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...
$2 Trillion Stimulus Package Helps Wide Variety of Businesses and Workers
In my early twenties, I started a modest sandwich shop where I learned that even on good days, the margins are tight. The risk, sweat and stress that goes into starting, owning and operating a small business are so constant that one wonders what compels anyone to do it. The...
Frustrated Newsom Calls on Task Force to Fix Coronavirus Test Shortfall
California is finally making a dent in the backlog of tests for the novel coronavirus that, at peak, left 65,000 people waiting to find out if they were infected. But that still isn’t good enough, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a briefing Saturday where he announced a new effort to increase daily tests...
A Coronavirus Property Tax Delay? Californians Shouldn’t Count on It
The global pandemic notwithstanding, most California owners are still on the hook to pay their property taxes next week — thus far, the state isn’t granting any reprieves. Though both federal and state lawmakers postponed the deadline for income taxes through July 15, the statewide due date for homeowners and commercial real...
Fresno’s Doctor Shortage Just Cost the County 100 Coronavirus Emergency Hospital Beds
Fresno County has to give away 100 emergency field hospital beds intended to treat coronavirus patients because the Valley’s long-standing shortage of doctors means there aren’t enough medical professionals to monitor the patients. About 250 beds will be delivered to the county after state officials on Wednesday green light its...
Coronavirus Stretches California’s Special Ed System to the Brink
By Elizabeth Aguilera and Ricardo Cano, CalMatters In Modesto, Claire Lazaro is working full time while caring for her kids with autism. She worries about just how much progress her kids stand to lose now that they’re mostly without their critical hands-on services, such as her 11-year-old daughter’s one-on-one aide...