Posts Tagged: residents

Opinion

Looking ahead: Solar energy for all

Solar PV panels used to power agricultural equipment in the Central Valley. (Photo: Shippee, via Shutterstock)

This first Earth Day under the Trump administration, we’re reminded that environmental and clean energy progress at the local level – in our states and our communities – is more important than ever.

Opinion

On environment, some lessons for Brown

A hazy day in the Los Angeles Basin, New Year's Day, 2015. (Photo:Trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Gov. Jerry Brown has called Donald Trump’s election the proverbial “heart attack” to get California off of the equivalent of cigarettes — climate-destroying fossil fuels. But for Brown to be the foil to Trump’s anti-environmental policies, it’s going to take a lot more than launching California’s own climate-tracking satellite.

News

A California tale: The one-room schoolhouse

A one-room schoolhouse in Comptche, Mendocino County, which serves 14 students. (Photo: California Teachers Association)

The 112-year-old schoolhouse with the old-fashioned bell looks like it should be a historical museum. But it’s a working K-8 public school with only 10 students. Washington School, about 20 miles east of Nevada City in the Sierra foothills, is one of a handful of one-room schools scattered scattered across rural California.

News

Fires scorch tinder-dry California

A truck is engulfed in flames Sunday in Lower Lake, Lake County. (Photo: Josh Edelson/AP

Tens of thousands of acres are in flames across California and thousands of people have been forced to flee as the drought-stricken state fights its way through what could prove to be one of the worst fire seasons in memory. During the past two days, the Clayton fire in Lake County exploded to more than 3,000 acres and only 5 percent containment, burning into historic town of Lower Lake and forcing more than 5,000 people to flee.

News

State auditor targets UC fiscal, admission policies

UC Berkeley students at Sather Gate. (Photo: Rightdx, via Shutterstock)

In a scathing report, the state auditor says the University of California has catered to out-of-state and foreign applicants, who pay more than in-state students, and allowed thousands of nonresident students to attend UC – even though they had lower qualifications than the median for resident students.

Opinion

California lags in embracing IT

Voluminous data displayed on a computer monitor. (Photo: Dimitri Nikolaev)

Information technology has been a key driver of productivity growth in the private sector, as evidenced by the fact that companies that have invested the most in computers, software, and communications grew their employees’ output per hour three times faster than other companies. Unfortunately, it appears that most state governments, including California, lag behind and are more like those companies that have invested less in IT.

Opinion

The Pope, immigration and Father Junipero Serra

A statue of Father Junipero Serra. (Photo: stjunipero.org)

OPINION: Father Junipero Serra was one of California’s first immigrants in 1769. Nearly 250 years later, Californians – whose state is now home to more than 10 million immigrants – watched closely as Pope Francis addressed a joint session of Congress the following day the canonization.

Opinion

Going mobile: Can state policy keep up?

A digital illustration of a satellite dish transmission. (Photo: Hywards, Shutterstock)

The most critical assets of California’s future economy will rely on wireless Internet technology—including renewable energy, smart agriculture, education, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. There also are important implications for public safety, where a dropped call to 911 could be the difference between life and death.

News

Coast key to state’s housing costs

Coastal housing in Laguna Beach. (Photo: John Bilous)

For decades, people living in California paid more for shelter than those in most of the rest of the country. But during the 1970s, “the gap started to widen. Between 1970 and 1980, California home prices went from 30 percent above U.S. levels to more than 80 percent higher,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office reported. Today, the average California home costs $440,000, or two-and-half-times the average price tag of $180,000 for a home across the country.

News

An idealist’s heart: Brown on poverty, politics and the budget

Gov. Brown on Jan. 9 in the state Capitol as he unveiled his 2015-16 draft budget. Brown's budget includes the newly approved "rainy day fund."(Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)

During his press conference outlining his new $164.7 billion state spending plan, Gov. Jerry Brown made extensive remarks about Californians living in poverty, and the challenges the state faces in dealing with those who continue to struggle economically. As California’s economy has recovered, statistics show nearly 25% of the state still lives in serious economic stress.

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