It wasn’t front-page news when the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued two of the biggest credit repair companies in America: Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com. But it got the attention of consumer advocates and should get the attention of lawmakers. These companies are accused of illegally charging consumers upfront for credit repair services...
Lawsuit: California Should Open Presidential Primary to Independents
The way California holds its presidential primary violates the constitutional rights of political independents and misuses taxpayer dollars to “benefit wholly private political parties,” a nonpartisan election group will argue in a lawsuit it says it will file this week against the state. A draft filing from by the Independent Voter...
Podcast: What Happens to Housing Costs After the Big Quake Hits?
California was lucky. Again. The major earthquakes that rattled the Mojave Desert town of Ridgecrest earlier this month — a magnitude 6.4 temblor on July 4th followed a few days later by a whopping 7.1 quake felt throughout Southern California — were far from major population centers. Damage to people...
Preschool Teachers Ask Why ‘Cashiers at McDonalds’ Get Better Pay
Preschool teacher Lorena Gomez’s work days begin at 6:30 a.m. when she welcomes a dozen 3-year-olds into her classroom. Every day, Gomez spends nine hours standing, sitting and crouching at the height of a toddler, passing out snacks, overseeing playtimes and teaching tiny Californians their numbers, shapes, colors, letters, and...
California’s Struggle to Get Food Stamps to the Hungry
California, a state with the nation’s highest poverty rate, consistently ranks near the bottom when it comes to enrolling low-income people in CalFresh, the state’s name for the federal food stamp program. That translates to a lot of federal money that California forsakes each year. Low-income Californians would have received...
Where Trump’s California Funders Are, and What They’re Giving
This may come as surprise to the president, the national media and more than a few Californians, but there are plenty of Trump supporters in the “Resistance State.” And since the beginning of the year, they’ve been spending a lot of money to keep the president in the White House....
See Democrats Scramble for California’s Cash in 5 Charts
While California Sen. Kamala Harris has harvested more than $7.5 million here this year in her bid for the presidency, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, outraised her in her own state in the year’s second quarter. Even so, she bested Mayor Pete Buttigieg in California dollars in the past...
In California, We Long Ago Ended ‘War on Coal’
In a series of demagogic tweets, President Donald Trump recently attacked Obama-era “clean power plan” policies as a “war on coal” and a danger to U.S. energy independence. If there is a war on coal — as the president thinks — it’s long been decided in California and most of...
40 Years of Lies Stigmatizing 'Teenage Pregnancy' Are Enough
In 1960, one in 10 California women ages 15-19 gave birth. By 1975, just 5% did. What caused that phenomenal drop? Not abortion. The teen birth decline was well underway before California legalized abortion in 1967. Not sex education, which barely existed back then. Two factors explain why 1960s teenagers...
California Shouldn't Ignore Hydropower in Climate Change Fight
Is the cleanest, greenest electricity in the world green enough for California? For years, the people of the northern San Joaquin Valley have been trying to get hydropower recognized for what it is: the original source of clean electricity. Our efforts have been stymied by people who feel entitled to...