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State agencies and commissions assigned to prepare reports to the Legislature on how well new laws are working often fail to submit them on time, or at all.
Gavin Newsom has just two years remaining of his governorship. As it winds down, he is stepping up efforts to build a national profile toward what many pundits assume will be a 2028 presidential campaign. That apparently includes writing his …
Sen. Adam Schiff is ceremonially sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris with his wife Eve Schiff in the Old Senate Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 9, 2024. Photo by Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
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California has an aggressive mandate for zero-emission trucks, which are powered by electricity or hydrogen. But trucking companies face big obstacles — and people are still breathing dangerous diesel exhaust.
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California’s card room industry spent over $3 million targeting four lawmakers as payback for their votes on a gambling bill. Three of the lawmakers lost.
Pundits and academics who have parsed the data of Donald Trump’s presidential victory five weeks ago differ on the fine points but generally agree that it reflected voters’ widespread unhappiness with the status quo, particularly their personal finances and inflation.
Students, some of whom speak languages other than Spanish or English at home, at Washington Elementary School in Madera on Oct. 29, 2024. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
The nation’s most linguistically diverse state has a tortured history with bilingual education in public schools. The Education Department can’t — and the Legislature won’t — do what it takes to repair the damage.
California has banned bilingual education on and off since the 1800s. The state is now 8 years into allowing it again but still hasn’t managed to get all that many kids into good programs.
En 1953, Bárbara Flores entró al kínder en la Escuela Primaria Washington en Madera, California, una pequeña ciudad en el Valle Central rodeada de campos agrícolas. Su madre y su abuela le habían dicho que iba "a aprender mucho” y …
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks on trade and border security while visiting the U.S.- Mexico border in San Diego on Dec. 5, 2024. Photo by Mike Blake, Reuters
The Public Policy Institute of California, a think tank that conducts vigorous and objective research into vital state issues, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a series of retrospective reports.
Detainees exercise at the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto on Aug. 28, 2019. Photo by Chris Carlson, AP Photo
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Few bills fail in the Legislature because lawmakers publicly vote “no.” Instead, most bills die when they are shelved, without lawmakers having to take tough votes.