An image illustrating political infighting. (Image: Lightspring)California’s impending loss of a congressional seat may set off vicious intraparty fights not seen in California for nearly a decade. The conflict may happen because the state’s congressional districts will be redrawn on the basis of population figures from the 2020 census.
An oil pump at work in Kern County. (Photo: Ronnie Chua, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Gov. Newsom promised accelerated action on climate change. We’re still waiting.
Standing in the ashes of a forest ravaged by California’s worst-ever fire season, Gov. Newsom proclaimed last fall that our state was experiencing a “climate damn emergency,” and promised to accelerate climate efforts “across the entire spectrum.”
California's state Capitol in Sacramento, viewed from the 10th Street side. (Photo: Kit Leong, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Have you heard of the Capitol Annex Project? Probably not, though with a price tag of more than $1 billion (coming from taxpayers’ wallets), you should have. It’s no surprise the general public isn’t aware since this plan to uproot the Capitol grounds has been mired in secrecy since its inception.
Illustration of California by ymgerman, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Ten years ago, I sat in my office cubicle. I squinted to make out the grainy online image of Elaine Howle, the California State Auditor, pulling out a series of bingo balls. My desktop speaker crackled, and it was hard to read the numbers on the balls. I kept the volume low so my coworkers couldn’t eavesdrop.
A portion of California and its key regions in the 2021 redistricting. (Photo: Victor Maschek)The 2021 redistricting has begun in earnest with the seating of the first eight members of the California Citizens Commission, the so-called “Lucky Eight” because they were seated after a random draw of ping-pong balls. In the quarantine era, this drawing, carried live, likely qualified as riveting entertainment.
Detail of an antique California Bear Flag handerkerchief with detailed Grizzly Bear. Photo by the Bear Flag MuseumCalifornia’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission is generally regarded as a model of its kind, achieving balance and representation through a carefully constructed mix of quotas, political gamesmanship and random selection. How then, did the first round of new commissioners selected on July 2 (eight of a total of 14) fail to include a single Latino, the state’s largest ethnic group?
Health care workers in a hospital corridor. (Photo: Pixel-Shot, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California has a healthcare workforce crisis. Over the next decade, this state’s 39 million residents face a health worker shortfall of 4,100 primary care physicians and 600,000 home care workers, and we will have only two-thirds of the psychiatrists and mental health providers needed.
A concentrated solar energy thermal plant in the Mojave Desert. (Photo: Piotr Zajda, via Shutterstock)While utility responsibility related to California’s devastating wildfires is dominating headlines and the agendas of policymakers, flying below the radar is a pending decision from the California Public Utilities Commission to change the formula for a fee charged to energy consumers who leave the power supply of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) like PG&E and instead get power from local community choice aggregation programs, also known as CCAs.
The California Aqueduct, part of the State Water Project, flows by an almond orchard in the Central Valley. (Photo: Alabn, via Shutterstock)The State Water Project comprises 700 miles of tunnels, pipelines, aqueducts and siphons that transport water from California’s north to its more arid south, serving 26 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland along the way. It’s a huge project with a lot of infrastructure, and it’s most of what DWR does. But more than 60 years later, there is a move under way to take control of the project out of the hands of DWR and place it in an independent commission.
San Francisco skyline at sunset, as its electricity usage kicks in. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)OPINION: A current law that is supposed to protect seniors and all electricity customers from paying for power that was purchased for other customers is not working. A broad coalition of senior groups and dozens of others is encouraging the Senate committee to discuss the fair allocation of costs for clean energy and other long-term contracts that were purchased to meet our state’s clean energy goals