El Dorado County Explainer Articles

California homicide spiked by 31 percent in 2020. The shocking increase has continued into 2021. Here are several theories that attempt to explain the state’s suddenly rising murder rate.

California has a new law to ban leaf blowers, which both annoy neighbors and pollute the air. Here’s why the law might not do enough, explained.

California keeps on taking legislative steps that will keep it ranked in the top 10 of voter-friendly states.

Some 31,000 students attend schools in 15 districts—including the fifth smallest in the state.

California has historically been ahead of the rest of the country in expanding the legal right to abortion services. Here’s what state laws say today, and how we got here.

Community service districts can do most anything a city government can do. Here’s how they work and how to start one.

Inflation is on the rise, with prices in some parts of California their highest in 13 years. Here’s what caused this round of inflation, and how can it be stopped.

Since Gold Rush Days, water has been the driving force in El Dorado County life. Here’s how the water system works, and how it has developed over the years.

A new California law to lower speed limits, AB 43, is part of an overall effort, called ‘Vision Zero,’ to eliminate traffic deaths completely. Here’s what the law does, and why it can make a difference.

The pesky mosquito can be deadly as well as annoying. Here’s how local governments in California have been waging war on mosquitoes for more than a century.

California’s history of people getting directly involved in the affairs of government dates back more than a century, but it has sometimes been coopted by business and other interests.

El Dorado County’s 193,000 residents rely on 10 different districts to protect them from fire, and some of those districts are dangerously short on cash.

In an era of information overload, here’s how a rising form of journalism helps explain it all for you, and why California Local publishes ‘explanatory’ reporting.

At the center of El Dorado County’s criminal justice system, the district attorney and public defender are the two lawyers who make it all work.

What do resource conservation districts protect? Pretty much everything that’s worth saving.

The short-term or ‘vacation’ rental industry spawns hundreds of horror stories and damages the housing market, but governments struggle with how to bring it under control.

Why is California still experiencing offshore oil spills half-a-century after the catastrophic Santa Barbara disaster? The answer is found in the state’s longtime, close relationship with the oil business.

Here’s why cargo ship traffic has been dangerously heavy at California’s ports in 2021, and how the backup may have caused a disaster.

Extended unemployment benefits, the state's eviction moratorium and other COVID relief measures have ended. But people are still out of work and hurting in California as the recovery remains slow.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and California’s Democratic legislators have enacted a sweeping new package of police reform legislation. Here’s what the new laws will accomplish, and why.