With the House of Representatives back in session, we are pleased that one of the first items on its agenda will be consideration of the bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by the Senate last month. We hope our congressional representatives used their summer break to experience firsthand the desperate situation all...
Valley Sex Trafficking Victims Struggle to Find Jobs. Will This Bill Help?
When Arien Garcia first escaped from life as a victim of human sex trafficking, she struggled to find a job anywhere in Fresno. Her nonviolent criminal record always pushed her job applications to the bottom of the pile. She said she applied to “every McDonald’s and Taco Bell in Fresno...
Polling Error: How One Survey Changed Newsom Recall Campaign
The panic started to set in for California Democrats in the last week of July. First, there was a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll on July 27, which showed that likely voters were just about evenly split on whether or not Gov. Gavin Newsom deserves to keep his...
Bill to Decertify Police for Serious Misconduct Clears Legislature
California built up over decades some of the strongest legal protections for law enforcement officers in the country. It’s why a Danville police officer accused of wrongfully shooting a man in 2018 was able to stay on the streets, only to kill again earlier this year. And it’s why officers...
That Student in Your College Class Could Be a Scam Bot
On the first day of spring term this year, an aeronautics professor came to administrator Laura Hope to share something suspicious: Most of the students in his virtual class weren’t participating at all. Hope, the head of instruction at Chaffey College, a community college in Southern California’s Inland Empire, dove...
Not Enough Subs: CA Schools Face Severe Teacher Shortage
Kelly Rhoden, the principal at Nevada Union High School, spent her morning Monday scrambling to find substitutes for her absent teachers. The school, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, has 86 teachers. Thirteen were out on Monday. “We have quite a few teachers out either because they’ve tested positive, they’re...
Newsom Stimulus Left out Many Retirees, Vets, Disabled. Will They Vote to Recall Him?
Two weeks before voters decide whether to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom, a second round of stimulus payments is landing in the bank accounts of Californians who make less than $75,000 per year — with one glaring carve-out. To get the money, you must have earned income last year — for...
With Recall Looming, Newsom Gets Some Help From Friends in Legislature
Turns out 2021 is not a good year for Democrats to make California stand out too much for being weird. With Gov. Gavin Newsom facing a Sept. 14 recall election, fellow Democrats in the Legislature appeared to protect him from having to sign or veto some controversial measures as they...
How Much Will California’s EDD Scandal Cost Newsom in the Recall Election?
Had Ivy Bland been able to access more than $9,000 of locked unemployment benefits, she and her husband might have been able to put off their move to Florida. Had Lindsay Green’s benefits not been frozen due to suspected fraud, she might have kept her medical, dental and car insurance...
How Both Sides Weaponize California Unemployment Rate in Recall
Pop quiz: Is California (a) leading the nation in job creation (b) home to the country’s second-highest unemployment rate or (c) all of the above? The answer, believe it or not, is (c) — giving ammunition to both Gov. Gavin Newsom and the challengers seeking to oust him in the...