A Siskiyou County law enforcement officer in the weeds. (Photo: Siskiyou County)Illegal marijuana grows in rural Siskiyou County are out of control and state officials should help stop them, local authorities say. Earlier this month, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors took the unusual step of declaring a state of emergency because of the cannabis.
An illustration of the affordable housing issue. (Nata-Lia, via Shutterstock)OPINION: We generally think it a big success when public policy successfully fixes a serious problem. Right now, smart California policies are effectively tackling three major issues at once: housing, traffic, and climate change. Anyone not living under a rock knows that California faces an unprecedented crisis in housing affordability.
Assemblyman Henry Perea, a power among the Legislature’s business-friendly Democrats, will resign his seat effective Dec. 31, a year before he will be forced from office by term limits.
Voters in Los Angeles casting their ballots on election day. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)Bottled water, immigration, condoms, hospital fees, plastic bags, statehood, alimony – those are just a smattering of the issues on, or trying to get on, California’s 2016 statewide ballot. There are 36 proposed initiatives that are either awaiting review in the Attorney General’s Office or are being shopped around California’s 58 counties for signatures.
Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Attorney General Kamala Harris. (Photos, Shutterstock. Composite, Tim Foster)ANALYSIS: There are rumblings beneath the surface about the danger of a race-tinged political war breaking out within the California Democratic Party. Antonio Villaraigosa’s challenge is to rouse the big Latino population of Los Angeles and the rest of California on his behalf in a primary race against fellow Democrat Kamala Harris. He realizes more than anyone the huge, mostly untapped, potential of the Latino vote. Harris would have the Northern California Democratic establishment, and, presumably, the preponderance of African-American voters on her side.
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.
A political committee has been formed to block a referendum challenging a proposed tribal casino north of Madera planned by the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians.
When Governor Jerry Brown delivered his State of the State address last week, he pointed to renewable energy policy as one of the Legislature’s great accomplishments of the last few years.
The Governor is right. Solar energy is one of California’s biggest success stories. Homes, schools and businesses are going solar in record numbers. The