Spin-off: LAT awaits the unknown

by CONNOR GRUBAUGH posted 07.23.2014

A web page of the L.A. Times viewed through a magnifying glass. (Photo: Gil C., via Shutterstock)

For the 133-year-old Los Angeles Times and other print news publications adapting to the digital media age, the only thing that’s certain is an uncertain future. That became clearer than ever when the Tribune Company announced last week that on Aug. 4 it will create a new corporation known as the Tribune Publishing Company to take over its eight newspapers, including the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune.

News

Brown names new justice to state Supreme Court

by JOHN HOWARD posted 07.22.2014

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, 41, a Stanford Law School professor who was born in Matamoros, Mexico, and walked across the border each day to go to school in Texas, has been appointed to the California Supreme Court by Gov. Brown, the governor’s office announced today. Voters will be asked to approve the appointment on Nov. 4

Opinions

Election recounts: Reforms urged

A California voter casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5)

by JOHN MAA posted 07.21.2014

OPINION: In some states, a narrow margin of victory triggers an automatic statewide recount at no cost to the candidate. California does not have such a provision, and I believe we need one.

News

State miscalculated number of Medi-Cal doctors

by HANNAH GUZIK posted 07.18.2014

The California agency that oversees the state’s low-income health plan vastly overstated the number of doctors who accepted patients through the state program last year, even as the number of people enrolled in the program was set to skyrocket under the federal Affordable Care Act, the California Health Report has found.

News

UC Berkeley’s handling of rape complaints draws fire

Students walk across the campus at UC Berkeley. (Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman, Christian Science Monitor, via AP)

by MIA SHAW posted 07.18.2014

UC Berkeley – under federal investigation for its handling of sexual assault complaints and the target of a critical state audit – has a flawed system for dealing with rape allegations and an internal procedure that critics say shields assailants from criminal charges. The school is one of 55 campuses across the country being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for allegedly mishandling cases of sexual assault.

News

District by district, data tells the tale in California

An abstract rendering of multi-faceted California. (Flip Bjorkman)

by CONNOR GRUBAUGH posted 07.17.2014

While most indicators signal an economic upswing in California, the reality facing many residents of the Golden State is simple: On the ground, the recovery is still sluggish. Nowhere is that more apparent than in a newly developed database that includes detailed economic information on each of California’s 120 legislative districts and 58 counties.

Opinions

The fallacy of forest ‘offsets’

Banana trees in the forest at Agua Azul waterfall, Chiapas, Mexico. (Photo: Elisa Loco)

by AMY MOAS posted 07.17.2014

OPINION: When it comes to reducing California’s climate emissions, should we allow companies to pollute our local communities, while paying our neighbors in Mexico to clean up the carbon? Should we gamble our climate policies on saving trees in other countries that can easily be destroyed by forest fires, just so that we can indulge in our own emissions instead of reducing them responsibly?

Opinions

Changes urged in the franchise system

by Jaspreet Dhillon posted 07.17.2014

OPINION: There are more than 80,000 franchised enterprises in California, employing nearly a million people. Increasingly franchise owners are seeing our rights slip away as lopsided franchise agreements protect the interests of multi-national franchisors rather than small business owners.

News

Fleshing out the CalPERS scandal

by ED MENDEL posted 07.16.2014

After former CalPERS chief executive officer Fred Buenrostro pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud conspiracy last week, he now must earn a reduced sentence by helping prosecutors convict the man who allegedly bribed him, Alfred Villalobos.