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State’s largest ‘community choice’ energy program takes a hit

The community choice aggregation (CCA) movement has built considerable momentum in California in recent years. In CCA programs, groups of local government agencies team up to take over decision-making on what sources of power to use in the local electric

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Gov. Newsom pushes for quick action on wildfire plan

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants the Legislature to agree to sweeping reforms in wildfire liability rules by July 12, before lawmakers start a one-month recess. After first calling on legislative leaders to shape new policies to help investor-owned utilities deal with

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Sympathy of state officials not enough for struggling cannabis industry

State officials, from Gov. Gavin Newsom on down, have been sympathetic to the struggles of California’s legal marijuana industry since recreational sales at shops became legal Jan. 1, 2018, so long as local governments gave their OK. This sympathy was

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Study warns air travel a major threat in spread of measles in California

The state Legislature’s push to tighten up vaccine requirements for K-12 students took a step forward last week even as public health officials acknowledged a British medical study that said travelers to the U.S. from nations with measles outbreaks were

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Assembly passes stricter use-of-force bill, suggesting police unions have lost clout at state Capitol

For the second year in a row, a sweeping police reform measure that law-enforcement organizations said was motivated by antipathy toward peace officers has been embraced by the state Legislature. Last year lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1421 by Sen. Nancy

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California enters fourth year of poor recycling record

California has long considered itself to be a global beacon on environmentalism. But the state is now going on four straight years with a poor record on one of the core environmental practices: recycling. The problem began in January 2016,

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Are special interests blocking housing reforms? Or is public opposition?

The belief that California has a profound housing crisis took hold in the state’s media and political establishments in recent years after Census Bureau statistics showed the Golden State had the highest effective rate of poverty once cost of living

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Gov. Newsom’s new health care rhetoric stops short of single-payer promises

Twenty months ago, then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom sealed the endorsement of the powerful California Nurses Association in the governor’s race with an impassioned promise to bring single-payer health care to the Golden State. “There’s no reason to wait around on

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Doctors more worried than ever about nurse practitioners getting expanded role

California doctors’ long-held opposition to nurse practitioners expanding their scope of practice into areas now reserved exclusively for doctors has become even more intense with the growing evidence that medical technology enhanced by artificial intelligence can play a much bigger

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L.A. politicians covet bullet-train funds

In a sign of frustration over the state’s transportation priorities, several board members with the high-profile Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority have made the argument that it makes far more sense to use money that Gov. Gavin Newsom wants

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