Image by lortie. OPINION – Just a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, the Sterigenics sterilization facility in Vernon poses a silent threat to surrounding communities. The plant uses ethylene oxide (EtO), a toxic gas classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known human carcinogen, to sterilize medical equipment. Yet, many residents are not aware of the dangers of what they’ve been breathing for years.
A groundwater monitoring well used for environmental groundwater sampling. Image by actualreece. OPINION – Across California, regulators maintain extensive records on contaminated bodies of water and hazardous remediation sites, especially in the Bay Area, Los Angeles Basin, and San Diego. Current policy allows polluted sites to be closed once they are deemed stable and pose minimal risk. But groundwater levels are climbing, and contamination that was once submerged is now at risk of being mobilized.
Image by orest86. OPINION – California promised sexual abuse survivors a chance to be heard. Los Angeles County promised taxpayers accountability. Both promises still stand. Fair is fair, but this time, fairness must belong to the people, not the powerful.
Cap and Trade image by WANAN YOSSINGKUMOPININ – California’s climate policies are impeded not by market volatility and unpredictability, but rather by indecision, the inability of the political establishment to decide what price we are able and willing to pay to mitigate climate change.
Image by SeventyFour.OPINION – Two recent federal lawsuits challenging an online safety law in Texas show that Big Tech doesn’t want to do its part to protect our kids. Far from being unconstitutional, Texas’s new law has charted the most privacy-protective and constitutionally sound approach to youth online safety that exists today.
Image by Andrzej Rostek. OPINION – Increasing costs for infrastructure development, regulatory and environmental compliance and climate resilience have made essential services such as water, energy and wastewater more expensive than ever.
Image by SandraMatic. OPINION – This week, 40,000 University of California workers will strike together across the state. All are members of AFSCME Local 3299, the people who clean patient rooms, prepare hospital meals, keep labs safe, move patients through care facilities, maintain campus infrastructure, and ensure students live and learn in functioning environments.
Image by AnnaStills. OPINION – When outside resources become scarce, individuals within social communities can work together to provide support for our own. It is easiest to help our folk if we have developed close relationships within our community.
Image by Natali_Mis. OPINION – Diabetes isn’t just a growing national concern – it’s a crisis in California. Too often, discussions about this alarming trend focus solely on medical treatments, lifestyle changes, or the rising use of GLP-1 medications. But there’s a critical part of the diabetes story we’re overlooking: oral health.
Image by PIKSEL. OPINION – Older adults are the fastest-growing demographic in the state, especially in rural areas, where one in 11 Californians are ages 65+. This rapid growth represents an opportunity to build a California where aging is not a challenge to solve, but an opportunity to ensure all Californians can age at home and in community