It’d be just another normal day, nearly 17 feet above Highway 101 in Agoura Hills. A southern alligator lizard and a western toad hide from the heat in the greenery of restored native vegetation. Mountain lion cubs pounce on rocks and spring into the nearby canyons. The sun glints on...
Opinion: California’s Budget Plan Doesn’t Do Justice to Needed Water Storage
Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative Democrats had the opportunity to alleviate the state’s twin crises of drought and wildfire by including resources for ongoing funding, prescribed burning and water storage in this year’s budget. These solutions are not new, but they require political will. In light of the haunting memories...
Timing of State Reservoir Activity Needs Scrutiny: Reader Reaction
Re “California Drought sharpens perpetual water conflict”; Commentary, Dan Walters, June 16, 2021 Thank you for the excellent article setting the table for what’s coming politically, legally, and in reality. I think one paragraph deserves more elaboration. You state that “the export limit’s effect on Southern Californian water users would...
This Central Valley Town is Without Running Water — in a Heat Wave
This is how California’s water crisis is going these days: The only functioning well in the rural community of Teviston broke in early June, leaving more than 700 residents without running water as temperatures in the Central Valley soared to triple-digits in a drought. “It’s day to day” for the...
Opinion: Housing Reform Bill Would Right Some of Redlining’s Wrongs
Misperceptions about proposed land use reforms in Senate Bill 9 — which would make it legal to build duplexes in California — paint an entirely inaccurate picture of developers rushing into middle- and working-class communities of color to tear down homes and build expensive apartments in their place. To the...
Opinion: California Must Keep High-Speed Rail on Track
Although I work in Chicago, I have spent the last few months laser-focused on California, communicating with dozens of assemblymembers and senators from all over the state. Why is a national nonprofit in Chicago so focused on your state? Because what happens in California is a precursor for what changes...
California’s Affordable Housing Efforts Meet Wall of Union Resistance
California lawmakers introduced several bills this year that would rezone empty strip malls and big-box stores across the state to allow for new housing development without undergoing lengthy and costly local approvals. Two are sailing through the Legislature. The other died early on. A key difference? The successful bills had...
Universal Basic Income for Farmworkers? Hurtado Pushes for It
A Fresno-area politician wants California to prioritize struggling San Joaquin Valley farmworkers in a proposed pilot program that would put cash in the hands of some the state’s impoverished residents. State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Democrat from Sanger, issued a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom last week urging the state to prioritize...
Tulare County’s Relentless Drought Brings Dry Wells and Plenty of Misery
Severe drought is gripping most of California, but its misery isn’t spread equally. While most of the state compares today’s extreme conditions to previous droughts, people in Tulare County speak of drought — in the singular, as in a continuous state of being. “The drought has never stopped in north...
There Are No Latino Judges in Madera, Kings, and Merced Counties
BY BYRHONDA LYONS CalMatters Outside the Colusa County Courthouse Annex, 21-year-old Lorenzo Acosta takes a few puffs from his vape cartridge to calm himself before walking into court to support a friend. Acosta acknowledges he’s been “in the system,” so he knows how it all works here. He knows the...