People waiting in line in Covina for the one-shot Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo: Ringo Chiu, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California is gearing up to make history. The state will achieve near universal health coverage in 2024 by expanding Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to all income-eligible Californians. Immigration status will no longer be an obstacle.
Students studying in a California classroom. (Photo: GagliardiPhotography, via Shutterstock)OPINION: One of the charges I hold seriously is to ensure every child in California has the resources they need to succeed. As a product of California’s K-12 public schools in the Central Valley, I can still recall the deficiency in resources as well as the knowledge of those that were appointed to secure that my future endeavors were aligned for excellence.
The young hands of a caregiver surround the hands of an elderly patient. (Photo: Ocskay Mark, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Everywhere you turn these days we’re being told that government doesn’t work, that our democracy is too polarized to deliver for everyday people. The budget Gov. Newsom recently signed tells a different story. It will help turbocharge our recovery from COVID-19 and make a historic commitment on another urgent public health crisis: Alzheimer’s.
A curved pedestrian footpath and open space adjacent to housing units. (Photo: Tarnet VIC 3029, via Shutterstock)OPINION: But not everyone in California has a neighborhood with safe places to walk or a park around the corner. There are deep inequities in access to nature in our country – a fact that has become even more glaringly obvious during the pandemic.
Demonstrators in Beverly Hills advocating the recall of Gov., Newsom. (Photo: MSPhotographic, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Will an embattled Gov. Gavin Newsom be able to persuade voters that he deserves to stay? Will an ambitious Democrat break party ranks and seek to position themselves as an alternative to Newsom? Will the election devolve into the cacophonous circus that we saw during the recall of Gov. Gray Davis in 2003?
The corner of San Pedro Street in a low-income portion of downtown Los Angeles. (Photo: Hayk Sahlunts, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Did you know that Los Angeles once had a thriving, affluent Black community called Sugar Hill that was obliterated when Interstate 10 was built right through it in the early 1960s? Or that historically Black West Oakland was economically strangled when Interstate 980 cut it off from the downtown commercial district?
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.”
A man receives a COVID-19 vaccination from a nurse at a clinic set up in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Mission. (Photo: Ringo Chiu, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Many of the 55 elderly patients arrived for their second COVID-19 vaccines, leaning on their children’s arms or walkers. Most were Latinx or Black. All were age 75 or older, and they were eager to get vaccinated against the deadly virus.
A teacher with her elementary school class in the Sacramento City Unified School District. (SCUSD photo)As the Sacramento City Unified School District faces a $35 million budget shortfall and a possible takeover by the state, the teachers’ union is pointing fingers of blame at district administration. The Sacramento City Teachers Association asked newly elected state Superintendent Tony Thurmond for an investigation into potential misuse of public dollars and a conflict of interest involving the district superintendent.
A rush-hour traffic jam on the approach to the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. (Photo: Aaron Kohr)OPINION: If you’ve ever sat in traffic crawling at 5 miles per hour or been late to an appointment because of inadequate public transportation, I don’t need to tell you that transportation represents a constant challenge in California. Too many of those problems stem from a planning process that has consistently failed to put people first. California can do better. And let’s not kid ourselves about which people are most likely to get left out of transportation planning decisions: Low-income communities of color.