U.S. Senate candidates debate in San Diego. Left to right: Duf Sundheim, Kamala Harris, Loretta Sanchez, Ron Unz, Tom Del Beccaro. (Photo: KPBS)Republican Duf Sundheim started on the attack at Wednesday’s debate in San Diego among five candidates vying to be California’s next U.S. senator. But the GOP hopeful missed hard on a fact about the state’s violent crime rate.
An illustration of the affordable housing issue. (Nata-Lia, via Shutterstock)OPINION: We generally think it a big success when public policy successfully fixes a serious problem. Right now, smart California policies are effectively tackling three major issues at once: housing, traffic, and climate change. Anyone not living under a rock knows that California faces an unprecedented crisis in housing affordability.
School workers at a labor rally in Bakersfield. (Photo: Richard Thornton, Shutterstock)A union coalition contends that a proposed initiative is being falsely portrayed as only a potential cut in pensions for new employees, when in fact it could cut or eliminate pensions earned by current employees for work done in the future. One of the initiative authors, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, disagrees with the union reading of the proposal. But it’s a key pension reform issue that could lead to another disputed initiative title and summary.
The leaders of two local pension reforms, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, are working with a coalition on a statewide initiative to help local governments make cost-cutting pension reforms. During a break at the Reason Foundation’s third annual Pension Summit in Sacramento last week, the two men said they are “on the same page” and working with a coalition on the details of a proposed initiative for the November 2016 state ballot.
In an artist's rendering, California's proposed bullet train zips along the Central Valley. (Illustration: High Speed Rail Authority)California’s $67.5 billion bullet train has been described as “off-track” so long that some thought it was permanently derailed. In fact, the outlook has brightened: A series of court decisions, a move by Gov. Brown to pump money into the effort and an awakening interest from high-dollar investors has given the huge project new momentum.
A view of the California drought from Marine One during President Obama's visit earlier this year. (Photo: White House)OPINION: There is an Armenian proverb: “On a rainy day many offer to water the chickens.” And in a very dry year there are many who want to follow the call to tear out their lawns. The call is coming from the Department of Water Resources and others for urban homeowners to start tearing out their lawns, with financial incentives for doing so.
Death certificates are the latest battleground for gay rights advocates trying to ensure that the gender a person identifies with in life carries over into death. A bill introduced recently aimed at ensuring the death certificates of transgender persons reflect their chosen gender is the latest legislative effort to vouchsafe the rights of this small category of Californians.
About 16.8 million people moved into a different county within a year in the U.S., between 2007 and 2011, with the most common county-to-county moves being from Los Angeles to San Bernardino (41,764 people) and Los Angeles to Orange (an estimated 40,764), according to U. S. Census Bureau data released today.
Toni AtkinsFor Toni Atkins, a coal miner’s daughter and the first in her family to graduate from college, the road from Virginia coal country to San Diego to Speaker of the state Assembly has been long and winding. She’ll be leading the lower house despite concerns – at least in the north state – that an old tradition over equitable leadership distribution between Northern and Southern California. (Photo: League of California Cities)