Photo illustration of California justice showing a gavel in a courtroom. (Image: sirtravelalot, via Shutterstock)A spate of smash-and-grab robberies and a rising crime rate may have dampened their hopes early on, but criminal justice reformers say the recently ended legislative session brought a raft of significant improvements to the way California treats people caught up in the system.
An illustration of the lack of equity between men and women. (Image: Thapana Studio, via Shutterstock)OPINION:
Signs at a site in San Francisco show the way to the polls. (Photo: Kevin McGovern, via Shutterstock)Going into this gubernatorial primary election, one could have rightly expected to see a pretty good turnout. There are more than 30 open legislative seats for the first time in nearly a decade and competitive congressional races after the shakeup of redistricting. But with just a few days to go, we are at just 13% total turnout statewide. In some key battlegrounds, like the hot L.A. Mayor’s race, turnout is even lower at just 10%,
Official paperwork for California's recall election.(Photo: Matt Gush, via Shutterstock)Institute of Governmental Studies: By a resounding three-to-one margin (75% to 24%) voters describe the recall provision as a good thing. This view is held by majorities of all political stripes, although Democrats and liberals express somewhat greater reticence, with greater than one in three viewing it as a bad thing.
An illustration of the unequal distribution of wealth., (Image: Prazis, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The United States faces down, arguably, the greatest income and wealth disparity since before the Great Depression. The American people are growing increasingly aware of this disparity, as they see the power of corporations and the wealthy bend our political and financial systems to their will.
Federal Judge Thelton Henderson in his chambers shortly before retiring. (Photo: Screen capture, Capitol Weekly)As the judge climbed the watchtower stairs in Pelican Bay prison, he heard muffled gunshots below. When he reached the top, he looked into the prison yard and saw bodies lying in the dirt. One was his law clerk, spreadeagled on the ground in his suit, alongside dozens of inmates. Guards stood over them, guns aimed. “My clerk was thinking he’s gonna die and this is his last day on earth,” Judge Thelton Henderson recalled.
The crowd at a 2016 political rally in Santa Monica. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)One of the ongoing themes in analyzing California’s 2018 elections is the impact of the reforms that were enacted in 2012 – the state’s open primary, the extension of term limits and the new district lines drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission. Beyond these three, we also saw the creation of statewide online voter registration and a ballot measure to allow passage of an on-time state budget by a simple majority vote. This wave of reforms has made it incredibly difficult to discern the impact of each.
On the campus of Cuyamaca Community College. (College photo)OPINION: Cuyamaca College no longer relies on a standardized test to place students in math classes. Instead, placement is determined by a student’s test score OR high school grades, whichever is higher. We have also changed how we support under-prepared students.
UC Berkeley students at Sather Gate. (Photo: Rightdx, via Shutterstock)Our audit of the University of California Office of the President’s budget and staffing processes revealed the following: The Office of the President did not disclose to the University of California Board of Regents, the Legislature, and the public $175 million in budget reserve funds. It spent significantly less than it budgeted for and asked for increases based on its previous years’ over‑estimated budgets rather than its actual expenditures.
Protesters picketed the recent appearance of pension-change advocates Chuck Reed and Carl DeMaio at the Reason summit. (Photo: Ed Mendel, Calpensions) Calpensions: One of the two initiatives filed by a pension reform group last week would cap state and local government spending on retirement benefits for most new hires at 11 percent of pay, much like a Utah pension reform five years ago.