LOS ANGELES — The number of cases of three major sexually transmitted diseases in California reached a 30-year high in 2018, according to a state report released Tuesday. More than 336,000 cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported last year, as rates of all three STDs continued to increase...
California Eases Mandatory Sentences, Restricts Body Cameras
SACRAMENTO — California will soon end some mandatory sentences, make it easier to expunge old criminal records, bar charging inmates for medical care and ban police from using facial recognition software on body cameras under more than two dozen criminal justice bills that freshman Gov. Gavin Newsom announced signing into...
Newsom Signs Statewide Rent Cap Law
SACRAMENTO — California will limit rent increases for some people over the next decade after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday aimed at combating a housing crisis in the nation's most populous state. Newsom signed the bill at an event in Oakland, an area where a recent report...
Power Outages Begin in California Amid Hot, Windy Weather
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric shut off power to more than a million people Wednesday for what could be days on end, in the most sweeping effort in state history to prevent wildfires caused by windblown power lines. The move came after two years of catastrophic fires sent...
Walters: Holding Schools Accountable
Educational accountability is attracting a lot of political attention — or perhaps lip service — these days in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed two bills touted as bringing more accountability to education. One, Assembly Bill 1505, applies new controls on charter schools that receive public funds but are independently managed...
Governor Newsom: Trump 'Corrupt,' Should Be Removed
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom has all the evidence to believe "completely corrupt" President Donald Trump should be removed from office by Congress, but with Republicans in control of the U.S. Senate he says the best way to boot Trump from the White House is at the ballot box. "I...
California Faces Historic Power Outage Due to Fire Danger
SAN FRANCISCO — Two years to the day after some of the deadliest wildfires tore through Northern California wine country, a utility announced Tuesday it will shut off power to more than 800,000 customers in the largest preventive outage in state history — to try to prevent wildfires caused by...
Will US Supreme Court End Inclusionary Zoning?
In a story that largely has flown under the radar, a major case involving inclusionary zoning in California could be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. A tip of the hat to City Lab's Kriston Capps for his story about a fight over inclusionary zoning in Marin County that began...
Parole Denied Again in Chowchilla School Bus Hijacking
SACRAMENTO — California officials again rejected parole Tuesday for the last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children for $5 million ransom more than four decades ago. State parole officials decided that Frederick Woods, 67, can try again in five years. It's the 17th time...
With No El Nino, How Does California's Winter Shape Up?
Back in August, blogger Nat Johnson declared the El Niño of 2019 "officially done." Johnson isn't just any blogger, either. His day job is with the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Listen to this article: The question is, what will winter 2019-2020 look like in California? Will we have a...