Early reports indicate children infected by the coronavirus experience a milder response than older adults. But as it arrives in Northern California, school and college officials are preparing for a growing likelihood that the highly contagious virus will disrupt learning and spark panic in young people and their naturally protective caretakers. As...
Latino Small Business Owners Are Fastest-Growing U.S. Entrepreneurs
On the weekends, Salinas food truck owner Orlando Osornio, 30, and his wife, Denise, sell mile-high tortas, filled with California fusion-inspired ingredients: hot Cheetos, bacon, mango-habañero sauce, or pineapple. Some come for the birria torta or the chicken-bacon-alfredo torta. A line of customers winds its way around the side of...
State Opens Investigation Following CalMatters’ Report on Tech Foundation
California’s political watchdog is investigating fundraising practices by Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low after CalMatters reported that he had stopped disclosing donors to a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Legislature’s technology caucus, which he chairs. The chief of enforcement for the Fair Political Practices Commission wrote in a letter to Low that she had begun...
California Low on Test Kits and Face Masks in Its Battle Against Coronavirus
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that the state is monitoring 8,400 people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus and has only 200 kits for diagnosing it, even as California is addressing the problem with urgency. Other officials said the state may not have enough face masks to protect...
Governor: Coronavirus Changing 'By the Hour' in California
As the number of cases and urgency around the coronavirus increases, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that California is on high alert and working closely with the federal government on the return of Americans from overseas. But in a state that has more people in quarantine than any other, many...
Steak Dinners, Secret Donors: How the Tech Caucus Is Courting Silicon Valley With Charity
On a recent afternoon, more than a dozen California lawmakers gathered to discuss thorny issues impacting a state that is the cradle of technological innovation — but also suffering from wildfires, aging infrastructure, and vast economic inequality. On the agenda: how to maintain wireless phone service during emergencies; how to...
How Is This Poor, Rural District Keeping Kids in School?
At a time when rural schools all over California struggle to keep students in school, a three-year-old experiment in the southern Fresno County community of Parlier is showing some interesting results. And, officials say, chronic absenteeism isn’t the only problem the Parlier experiment may eventually solve. Like many Central Valley...
California Analysts Urge Lawmakers: Reject Gov. Newsom’s $1 Billion Climate Loan Proposal
Nonpartisan policy analysts took aim at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to use $1 billion in state funds to seed innovative climate change efforts, questioning the state’s ability to even identify the right projects. The Climate Catalyst Loan Fund, which Newsom called for in his $222.2 budget proposal for next year, would offer low-interest loans to...
California Settles Lawsuit With Agreement to Spend $50M for Kids Who Can't Read
The state of California on Thursday agreed to settle a years-long, high-profile lawsuit that accused the state of depriving low-income students of color of their constitutional right to a basic education — by failing to teach them reading skills. Under an agreement reached with plaintiffs in the complaint, Ella T. v....
The New Thing for California Politicians? Sweet Charity
The California Legislature’s Latino Caucus recently circulated a memo offering a potential perk for members: A trip to Cuba to learn about “culture, history and possibly government structure and policy making.” The caucus’ nonprofit foundation, the memo said, would help pick up the tab. A visit to Israel for the...