Posts Tagged: agencies

News

The invisible children of California

Children at a "Day Without an Immigrant" rally in Los Angeles. (Photo: Krista Kennell, via Shutterstock)

California has hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children that cannot be accounted for. They are among the estimated 45,704 unaccompanied undocumented minors who were apprehended by federal authorities between Oct. 1, 2017 and Aug. 31, 2018 as they tried to enter California through its southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

News

CA ‘rape kit’ backlog under fire

A posed image of a rape victim in a dark tunnel, with the shadow of the rapist in the background. (Photo: ChameleonsEye, via Shutterstock)

Thousands of  California women who said they were raped gave details of their assaults to investigators and provided critical data in “rape kits” — DNA, wounds, semen, hair, fibers — to identify their attackers. But many of the rape kits were not examined in a timely way, caught in a backlog that has angered some lawmakers and women’s groups.

Opinion

The wall: Ban on contractors is misguided

A portion of the dividing line between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, Calif. (Photo: Sherry V. Smith, Shutterstock)

OPINION: Public discourse over the construction of the Trump Administration’s border wall is rife with disagreement. However, a few elected officials have taken the absurd step to attempt to punish any company that does not share their political values on the subject.

News

Inside the Capitol — procedurally

The California State Senate in Sacramento. (Photo: Trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)

This is the fourth in a series of detailed articles about the inner workings of the state Capitol relating to structure, rules and procedures — including a look at vetoes and the budget.

Opinion

Wanted: An early warning system for local governments

Pedestrians crossing Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. (Photo: Sean Pavone, Shutterstock)

OPINION: Back in 2012, then Treasurer Bill Lockyer called for an early warning system that would give state officials time to proactively address local government fiscal emergencies before they wound up in bankruptcy court. We are now five years closer to the next recession and its attendant set of local government financial crises, but the state has made little progress toward implementing Lockyer’s proposed system.

Opinion

Fighting Trump’s ‘dirty air’

A black-and-white view of smoggy Century City, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. (Photo: trekandshoot)

President Trump, his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Republican leaders in Congress have all declared plans to allow the oil and coal industries to extract, transport and burn dirty fuels with little restraint, to quash the free expression of science within the federal government, and to neuter the agencies that are supposed to safeguard our air and atmosphere.

Opinion

Climate change: Pollution hits low-income communities hardest

Downtown Los Angeles seen through the smog. (Photo: Justin Dennis, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: There are a lot of questions surrounding California climate policy right now. For me, growing up in Watts, Los Angeles, the most important question is: how will state climate policies help low-income communities and communities of color?

Analysis

LAO in retrospect: A conversation with Elizabeth Hill

Former Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill at one of her last official budget briefings. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)

Elizabeth Hill became the first woman to head the California Legislative Analyst’s Office in 1986 when she was eight months’ pregnant with her second child. For 22 years, she held one of the most important positions in state government — advising the 120-member Legislature during fractious times and sometimes clashing over policy recommendations in an increasingly partisan environment beset by the passage of term limits, deep budget cuts, and recession.

News

Despite drought, water conservation not a priority

Millerton Lake in Fresno County formed by the Friant Dam. Photo: K.J. Kolb

Californians in cities and towns across the state cut their water usage only slightly – 2.8 percent — during February compared with the same month in 2013, an indication that despite the severity of the drought, conservation is not taking hold. Felicia Marcus, the chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said “the February results are very disturbing.”

News

Drought: New battle, old weapons

The dry bed of Ivanpah Lake in San Barnardino County, which had been filled by the 2004-05 rains. (Photo: Ed Berlen)

With four fifths of California suffering through extreme drought, the state is poised to impose conservation measures last seen nearly 40 years ago during an earlier, unprecedented parched period. There will be restrictions on lawn watering, car and pavement washing, runoff, fountains and the like, with violations of up to $500 a day.

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