SACRAMENTO — Desperate for more housing in the nation's most populous state, the leader of the California Senate committed Thursday to passing a law this year to add more housing in a state facing a shortage of 3.5 million homes. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins' comments came moments after...
California Completes 34 Land Projects to Slow Wildfires
SACRAMENTO — California has completed 34 of the forest-thinning projects it rushed to finish in the past year as a way to buffer 200 communities at high risk from wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. His office said two of the projects helped protect Santa Barbara residents during a fire...
High-Profile Housing Bill SB 50 Fails to Pass State Senate
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers have failed to pass the most ambitious proposal yet to combat a growing housing crisis in the nation's most populous state, voting down legislation twice in two days that would have overridden local zoning laws to let developers to build small apartment buildings in neighborhoods reserved...
Buttigieg Endorsed by Major California, Nevada LGBTQ Group
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has won the backing of Equality California, one of the nation's largest LGBTQ membership organizations, and its Nevada partner organization, an endorsement that could give him a boost in critical Western primaries. While Buttigieg is the only openly gay candidate in the race, his endorsement...
Walters: Community College Report Ignores Reality
The Legislative Analyst’s Office, which advises state lawmakers on budgetary matters, prides itself on taking an independent, nonpartisan and even nonpolitical approach to important policy issues. That well-established tradition continues in a new LAO report on a pilot program that allows a few community college districts to offer four-year degrees in a...
California Tests Find Illegal Vapes Tainted With Additives
LOS ANGELES — California officials announced Monday that marijuana vape cartridges seized in illegal shops in Los Angeles contained potentially dangerous additives, including a thickening agent blamed for a national outbreak of deadly lung illnesses tied to vaping. Officials also found that the illegal vapes confiscated in the December raids...
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...
Mongolia Closes Border, China Extends Holiday to Fight Virus
BEIJING — China on Monday expanded its sweeping efforts to contain a deadly virus, extending the Lunar New Year holiday to keep the public at home and avoid spreading infection as the death toll rose to 81. Mongolia closed its vast border with China, and Hong Kong and Malaysia announced...
Kobe Bryant Left Deep Legacy in LA Sports, Basketball World
LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant inspired a generation of basketball players worldwide with sublime skills and an unquenchable competitive fire. He earned Los Angeles’ eternal adoration during his two decades as the fierce soul of the beloved Lakers, and he was respected by basketball fans from every place with a...
Walters: California’s Big Educational Dilemma
California’s largest, most important — and perhaps most troubled — governmental program is the education of nearly 6 million elementary, middle and high school students. Federal, state and local taxpayers are spending more than $100 billion each year on the assumption, or hope, that the state’s 944 school districts, ranging...