California has more than 41,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 but understanding precisely who has been tested and treated remains shrouded in mystery — and is key to ensuring equal access, according to advocacy groups seeking more transparency from the Newsom administration. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California wrote Gov....
California Farmworkers Need Protection During Coronavirus Crisis; Here’s a Relief Package to Help
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House is reportedly working behind the scenes to reduce wages for farmworkers. According to a recent National Public Radio report, the Trump administration claims that cutting wages for farmworkers will help agricultural businesses struggling during the current crisis. This is exactly the...
Harder Than Shutting Down: How Does Newsom Reopen California?
Restless Californians are letting Gov. Gavin Newsom know they’re over his statewide order to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. At noisy street demonstrations and in polite letters from government officials, they’re saying: Let us start getting back to normal. Other local leaders — still concerned about...
Shortage on a Stick: More Swabs on the Way, but That Won’t Solve California Test Gap
For all the talk of ventilators and new-fangled serological tests, it’s the shortage of glorified Q-tips that has brought California, the world’s fifth largest economy, to its knees. But that may be about to change. Fresh off a phone call with President Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the...
Your Next Boss Could Be an Undocumented Immigrant; Growing Number of Business Founders Lack Legal Status
At Immigrants Rising, the Bay-Area nonprofit where I’m director of Research and Entrepreneurship, the early-stage entrepreneurs we support resemble a lot of other ambitious, millennial CEOs. One of our Mexican founders built a digital platform teaching teenagers virtual reality. A Colombian founder is building an app for hiring coders. And...
Acts of Grace From Everyday Californians Are Getting Us Through
From inside our homes, this might seem the loneliest moment in modern history. Slowing coronavirus has meant many of us are physically cut off from friends and family, schools and workplaces, senior centers, book clubs and Little League teams. Yet woven throughout the horror of the present, evidence of grace...
California Water Policies Inhibit Food Production by Valley Farmers: Opinion
Over the past several weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has created images Americans never expected to see in this country: Empty supermarket shelves and people lined up outside of markets waiting to enter to purchase food. While the food supply chain in this country is strong, and American farmers certainly have...
Reopen California? That’s Toughest Phase Yet, Newsom says
By Ben Christopher and Rachel Becker, CalMatters When will Californians emerge from house confinement? What will life look like? In a roadmap unveiled Tuesday with top public health officials, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will not lift his shelter-in-place order until adequate suppression and mitigation measures are in place to...
Pandemic Reveals Need for Schools to Utilize Technology for Online Classrooms
When the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close this spring, it exposed the California Legislature’s lack of wisdom in approving a two-year moratorium on the expansion of distance learning in charter public schools. It’s not the decade of the 1990s or 2000s, it’s 2020. We are a fifth of the...
Collaboration Is Answer to California’s Fishery, Water Supply Challenges
California has the opportunity to enter a new era in water management. Unprecedented efforts by leaders at the state and national level have led to the kind of cooperation that will provide valuable benefits to water users and the environment. I know because that’s what we’ve been doing in the Sacramento Valley...