A photo illustration of an inflation-ravaged dollar. (Image: SERSOLL, via Shutterstock)California is poised to benefit strongly from the federal Inflation Reduction Act, a massive, hard-fought and newly passed package meant to address healthcare, climate change and myriad other issues across the county.
Customers order lunches at a bakery in the Napa Valley. (Photo: James Kirkikis, via Shutterstock)OPINION: In the entrepreneurial world, California is a hub of innovation. The state is home to roughly four million small businesses which employ more than seven million workers.
Skyline of downtown Los Angeles on a smoggy day. (Photo0: EvijaF via Shutterstock)OPINION: Growing up in New Orleans, summertime brought mixed feelings. It meant the end of the school year and endless snow cones, but also the beginning of hurricane season. Here in California we experience extreme heat in the summer and floods and fires throughout the year, all made worse by climate change. Unless we take action now to prepare our communities, many will suffer, some more than others.
A mattress illegally dumped in an alley, waiting for recycling. (Photo: Dom J, via Shutterstock)One extraordinary example of the state’s environmental leadership is the California Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act of 2013 (SB 254). This legislation established a statewide public-private partnership where mattressproducerslead an effort to recover and recycle their products.
An elephant at a Botswana waterhole. (Photo: Mike Dexter, via Shutterstock)OPINION:At a time when the news is filled with political campaigns accusing each other of exhibiting divisive behavior and tactics, there is one piece of legislation on Gov. Brown’s desk that is actually bringing organizations together. Senate Bill 1062, by Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) asks California to follow the lead of the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland by banning the use of a sharp device designed to inflict pain for the purpose of training or controlling the behavior of elephants.
A professionally operated drone heads into the sunset. (Photo: Concept W, Shutterstock)On a Saturday night in early December, while relaxing at his Martinez, Calif., home, Chinese exchange student Owen Ouyang decided to have some fun. He went out to the front yard and launched a sleek new drone he had recently purchased online for about $1,000. The 2.8-pound drone, advertised as “easy to fly,” proved anything but. Soon after takeoff, the drone veered dangerously toward a power line. It then climbed more than 700 feet – right into the path of a California Highway Patrol helicopter
A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)California is in the midst of multiple regulatory efforts to reduce methane emissions from natural gas and oil operations throughout the state. It’s a key opportunity to make a real dent in the state’s climate impact since methane, the primary component of natural gas, packs over 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released unburned.
A child getting vaccinated. (Photo: Thinkstock, Dimitry Naumov)The Kaiser study found that, on an individual level, under-immunization—where a child misses one or more of the required doses before age 3—was higher in neighborhoods with more families in poverty as well as those with more graduate degrees. But even after adjusting for factors such as race and income, the study still found statistically significant geographic clusters of under-immunization.
OPINION: Most of us don’t think twice about our options when we stop to fill our tank with gasoline. But what if you knew you had a choice of fuels, not just of brands?
New Teslas at the company's factory in Fremont. Photo: Steve JurvetsonElectric vehicles costing more than $60,000 may be eliminated from a major rebate program and the rebates themselves would be reduced to a fifth of their current level – moves that would cut popular Tesla Motors’ models from the rebates.