Royce Hall at UCLA, one of four original buildings at the university's Westwood campus. (Photo: Ken Wolter, via Shutterstock) The longest walkout in the history of U.S. higher education is over, but a critical question remains: Will the new contracts do enough to improve the living and working conditions that drove the academic workers to launch the 40-day strike?
A doctor and her patient have a consultation over medical care. (Photo: Andrei_R, via Shutterstock)OPINION: As health care delivery evolves thanks to advances in data sharing and technology, it’s important that health systems harness the availability of these new tools to improve transparency, information dissemination and communications between doctor and patient, allowing them to better work together to make vital health decisions.
Amid a drought, a leaking hose in Scotts Valley, a Santa Cruz County area south of San Jose. (Photo: Michael Barajas, via Shutterstock)OPINION: With climate change, our boom and bust cycle of rainy vs dry years will mean fewer rainy years and longer, more frequent dry years. We’ve all been doing our part to conserve water during this drought, but according to figures provided by state water regulators, it’s not enough.
A dining room at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, which closed last year. (Photo: CDCR)With California’s prison inmate population flatlining, authorities are pondering the closure of three institutions. But many questions remain. The 2022-2023 state budget notes that there is a possibility of three prison closures during 2024 and 2025, based at least in part in the reduction of California’s prison population to about 94,000 in prisons and camps
Homes destroyed during the Thomas fire in Ventura, 2018. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Increasingly, California residents have been left with no choice but to accept the California FAIR Plan, the insurer of last resort, and the typically higher rates that come with it. The FAIR Plan provides basic fire insurance coverage when traditional insurance is not available, often for properties that other insurers decline to cover because they are considered high-risk.
The pharmaceutical section of a Costco store in Folsom, Calif. (Photo: Cassiohabib, via Shutterstock)OPINION: When the COVID-19 pandemic again reinforced that California’s communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of public health threats, some California lawmakers made promises about closing gaps in health equity and access. More than two years later, however, many Californians inhabited by its most diverse populations are still struggling to access and afford their health care.
Photo illustration of money and medical care. (Image: ShutterstockProfessional, via Shutterstock)OPINION: If passed, SB 958 would severely limit specialty pharmacies’ ability to deliver lower cost medications to patients, while also making it even easier for hospitals to markup the cost they charge patients for critical medications, and in the end, we would see higher health care premiums for California’s employers and individuals.
Roof top solar panels on rooftops in a Southern California neighborhood. (Photo: Simone Hogan, via Shutterstock)Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger championed an effort to install a million solar energy systems throughout the state. Fifteen years later, lured by incentives, there are more than 1.3 million solar rooftops that produce enough electricity for millions of homes across California. But a sharp debate is brewing among energy experts, the utilities, consumers and labor interests about fairness of the original program, called “net metering.”
A Huntington Beach demonstrator protesting a May 2020 stay-at-home order issued by the governor during the pandemic. (Photo: mikeledray via Shutterstock)California taxpayers could be on the hook for millions of dollars if the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom fails. That’s because of a little-recognized provision of the state constitution that declares: “A state officer who is not recalled must be reimbursed by the State for the officer’s recall election expenses legally and personally incurred. Another recall may not be initiated against the officer until six months after the election.” (Article II, Sec. 18.)
Drugs arranged on shelves at a pharmacy. (Photo: SEE_JAY, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California can once again be a national leader in pushing for cost-savings reforms in the healthcare field by being the first in the nation to address the practice of rebate policies that can bring balance and competition back to the pharmaceutical marketplace, which will help drive down drug costs and improve patient care. This policy challenge is called a rebate wall.