This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. For the first time in California history, a county sheriff has been removed from office. The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to remove Sheriff Christina Corpus from office today, nearly a year after a damning...
Newsom Vetoes Car Dealers’ Bill to Hike Fees on Buyers
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed California’s car dealers to tack on another $175 in fees to the cost of buying a vehicle. On Monday, Newsom announced he wasn’t going to sign Senate Bill...
Protecting Jewish Students or Chilling Speech? Inside California’s ‘Hardest’ Fight Over Antisemitism
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Tears welling in her eyes, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan paused mid-sentence to calm herself on the Assembly floor. Almost a century ago, the Nazis forced her grandmother to flee Austria, leaving behind her great-great-grandmother who died in the Holocaust,...
Judge Shuts Down California Tribes’ Latest Bid to Crush Local Cardrooms
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Over the years, casino-owning tribes have spent millions in court, in the Legislature and at the ballot box trying unsuccessfully to force their only competitors out of California’s casino business. A judge on Friday, Oct. 10, blocked their...
Does Prop. 50 Divide California Communities? Depends How You Measure It
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. There’s no question that the proponents of Proposition 50 have a partisan goal. By seeking to adopt a map to put more Democrats in power in areas currently represented by Republicans, they are asking voters to temporarily bypass...
California’s Two-Tier Economy Mirrors Great Britain’s ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ Past
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Forty years ago this month, I began a 9,000-mile tour of California, gathering data, conversations and observations about megatrends propelling the state into the next century. The result was a 14-part series in the Sacramento Bee, later published...
Newsom Signs Bill to Prevent Sex Abuse in Schools
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California’s K-12 schools will take far-ranging steps to prevent sexual abuse on campus — including building a database of teachers under investigation for misconduct — under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Senate Bill 848, sponsored...
Federal Oversight Is Disappearing as Multiple Refineries Explode. Who’s in Charge Now?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. An explosion rattled windows across nearby neighborhoods. Orange columns of flame shot like blowtorches out of stacks and pipes, uncontrolled. The incident that shook Chevron’s El Segundo refinery last week once would have prompted a federal investigation. Not...
In the Central Valley, Prop. 50 Is a Fight Between Newsom’s California and GOP’s Washington
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Along the highways of California’s San Joaquin Valley, as field workers harvest almonds and pistachios and tractors churn dusty top soil into the already hazy air, drivers can’t miss the giant yellow billboards. “VOTE NO on PROP 50....
Regulators Know PG&E, Edison Are Slow to Hook up Solar. Why Are There No Penalties?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The state’s two largest utilities routinely drag their feet connecting solar panels to the electric grid, missing state-mandated deadlines as much as 73% of the time, according to a complaint filed to regulators by solar advocates. The complaint...