A gloved hand is holding a test tube, close to a multi-well plate, within a laboratory setting, highlighting scientific research.OPINION – California patients living with rare diseases and chronic conditions are enrolled into new clinical trials every day – not as a last resort, but as a pathway to better treatment and hope. Yet a bill moving through Sacramento could quietly put that progress at risk.
Rear view of a girl paddling in a kayak on the Sella river descent in Asturias, Spain. Active tourism activities. Rural tourism.OPINION – Republican Gov. Earl Warren’s avoidance of ideological excess established a style of governance that Gov. Jerry Brown, a Warren admirer, aptly described this approach as the “canoe theory”: “The way you have to approach the political process is something like piloting a canoe…. If you paddle a little bit on the left side, then you paddle a little bit on the right side, you keep going right down the middle.”
Image by Thawatchai Chawong. OPINION – As AB 1709 moves to the California State Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, lawmakers have an opportunity to get this right. Strengthen the definitions. Close the loopholes. Protect student privacy. And most importantly, ensure that parents—not tech companies—remain at the center of decisions about their children’s digital lives.
Image by ehrlifOPINION – When lawmakers passed Senate Bill 131, exempting more than 75 categories of industrial facilities from California’s landmark environmental review law, perhaps they assumed voters either weren’t paying attention or didn’t care.
Image by Love Employee. OPINION – Modern GLP-1 medicines are evidence-based therapies that help patients achieve meaningful, sustained weight loss and reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and orthopedic complications. For many patients, these medications can change the course of their health and prevent the very surgeries I perform.
Image by Zhanna Hapanovich. OPINION – If you want a front-row seat to how a civilization commits fiscal suicide while congratulating itself on its values, Sacramento is playing a sold-out show. Playing fast and loose with other people’s money has a name in my world: breach of fiduciary duty. In California, they call it governance.
Image by Arseniy45. OPINION – California’s gas prices have risen by over a dollar since the start of Trump’s war in Iran, with one-fifth of the world’s oil supply blocked at the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the oil industry has called for the state to substantially weaken and possibly delay climate regulations, notably the state’s backbone climate policy, cap-and-invest.
Image by Vadym Plysiuk. OPINION – The digital world is not going away, and our children are not immune from its effects. If we care about their futures, we must pair accountability with proactive safeguards.
Photo by Heidi Patricola. OPINION – The next nuclear revolution is already underway. Now is the moment for California to act decisively: commit to leading, mobilize its resources, and shape the future of clean energy, or risk being left behind as others seize the opportunity.
American Endurance, Jones Act tanker. Photo by Philly Shipyard.OPINION – Under the Jones Act, cargo moving between U.S. ports must be carried on American-built, American-flagged, and American-crewed vessels, including crude oil and refined petroleum products. The Trump administration has moved to wave the Jones Act, but California’s regulations, taxes, and other unique factors make any minor savings from this waiver a drop in the bucket.