A new report about literacy came to an unsettling conclusion about students in Sacramento County schools: about three out of every five third-graders do not read at their grade level. The analysis also found that efforts to close the gap between high-performing schools and low-performing schools are falling short. April Javist, executive director of the […]
Newly released federal estimates show California’s poverty rate remained the highest in the nation, despite a modest fall, and the state’s falling uninsured rate slowed for the first time since before Medicaid expansion. According to the Census Bureau, the share of Californians in poverty fell to 19 percent — a 1.4 percent decrease from last […]
Ahead of a summit this week meant to galvanize regional action on climate change, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed legislation that would put California on the path to eliminating fossil fuels from its energy sector. Senate Bill 100 speeds up the state’s timeline for moving to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, and […]
California officials have been pushing for more natural water storage since the last large-scale facility was built in 1979. Now they’re finally going to get it, thanks to political pressure, President Donald Trump and some congressional creativity. The House approved several provisions Thursday that help fund water storage projects. The Senate is expected to concur […]
For the first time, the county Office of Education has disapproved Sacramento City Unified School District’s budget for the fiscal year due to deficits. The district now has one month to file a revised budget for 2018-19, as announced during the district’s Thursday night board meeting. In a budget report letter addressed to district Superintendent […]
The price tag for the 2017 crisis at Oroville Dam has surged past $1 billion. On Wednesday, the state Department of Water Resources revealed a $1.1 billion cost estimate for the massive repair work at America’s tallest dam. The cost of the emergency response, and the subsequent repairs to the dam’s two flood-control spillways, has […]
An effort to impose a “voluntary” water tax on residents to pay for safe drinking water projects died in the Legislature on Friday. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said “a piecemeal funding approach” to the problem “won’t work.” . . . State lawmakers are hesitant to support any new tax increase after Republicans successfully recalled Sen. […]
Three customers sat on Bottle & Barlow’s patio Wednesday afternoon, sipping cocktails and soaking up the last bits of summer sun. That was a crowd compared to the scene inside, where owner Anthony Giannotti was the only person left to cut hair. Giannotti’s entire seven-person staff of independent contractors quit rather be reclassified as employees, […]
RT ridership peaked more than a decade ago, before the recession, at more than 30 million boardings annually. That dropped to 24 million by 2016, when the agency increased fares. Ridership this year declined to 21 million. RT officials attributed much of the initial ridership decline to several years of dramatic service cuts during the […]
The Trump administration is accelerating efforts to pump more of Northern California’s water to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, setting up a bruising conflict with state officials and environmentalists. As farmers and others prepared for a water rally Monday on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke sent a memo […]
The Trump administration is trying a bold new tactic to bring more water to Central Valley farmers — one that could come at the expense of millions of urban Southern Californians. In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation served notice to California officials Aug. 17, stating it wants to renegotiate a landmark 1986 […]
Gov. Jerry Brown’s last contract with the state’s highway engineers includes some sweet perks aimed at retaining the longtime road designers, planners and project managers who’d be charged with executing work funded by the gas tax he backed last year. Brown struck a two-year agreement with Professional Engineers in California Government that includes general wage […]
Only half of California’s families will be able to find a spot in a preschool for their children when school begins, but at Twin Rivers Unified many of the seats are going unclaimed. Many districts say it’s the stringent state and federal income eligibility requirements that are keeping students away from preschool and leaving seats […]
Construction on a massive Sacramento corporate center believed to be the West Coast headquarters of a Fortune 500 health care company will likely start in a few weeks after a construction workers’ union dropped its appeal of the project Monday. LIUNA Local 185 had appealed the planning commission’s approval of the corporate center at East […]
California will add two million jobs in the next decade, with the fastest job growth coming in sectors that require college degrees, according to new projections from the California Employment Development Department. The number of jobs that require at least an associate’s degree will grow by 810,000, or 12 percent, by 2026. By comparison, jobs […]