? Recycling Bills Propose Dramatic New Rules
As bills that take aim at plastic waste make their way through California’s legislature, the damage they intend to fix already is rippling through the state’s recycling economy. On Monday, rePlanet, a major collector of beverage bottles and cans, shut its 284 collection centers in California, citing lower subsidies from the...
Needy School Districts Getting More Money. What About Needy Kids?
Six years into California’s effort to target school funding more to disadvantaged students, new research has found that high-need districts are getting substantially more money. But the report released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California indicates poorer schools getting most of the extra help are relying on less experienced and...
Is Ethnic Studies Plan Too Politically Correct Even for California?
As Americans grapple with shifts in culture and demographics, majority-minority California is developing a high school curriculum in ethnic studies, one of the first nationally. Not long ago — while managing his extracurriculars and winnowing his college choices — Eli Safaie-Kia, 17, found time to discover a draft of it. Its contents were, in some...
Worried About Wildfires, Californians Ready for Action on Climate Change
A majority of Californians believe global warming is happening now and that it’s a serious threat to the Golden State’s future, according to the results of a recent poll. What’s more, Californians are ready to cast their votes and spend their money to fight it. The findings from the Public Policy Institute...
Let’s Be Blunt: Cannabis Consumers Need Protection
California boasts the strongest “lemon laws” in the country. Another law helps Californians make decisions about avoiding chemicals that could cause cancer or birth defects. A third law requires manufacturers of cleaning products to disclose ingredients. Now the California Legislature should get serious about protecting cannabis consumers from potentially serious public...
Postpartum Mental Illness: The Crisis No Expectant Mother Expects
Eva Schwartz didn’t have a history of mental illness. There were never any indicators that the birth of her first child would spark a years-long struggle that would threaten her marriage and her life. Schwartz was 29 in 2015, with a stable home life in Sacramento, as she awaited the...