The pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA last week became the latest campus tinderbox to erupt. As the police response unfurled before our eyes, I watched, not as a layman, but from the perspective of someone who has worn the boots that stand between calm and chaos. I retired as a lieutenant...
Californians Are Protecting Themselves from Wildfire. Why Is There an Insurance Crisis?
Spend any time thinking or talking about insurance in California these days and you’re bound to hear the word “mitigation.” Fire officials, lawmakers, insurance agents and others are asking homeowners to help lower the risk of devastating wildfires by making improvements to their properties — in some cases at great...
More California High School Students Want Career Training. How the State Is Helping
A school without steers? Unthinkable, said Mason Tucker, a 10th-grader at Madera South High School north of Fresno. “When I found out there were all these animals here, I thought, I can do this in school? I have to be here,” said Tucker, who commutes 40 minutes each way to...
California Officials Debate Prop. 47 Changes to Curb Crime. On the Street, Answers Aren’t That Simple.
The money at Colonial Donuts was gone before dawn, again. This time, so was the cash register. Three people had walked in just before 6 a.m on March 1. One jumped over the counter and ripped out the register. Another held up a golf club. The other used the shop’s...
California Legislation Wants to Uncover the ‘Hidden Homicides’ of Domestic Violence
A state senator says there’s a “hidden homicide” epidemic of killers making domestic violence murders look like suicides or accidents. Her bill would give families a right to seek an independent review of death investigations. Joanna Lewis’s family never believed she took her own life. In 2011, investigators found her...
Judge Rejects Changing the Name of California’s Trans Youth Ballot Measure
A group working on a fall ballot initiative that would limit the rights of transgender students lost a round in court Monday when a judge sided with the state in its description of the measure. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto ruled that Attorney General Rob Bonta’s title, “Restricts...
Newsom Wants to Make It Easier for Arizona Women to Get a California Abortion
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest moves to defend abortion rights are aimed at a neighbor, plus a Deep South state. Targeting Arizona, he is pushing legislation to make it easier for that state’s residents to obtain abortion services in California, following the Arizona high court’s ruling upholding an 1864 abortion ban,...
California Leaders Take Sides in Monumental Supreme Court Case on Homelessness
The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear the biggest case about homelessness in decades, and it seems like everyone in California has an opinion. At issue: whether and under what conditions cities can fine or arrest people for camping in public spaces. The ruling will have nationwide implications for...
McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines Are So Unreliable They’re a Meme. They Might Also Be a Climate Solution.
McDonald’s might just be a new frontier in our fight against the climate crisis. Yes, that McDonald’s. Specifically, their infamous ice cream machines. Over the last few years, these machines have become a public laughingstock due to their tendency to break down and the inability of individual restaurants to fix...
Vital Climate Tool or License to Pollute? The Battle Over CA’s First Carbon Capture Project
In western Kern County, where rolling hills are punctuated by bobbing rigs, the state’s largest oil and gas producer is betting that a novel technology will stave off the extinction of California’s fossil fuel industry. The proposal has split this region, known as California’s oil country: Some want a future...