December has delivered a powerful punch of storms to California. But the wet weather comes with a dry dose of reality: The state’s largest reservoirs remain badly depleted, projected water deliveries are low, wells are drying up, and the Colorado River’s water, already diminished by a megadrought, is severely overallocated. Throughout California, urban water...
CPUC Must not Push Solar Energy Beyond the Reach of the Poor
In pulpits and pews statewide, a quiet revolution has been rising, steady, and resolute. Black churches are mobilizing around climate and environmental justice issues, vowing to embrace sustainability and deploy renewable energy to help combat climate change. Green the Church is among those organizations leading the way in advancing social and...
Bring Back Phonics and California Students Will Be Better Readers
For most people, reading is second nature – it’s almost muscle memory. As you read the words on this page right now, you likely are not thinking about how you read or the mechanisms our brains use to decipher jumbled letters and words into cohesive concepts and sentences. We learned how to...
Help’s on the Way for California Truckers Grappling With EV Regs
Freight vehicles are one of the largest sources of air pollution in the state, and the East Bay and Central Valley are among the biggest emitters. Thirty percent of the jobs in Alameda County alone are tied to industries that move goods in and out of the Port of Oakland...
Supreme Court Case Could Give Dems Total Power Over CA House Seats
If you want to identify a single reason for the new Republican House majority, it could be as simple as pointing to California’s independent redistricting. Thanks to this process, the state’s Democratic Legislature has been denied the opportunity to gerrymander districts and maximize the party’s advantage for the past two...
Ex-CSU Leader Castro’s Cal Poly Teaching Job Stirs Controversy
Backlash is growing to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s granting of a teaching position to former Cal State chancellor Joseph Castro, who resigned in the wake of allegations he mishandled sexual harassment complaints against another administrator. The controversy over the appointment of Castro as a professor of leadership and public policy in...
Digging Into Newsom’s About-Face on Withholding $1B in Homeless Funds
Two weeks after withholding $1 billion in homelessness funding over lackluster local plans, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that most cities and counties would get the funds as early as next week anyway — as long as in the next round, they commit to more aggressive plans to reduce street homelessness. But...
State Can Help Valley Farmers by Supporting Solar Development
California’s largest farming region faces a daunting challenge. As farmers reduce their groundwater use under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the footprint of irrigated agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley will have to shrink. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that at least 500,000 acres of farmland will likely need to...
CA’s Proposed Zero-Emission Trucking Rules Ignore Years of Industry Concerns
On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board will hold the first of two hearings on the nation’s first zero-emission mandate for trucking fleets. The proposal completely ignores the numerous practical concerns the trucking industry has raised for years. In some respects, CARB regulating the trucking industry is nothing new. Since 2008,...
Answers to Your Questions About California’s Inflation/Gas Rebates
To help with the high price of gas — and the rising cost of living — California started sending payments ranging from $200 to $1,050 to residents in October. Whenever money might be headed to people’s bank accounts, they tend to have questions. We’ve already answered the basics, including who is eligible...