Voters and elected officials adopt policies on assurances of beneficial impacts, but they often interact with other decrees to produce what are called “unintended consequences.” Redevelopment has been a classic example for nearly seven decades, and it may be on the verge of another twist. Redevelopment, authorized in the early 1950s, was aimed at encouraging […]
California will provide first-time, full-time students with two years of free tuition to community colleges in the state. The effort is being rolled out under the state’s California College Promise program, which already provided California students with one free year of tuition at community colleges. “This is real help for students trying to improve their […]
As they start a new school year, college students usually come to campus knowing their tuition and room and board costs. The big unknown is the often-hefty cost of textbooks. Many students don’t know what textbooks they’ll need and how much the books will cost until they’ve enrolled in courses and checked their professors’ syllabi. […]
The California Tahoe Conservancy Board has approved a grant of up to $240,286 to California State Parks for forest health management at Burton Creek State Park. According to a news release, the funds for the project come from an earlier grant to the Conservancy from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for high-priority […]
Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to ease the grip of environmental rules he said were throttling businesses. But time and again, his deregulatory moves as president have drawn the ire of the very companies that were expected to benefit. In the latest instance, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal Thursday to weaken rules […]
California fire officials have learned through hard experience to temper their optimism. Having just endured more than a decade of rampaging fires — 14 of the 20 most destructive fires in state history have occurred since 2007 — fire bosses say this year the glass is half-full. “We’ve got a few things going for us […]
Some labor and business leaders – as well as residents of different communities around the state – are pushing back against green energy policies that Sacramento has taken on to fight climate change. About a month ago, business and political representatives from more than 20 cities across the Inland Empire – a metropolitan area east […]
The California School Boards Association is exploring whether to place a $15 billion tax for K-12 schools, early education and community colleges before voters, creating the possibility of dueling tax initiatives on the statewide ballot in November 2020. Together with the Association of California School Administrators — its only partner so far — the school […]
There was a jarring reality check in the Legislature last week for interest groups plotting to change Proposition 13 and raise property taxes on major businesses. The reality is that raising any taxes will be very hard to sell voters. The plotters are led by some powerful public employee unions, including those representing teachers and […]
Bernie Sanders is coming to downtown Sacramento and not just any old spot in the heart of the capital city. Sanders is coming to Cesar Chavez Plaza on Thursday evening. Directly across from City Hall, Chavez Plaza is the home office of homelessness in the urban core of the capital of California. It’s where California […]
We live in volatile economic times, with global markets reacting moment by moment to the latest bits of data and the utterances of central bankers and politicians — even the tweets from the White House. California’s economy is much too big — the fifth largest in the world, we are constantly reminded — to avoid […]
The first order of business for a new higher education advisory board appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will be to look at ways to improve the low college graduation rates in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire and counter the effects of poverty and geographic isolation there, officials say. The “Council for Post-Secondary Education,” […]
Embrace the new “adversity score” in college admissions or ignore it? That’s a question that college officials in California and nationwide are debating now. A College Board-sponsored index that measures hardships students face at their high schools and in their neighborhoods is being tested as a college admissions tool on a small-scale nationwide and is […]
California has just 25 years to achieve its economywide carbon-neutrality target. Buildings account for about a quarter of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, so concerted efforts will be needed to squeeze carbon out of the sector, especially existing buildings. State policymakers are increasingly coalescing around a solution: electrification. As a recent California Energy Commission (CEC) report […]
California has released its annual greenhouse gas inventory, with the numbers praised by Governor Gavin Newsom. But emissions are up in nearly every category, with critics calling presentation of the data misleading In the Golden State, all is golden on the issue of climate change, or at least that’s what we’re being told. In essence, […]