Posts From James Poulos
Back to homepage
Undocumented immigrants hit the road with CA driver’s licenses
After two months of granting driver’s licenses to once-undocumented immigrants, California officials reported big numbers. The Golden State program has supplied licenses to almost 150,000 immigrants. Supporters of the move have been quick to tout its perceived advantages — and to boost participation
Read More
CA marijuana activists push mixed baggie of initiatives
Despite new highs of enthusiasm, Californian pot legalization activists complicated their own path to victory by forging ahead with competing ballot initiatives that could split the vote needed for any to prevail. The disorderly advance underscored the reality that momentum
Read More
Common Core test finally pushes out API
Goodbye API, hello Smarter Balanced test. That’s what California public school students face as the school year comes to an end. The Academic Performance Index, used to measure and monitor students’ progress statewide, was implemented by the Public Schools Accountability Act
Read More
State District 7 contest is Democrat free-for-all
The luck o’ the Irish. That’s what the winners are going to need in today’s St. Patrick’s Day election for California state Senate District 7. Long-brewing tensions among Democrats have come to a head in a bitterly fought race. The candidates seek to replace
Read More
CA college costs pinch budgets
With the University of California system in the midst of a tense tuition standoff, budgets have come under renewed pressure in recent weeks. Not only schools, but students and parents, have felt the pain. As CalWatchdog.com has been reporting, the UC system
Read More
Drive to remove red-light cameras speeds up in CA
Californians soon may put in the rear-view mirror the gaze of red-light cameras. In the wake of an appeals court ruling that defended the constitutionality of tickets issued to motorists caught running red lights, Assemblyman Matthew Harper, R-Huntington Beach, introduced Assembly
Read More
CA drought spurs painful rate hikes
Faced with a drought that won’t quit, officials have taken new steps to add to Californians’ discomfort — a fresh round of rate hikes. Regulators in the San Francisco Bay Area have begun the march toward charging significantly more for water, pleading
Read More
UC tuition battle sparks student protests
The battle over University of California tuition hikes has been raised to a new level — with shades of 1960s student protests. Gov. Jerry Brown and state legislators have rejected the tuition hikes advanced by UC President Janet Napolitano. In response she
Read More
Covered CA complicates tax preparation
Many Californians will be headed into tax season with their paperwork in disarray thanks to their state health care exchange, Covered California. The program is the state’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. In a repeat of follies
Read More
Supreme Court case could put Congressional redistricting back in hands of Legislatures
Thanks to the Arizona legislature, control of redistricting for U.S. congressional districts in California soon could pass back to Sacramento. A lawsuit brought by lawmakers in Phoenix, now before the U.S. Supreme Court, argues that only state legislatures have the right to
Read More