The Varsity Blues scandal, in which wealthy parents paid bribes to get their kids into elite universities, laid bare a hard truth about college admissions in California: Opportunity is not equal. Public educators and policymakers should take Varsity Blues as a challenge to level the playing field for students who...
Mitt Romney’s Vote to Remove President Trump Made This Californian Especially Proud
After 30 years in the business of politics, you find yourself to be alumni of several different campaigns. I’ve always been proud to be a Mitt Romney alum, as the California director of his 2008 presidential campaign. I had decided over a year beforehand that I wanted to work to...
California Just Finished Its Homeless Count. It's Sure to Be Inaccurate, and Politically Weaponized
By Manuela Tobias, The Fresno Bee and Matt Levin, CalMatters With yellow vests and flashlights, over 200 volunteers fanned out across Fresno to count homeless people on Tuesday night. Along the railway, one group walked by a freight container with a mattress and shoes inside, and past a dirt cot...
You’ve Been Named California’s Homelessness Czar. What’s Your First Move?
Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken grief for failing to fulfill what seems like a pretty achievable campaign promise: appointing a homelessness “czar” to help the 150,000 Californians living in shelters and on the streets. Newsom’s quest, which at various points had the mayor of Sacramento, the state secretary of health and human services and...
Opinion: California Must End the Plague of Human Trafficking. This Proposal Can Help.
Ending the plague of human trafficking is one of my top legislative priorities. Sadly, California is prime hunting ground for pimps and gangs to exploit human trafficking. There are a number of reasons for this including: The state’s growing under-18 population. The state’s network of highways providing quick access to...
Voters Beware of Our Populist Threat From Right and Left
We stand at the precipice of a significant tectonic shift in our political system. Similar to the profound disruptions the newspaper, music and transportation industries underwent some years ago, our democratic system, which is designed to be a lagging social indicator, is struggling to find a working model for a...
Injuries at Fresno’s Amazon Warehouse Are Triple Industry Average
Amanda Caballero wishes she could go back to work at Amazon. She made $15 an hour at the Fresno fulfillment center — several dollars more than the state’s minimum wage — and received more than three months of paid maternity leave. Her generous health insurance package covered her husband and...
Lyme Disease Led to My Daughter’s Death. Join the Fight Against Tick-Borne Disease.
My cause is personal, and my goal will not be deterred as I, and those joining with me, work to see that no other person suffers the way my daughter did. A small tick bit her. That eventually led to her death. In 21st Century America, this should not have happened....
Next Stop for Free College: Cal State University?
In yet another push to make higher education more accessible in California, a bill filed in the state Legislature last week would extend the state’s tuition-free college guarantee to four years — and beyond community college — for some students, making it one of the most generous programs in the...
Why One County Might Give $1,000 a Month to Youth Aging out of Foster Care
When Dontae Lartigue left foster care right before his 19th birthday in 2009, finding housing in Santa Clara County was one of his biggest obstacles. He struggled to find places he could afford on his $12 an hour wages at Walmart, and with a limited income and no rental history,...