Blog
Back to homepage
Trump administration tussling with California over federal education mandate
The Trump administration turns out to share the Obama administration’s disappointment with California’s efforts to hold schools and school districts accountable for improving students’ academic performance. After President Barack Obama took office in 2009 and installed Arne Duncan as secretary
Read More
Report on massive cost overrun may be turning point for troubled bullet train
Despite Gov. Jerry Brown’s full-throated defense of the troubled bullet train project in his State of the State speech Thursday in Sacramento, a consultant’s report warning of a huge cost overrun on the project’s first segment in the Central Valley
Read More
IRS could easily block state plan to increase tax deductions
Democratic state lawmakers’ interest in pursuing an unprecedented plan to minimize the hit that California’s high-income residents face because of the federal tax overhaul’s $10,000 cap on deductibility of state and local taxes may be losing momentum – undermined by strong
Read More
LAPD struggles to find way to deal with homeless camps
According to a report filed with the city’s police commission late last year, 38 Los Angeles Police Department officers who work for the Homeless Outreach Partnership Endeavor “contacted” 12,300 homeless people over a nine-month period. But the police can’t tell
Read More
Airbnb clear to operate in San Francisco after compromise, but more fights loom
The issue of short-term vacation rentals continues to roil California cities large and small, but a major compromise in San Francisco agreed to by Airbnb and HomeAway has ended for now the fighting in the city that has the third
Read More
How will California’s four U.S. attorneys respond on pot after Sessions’ policy change?
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Jan. 4 announcement that he had revoked the Obama administration’s policy of allowing states to make marijuana use and sales legal without fearing a federal crackdown and would leave it up to his 94 local
Read More
Entry of Doug Ose in governor’s race could help Democrats, analysts say
Since 1998, Republican candidates for governor in California have gotten 38 percent, 42 percent, 56 percent, 41 percent and 40 percent in the general election. Will that figure be 0 percent in this November’s race? That is the consensus of
Read More
Is Trump administration trolling California with long-shot offshore drilling plan?
The Trump administration’s announcement last week that it would seek to lease out 47 large areas in U.S. waters off America’s coasts to oil and gas exploration companies from 2019 to 2024 – including two areas off Northern California, two off
Read More
Revenue spike may fuel budget battle between Brown, progressives
The November forecast, conducted by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, of state revenue running $7.5 billion higher than expected in 2018-19 has set the stage for perhaps the most pitched budget fight between Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature since Brown returned to the
Read More
CalPERS, CalSTRS likely to face new pressure to divest from fossil-fuel companies
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call for his state’s biggest government pension fund to stop new investments in fossil-fuel companies and phase out existing investments is likely to lead to renewed calls for the Golden State’s two massive pension funds –
Read More