Goodbye, state of resistance. Hello, state of influence. California’s status has shifted dramatically with the election of Joe Biden as the next president. The reasons are both political — deep blue California will have more inroads to a White House controlled by Democrats — and personal: For just the second...
California’s Counters Still Have Millions of Ballots to Go
About 4.5 million ballots remain to be counted in the November presidential election, the California Secretary of State’s office said late Thursday. Most of those remaining — slightly more than 4 million — are vote-by-mail ballots. Every voter in California was mailed a ballot because of the pandemic. “In California, we work...
California Must Take These Two Steps to Better Combat Labor Trafficking
Two women, enticed by promises of well-paid work and plentiful opportunities, left their homelands for a better life in California. A nightmare awaited them. Upon arrival, Angela Guanzon was told she owed $12,000 to her employer and had to work 10 years at a nursing home to repay her debt....
Reform the Brown Act to Enhance Transparency and Public Access
The Ralph M. Brown Act represented major progress for transparency in California government when it was enacted in 1953. The law has ensured that generations of Californians have access to their local officials, that the public’s business be conducted in public and that decision-makers hear from their constituents before they...
What We Know So Far About School Reopenings in California
As more California public schools get set to reopen their campuses to students and teachers with a rhythm unseen in previous months, the pool of schools that have reopened so far have largely avoided triggering coronavirus outbreaks. Most of the school districts in the state that have physically reopened have implemented...
No Return to Lock ’Em Up — California Voters Stick With Less Punitive Justice
Over the last three decades, Californians have swung from “tough on crime” conservatism to a more lenient, less punitive approach to criminal justice. Based on the results of this year’s election, it doesn’t look like the pendulum is swinging back anytime soon. Already the state had gradually eased up on...
California Props and Hot Races Results: What We Know and Don’t Know
California’s app-based corporate luminaries such as Uber and Lyft just waged the most expensive state ballot measure campaign in U.S. history — and it paid off big time, allowing those companies to thwart the will of all three branches of California government. By approving Proposition 22, voters allowed those companies to avoid a 2019...
How Not to Freak Out: A User’s Guide to California’s Election Night Results
If you were looking for the best advice on how to spend the hours after the polls close on election night, here’s the best we have to offer: Go do something else. Turn off your TV, close your computer, put away your phone. Now go for a walk. Bake a...
Ziplocked: Last Look at California’s Presidential Money Race, by Zip Code
Vertiginous blue spires on the urban coast and crimson plateaus stretching from the Central Valley to suburban SoCal — this is the presidential race for California cash, in 3D. In the map below, each zip code is colored according to the candidate who amassed more individual contributions from its residents. That’s blue...
New Law Sets Gun Control to Autopilot in California
Thanks to a bill signed recently by Gov. Gavin Newsom, California consumers are going to see fewer handguns for sale in the Golden State. Assembly Bill 2847 solves no problems but creates yet another gun control hurdle for law-abiding firearm manufacturers and the consumers that rely on their products. Since an absurd...