A tossed plastic bottle ends up in the ocean off Santa Monica. (Photo: Danila Delimont, via Shutterstock)California’s inability to meet its long-stated goal of cutting solid waste by 75 percent by 2020 prompted environmentalists to craft a ballot initiative aimed at November targeting single-use single-use plastic products – including a sharp limit on their production.
A normally bustling playground in Victorville is devoid of students due to COVID-19. (Photo: Felipe Sanchez, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Now is the time to take action. There are less than four months left in the current school year and we should not let the final bell ring before getting kids back into their classrooms. Of course, we cannot and should not sacrifice school, teacher or student safety in doing so. And we don’t have to because we have all the necessary tools to reopen campuses sooner rather than later.
A bus at UC Irvine powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. (Photo: Rhonda RothOPINION: As it helps draft a strategy for recovery, the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery should look to the role that hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles can play in achieving all that, just as other governments around the world are doing.
An assortment of soft-drink brands at a Cypress, Calif., market. (Photo: David Tonelson, via Shutterstock)OPINION: While health and wellness must be a top priority for communities across the US, taxing the poor is not the way to do it. Taxes such as these place a considerably larger share of the economic burden on working families, poor communities and small business owners.
An emergency room at a hospital in Palo Alto. (Photo: Jennie Book, via Shutterstock)Today in California, the fifth largest economy in the world, we’ve made unparalleled progress toward our goal of health care coverage for all, but there are still roughly 2.8 million people without health care coverage. Take a moment to let that number sink in: 2.8 million.
A suburban home with a lawn that hasn't been watered in months. (Photo: Suzanne Tucker, via Shutterstock)Despite the hottest June on record, Californians cut back on their water use statewide by by 27.3 percent statewide compared with June 2013, a reduction that exceeded the level ordered in the governor’s emergency drought regulations. The cut in usage amounted to more than 182,000 acre-feet of water, or about 59.4 billion gallons by urban water suppliers.
Lancaster officials say the Antelope Valley’s gusting winds will carry the plant’s 546 tons of pollution — and the problems that will come with it – straight to Lancaster.
Saying California’s chronic multi-billion dollar shortfalls are over for at least the next five years, Gov. Jerry Brown presented a $139 billion budget Thursday that increases spending for public schools by nearly $3 billion and for higher education by $600 million.
“California came through probably 15 years of great fiscal difficulties. Some of it