Diversity image by Master1305Earlier this year Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 447, which among several things overturns California’s travel ban to states with anti-LGBTQ+ laws and replaces it with the Bridge Project, short for Building and Reinforcing Inclusive, Diverse, Gender-Supportive Equality Project.
A volunteer teacher reads to a group of young children. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)Decades of underinvestment in schools, culture battles over bilingual education, and dizzying levels of income inequality have pushed California to the bottom of the pile, making it the least literate state in the nation. Nearly 1 in 4 people over the age of 15 lack the skills to decipher the words in this sentence. Only 77 percent of adults are considered mid to highly literate, according to the nonpartisan data crunchers at World Population Review.
Students near the Powell Library on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles. (Photo: David A. Litman, via Shutterstock)OPINION: It has often been said that a budget is not just a series of numbers, but a reflection of our values. As products of California’s public higher education system, we applaud Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recently proposed budget that moves us closer to the values California outlined decades ago by making public higher education more accessible to students. But there is still work to be done.
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.
A gathering of gay rights activists at the state Capitol. (Photo: Karin Hildebrand Lau)Bish Paul descended into Empress Tavern’s basement downtown and was greeted with a surprise. Over 50 capitol staffers mingled beneath the brick arches a block from the state Capitol. LGBT aides and allies drank and chatted, discussing Sacramento’s LGBT community and shared Capitol connections.
Out for a spin in L.A. with the family dog. (Photo: Oneinpunch, Shutterstock)Los Angeles is close to becoming the largest U.S. city to achieve a “no kill” policy for healthy animals placed in municipal shelters. When the trial program launched in 2012, the “save rate” — a measurement that reflects the percentage of cats and dogs not euthanized — at L.A. city shelters was 57.7 percent. Through the first quarter of 2017, the save rate rose to 89.4 percent.
Capturing energy from the air in the Tehachapi Pass, California. (Photo: Patrick Poendl)OPINION: Programs established through AB 32 have helped us implement several key projects, and have given a leg up to advanced energy companies across the state. Benefits from these programs extend to sustainable buildings, advanced energy businesses, clean energy schools and sustainable transportation, and reflect the growing importance of clean energy investments to California’s economy.
The silhouette of a sad man. (Photo: Freedom Studio, via Shutterstock)This is Suicide Prevention Week – a reminder that by learning the warning signs of suicide and how to intervene, every Californian has the opportunity to be a lifesaver.
Counties that completely flipped from red to blue include many suburban and inland counties, with significant changes among populous Los Angeles suburban counties, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura.