Proposition 19 shares one characteristic with most of the other 11 measures on California’s ballot this year: It rekindles a political conflict from years past. However, Proposition 19 has meandered a particularly convoluted pathway to the ballot, which explains why it wound up with three distinct sections, to wit: —It would...
Hot, Dry Conditions Continue to Stoke Glass and Zogg Wildfires
SAN FRANCISCO — Flames devoured swaths of brush and trees in Northern California on Wednesday amid unseasonably hot and dry weather. High winds that spread new fires this week in the Napa and Sonoma wine country and in a far northern area of the state were reduced to breezes, but...
Walters: High Housing Costs Keep Californians Poor
Congratulations California, you’ve done it again. The Census Bureau has once again found that California has the highest real-world poverty rate of any state, 17.2% over the previous three years and much higher than the national rate. The “supplemental” poverty rate includes factors ignored by the outdated “official” poverty rate, such...
California Sues US Regulator in Bid to Deter ‘Ghost Guns’
SACRAMENTO — Backed by the fathers of two slain children, California's attorney general sued the Trump administration on Tuesday in an effort to crack down on so-called “ghost guns” that can be built from parts with little ability to track or regulate the owners. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,...
California Prosecutor: Driver Tried to Kill Trump Protesters
LOS ANGELES — The organizer of a Southern California rally against racism was charged with attempted murder Tuesday for driving her car into a crowd of counterprotesters. Orange County prosecutors said Tatiana Turner deliberately drove into a crowd of President Donald Trump's supporters with the intent to kill a woman,...
Bill to Reduce Probation Time Could Help Offenders Successfully Re-Enter Society
As states continue to grapple with fixing aspects of our criminal justice system from the top, they should keep an eye on California and a bill sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk that looks to modify how courts handle probation in the state. Nearly a quarter of a million people...
Dying Winds Give Crews Hope in Northern California Fires
SAN FRANCISCO — Easing winds gave California firefighters a break Tuesday as they battled a destructive wildfire that was driven by strong winds through wine country north of San Francisco and another rural blaze that killed three people. Breezes replaced the powerful gusts that sent the Glass Fire raging through...
Walters: New Housing Goals Stir Opposition
As this much-troubled year began, the twin crises of homelessness and a broader housing shortage were, by common consent, California’s most pressing political issues. Gov. Gavin Newsom devoted almost all of his State of the State address to them in February and legislators introduced dozens of housing bills. Within a...
New California Fire Scorches Wine Country Near San Francisco
ST. HELENA — California firefighters battled destructive new wildfires in wine country north of San Francisco Monday as strong winds fanned flames in the already badly scorched state. The new fires erupted Sunday in the famed Napa-Sonoma wine region and in far Northern California’s Shasta County, forcing hasty evacuations of...
Newsom Signs Law to Grow Mental Health Coverage
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law on Friday that for the first time in California defines “medical necessity," a move aimed at requiring private health insurance plans to pay for more mental health and drug addiction treatments. State and federal laws already require health insurance companies to handle...