Gov. Gavin Newsom shown at an earlier Capitol briefing. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled an unprecedented $100 billion economic recovery package for California that taps state and federal money, while providing a new round of $600 stimulus checks to most Californians and covering missed payments for millions of renters.
A resident watches smoke billowing from the Woolsey Fire, November, 2018, in Southern California. (Photo: BrittanyNY, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California is facing a wildfire crisis of epic proportions, and with the 2019 fire season already upon us, the immediate threat of yet another highly destructive and costly wildfire looms over communities all across the state. Everyone agrees that something must be done to address this crisis, and yet legislators still have not taken definitive action.
Solar panels arrayed in the Mojave Desert. (Photo: Andrei Orlov, via Shutterstock)OPINION: As firefighters from across the West come together to battle wildfires, and legislators meet for their last week of this year’s legislative session, our state’s leadership has before them a real opportunity to take decisive action to help mitigate the climate trends that are weighing on our state today.
A black-and-white view of smoggy Century City, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. (Photo: trekandshoot)OPINION: Squinting into the smog, our state’s utilities have seen the future — and it’s not fossil fuels. Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric revealed plans to invest $1 billion to build a comprehensive electric transportation infrastructure.
Illustration by Kheng Guan Toh, via ShutterstockOPINION: The California Public Utilities Commission is about to make a landmark decision about the merger of Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks that will have a generational effect on closing—or possibly making permanent—the Digital Divide.
Everyone knows about the pharmaceutical companies, defense contractors and other financial interests that dominate political spending in Washington, D.C. Because federal spending provides a big share of those businesses’ revenues, it’s not surprising they spend heavily for a Congress sympathetic to their interests. But fewer know about the financial interests that dominate political spending in Sacramento.
Boats cluster together at drought-ravaged Shasta Lake. (Photo: David Greitzer). People across California pay dramatically different amounts for the same amount of water, with price tags set by individual agencies from Crescent City to El Centro. North or south, inland or coastal, what Californians pay for their water is locally driven. Ultimately, retail water’s value is determined in a way similar to real estate – location, location, location.
Comcast company trucks await assignments. (Photo: Associated Press, Gene Puskar)A national merger between communications giants Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable could lead to an unprecedented consolidation of California cable and broadband markets. The pending $45 billion merger would grant Comcast — already the state’s No. 1 cable provider — a greater share of the California market, stretching from northern California and San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento region, down the Central Valley through the Los Angeles basin, east to the Nevada and Arizona lines and southeast to the Mexico border.
World headquarters of Tesla Motors in Palo Alto. (Photo: Katherine Welles)California lawmakers, who have fallen head over heels for Tesla Motors, once again are wooing their fickle sweetheart. Gov. Jerry Brown and two state senators – one a Republican, the other a Democrat — are working to entice Tesla to build its newest manufacturing facility in California, instead of going outside the state. It’s the latest in a long string of efforts in Sacramento that so far have managed to keep Tesla in the Golden State.
In what consumer advocates describe as a blow to the public, the state Public Utilities Commission has decided to not update California’s 28-year-old rules dealing with cell phone privacy. The commission said there are no existing privacy concerns related to cell phone use and that a review process of any possible existing privacy threats is unnecessary.