A dangerous herbicide banned immediately by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been sprayed on crops in many California counties and has contaminated groundwater in low concentrations in the Salinas Valley and Santa Barbara County. The weed-killing chemical, known as DCPA or Dacthal, can harm the developing brains of babies...
California’s Multibillion-Dollar Bet on Hydrogen Energy Comes With Major Downsides
The world is rushing to adopt clean energy technologies to combat the catastrophic effects of climate change — and rightly so. The stakes are too high for us to be doing anything less. But using our most vulnerable communities as testing grounds for experimental solutions is not an acceptable cost,...
California’s Two Biggest School Districts Botched AI Deals. Here Are Lessons From Their Mistakes.
With all the hubris of a startup founder, Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, took to the stage in March to launch Ed the chatbot. He told parents and students it had "the potential to personalize the educational journey at a level never before seen in this...
LGBTQ Library Material Came Under Fire in Fresno. Now California May End Book Bans.
The presentation was unassuming, just a handful of picture books arrayed on the side of a bookcase — the ABCs of a Pride parade, biographies of the gay World War II codebreaker Alan Turing and 50 LGBTQ+ people who made history, the sex education manual "It's Perfectly Normal," a retelling...
A Sikh Lawmaker Wrote a Bill to Protect Immigrant Activists. Could a Fight Over Caste Derail It?
A seemingly noncontroversial proposal to help California police identify and address instances of violence motivated by international politics is hitting a nerve among South Asian communities who believe they could be targeted by the bill. The new opposition to a law enforcement training bill by California's only Sikh state lawmaker...
A Soil Fungus That Can Kill Is on the Rise in California: What to Know About Valley Fever
It's shaping up to be a bad year — possibly the worst yet — when it comes to Valley fever, a fungal disease marked by cough and fevers. More than 5,300 cases have been reported in California through June, that's 63% more infections than the same period last year. Valley...
Toilet Paper and Flat Tires: The Strange Ways That Californians Ignite Wildfires
Of all the insidious threats faced by wildland firefighters — extreme heat, desiccated forests, unpredictable fire behavior and a nearly year-round fire season — what might be the most fearsome? Humans. People do dangerous things, things that start wildfires. Pushing a burning car into a gully. Mowing the lawn on...
California High Court Allows Lawsuit Over Single Use of N-Word in SF’s DA Office
Twanda Bailey didn't tell her supervisors that a colleague called her the N-word in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, but she said in court claims when they learned about it, her workplace was forever changed. In court records, she said a human resources officer seemed to mock her, jeering...
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash Workers Remain Contractors Due to California Supreme Court Ruling
In a major victory for gig-work companies, the California Supreme Court today upheld a voter-approved law that allows Uber and other app makers to treat their drivers and delivery workers as independent contractors instead of employees. The decision on Proposition 22 was unanimous. Approved by 58% of California voters in...
California Took Vacation Time From a Prison Doctor. Now It Has to Pay Him $1.8 Million
A jury last week awarded nearly $2 million to a former California prison psychiatrist who claimed the state retaliated against him when officials began raising questions about how he earned high incomes from two government agencies. A decade ago, Anthony Coppola held a senior position at a former state prison...