Posts Tagged: communities
News
For decades, Californians and their representatives in the state Capitol had a “lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the-key” approach to lawbreakers. But that view is changing. Following years of a steadily increasing prison population and some communities repeatedly being devastated by crime, public discussion has shifted in part toward reforming law enforcement’s approach to crime prevention.
News
Voters may be apathetic on Election Day, but there are some people in California who are excited indeed about the ballot – those who have a big pocketbook interest in the outcome. Campaign spending on six ballot propositions has approached a quarter-billion dollars – a hefty price tag, even in California
Opinion
OPINION: During his 14 years in the Legislature, Darrell Steinberg has been an exemplary public servant and, arguably, the state’s greatest legislative champion of this marginalized and, oftentimes, stigmatized population. He achieved unprecedented success in expanding mental health services.
Opinion
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?
News
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.
Opinion
OPINION: There is an Armenian proverb: “On a rainy day many offer to water the chickens.” And in a very dry year there are many who want to follow the call to tear out their lawns. The call is coming from the Department of Water Resources and others for urban homeowners to start tearing out their lawns, with financial incentives for doing so.
News
It’s enough water to fill Lake Oroville and more, and it’s flowing out on to lawns and landscapes in cities and communities across the state each year, according to the Department of Water Resources (DWR). But with the state deep in drought and water supplies dwindling, there’s a movement underfoot that’s hoping to change that.
News
Four years after California voters in a bruising, $46 million ballot fight turned down a plan to limit the ability of local communities to set up their own utility districts and energy providers, the issue is back. This time, voters won’t be weighing in: It‘s in the form of a bill before lawmakers.
News
As the warm temperatures melt California’s meager snowpack, turning rivers into streams and streams into mere trickles, communities and farmers across the state will be increasingly turning to groundwater to meet customer demand and to keep crops and livestock alive. But there’s a problem: Many will be drawing from aquifers already depleted and long under stress as groundwater levels in many basins across the state are reportedly at historic lows.
Opinion
Imagine being pick-pocketed every time you show up to work. For thousands of low-wage workers right here in the Bay Area, that’s the sad reality they face each day. Their employers, mega-corporations in the fast food industry, are illegally downsizing workers’ paychecks in much the same way they supersize a meal.
An inmate gestures through the bars of his prison cell. (Photo: Sakhorn, Shutterstock)
