Voters casting their ballots at a local precinct. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, Shutterstock)Proposition 209, the constitutional amendment intended to prevent discrimination or preferential treatment on the basis of race, ethnicity, or sex in areas like public education and contracting, was approved by California voters a generation ago. In November, they will decide whether to get rid of it.
San Francisco skyline at sunset, as its electricity usage kicks in. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)OPINION: A current law that is supposed to protect seniors and all electricity customers from paying for power that was purchased for other customers is not working. A broad coalition of senior groups and dozens of others is encouraging the Senate committee to discuss the fair allocation of costs for clean energy and other long-term contracts that were purchased to meet our state’s clean energy goals
The state Capitol in Sacramento, viewed from 10th Street toward the West Steps.(Photo: Timothy Boomer)OPINION: The California Public Research Interest Group (CALPIRG) is a consumer group that stands up to powerful interests when they threaten our health and safety, our financial security, or our right to fully participate in our democratic society. That is why we are strongly supporting Proposition 54, the California Legislature Transparency Act, on this November’s ballot.
A marijuana plant at an indoor farm. (Photo: Syd Cinema, via Shutterstock)In late October, the California and Hawaii chapters of the NAACP gathered for a convention in Los Angeles to discuss issues facing the African-American community. Among the bevy of politicians and suits, one attend stood out: Calvin Broadus Jr., better known as rapper Snoop Dogg, famous for singing “Smoke weed every day.”
The headline blared across the front page of Berkeley’s Daily Californian: “2,700 Homosexuals at Cal.” Today, it hardly seems newsworthy at the heart of California’s social liberalism, UC Berkeley. But in 1965, when the article was published, university police were removing every other stall door in men’s bathrooms to prevent such subversive behavior.
In a