San Joaquin County Local News: Local Governments


All Local Local Governments News articles contributed by our local media allies and other local newsrooms.

Image caption: The California mental health crisis is tied to both homelessness and rising crime.
UPDATE: California’s Mental Health Crisis: How We Got Here

How the California mental health crisis emerged out of the state’s history of deinstitutionalization and laws designed to protect the mentally ill, as well as the communities around them.

Image caption: California has a goal of 6 million heat pumps cooling and heating buildings by 2030.
6 Million New Heat Pumps: Essential to California's Climate Future

Heat pumps, an energy-efficient way to both heat and cool homes, are a necessary element of California's climate goal of net zero carbon emissions. Here's what they are, how they work, and how to get one.

Image caption: The 1965 law known as the Williamson Act has been responsible for keeping about half of California's farmland out of the hands of developers.
The Williamson Act: How the Law That Protects California’s Farmland Works

The Williamson Act, passed in 1965, now keeps more than 16 million acres of farmland out of the hands of developers. Here's how the law puts the brakes on the development of California agricultural properties.

Image caption: Does California’s signature environmental law protect the state’s scenic beauty, or cause more problems than it solves?
CEQA: The Surprising Story of CA’s Key Environmental Law

The California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, is both the state’s signature environmental legislation, and is also often named as the villain in the state’s housing shortage. But the story may not be that simple.

Image caption: The Baldwin Hills area in South Los Angeles is one region where a state conservancy would keep open land accessible to the public.
California’s 10 State Conservancies: How They Protect Parks and Open Land

How California’s 10 state conservancies buy up open land and shield it from developers to preserve the natural environment for public use.

Image caption: Long-duration energy storage, such as this thermal energy storage facility, allows renewable energy sources to operate at full capacity without overloading the power grid.
How California Leads the Race For Long Duration Energy Storage

Long-duration energy storage is essential if renewables are to become the basis for a future, carbon-neutral power grid. Here's how California is leading the race to store energy from solar, wind, and other clean sources for use whenever it's needed.

Image caption: Translated from the Greek, “Democracy” means “people power.” How much power do the people have in California?
People Power! What Is Democracy, and How Does It Work in California?

Democracy is a 2,500-year-old system of government still looked on today as the best system, because under a democratic system, the people govern themselves. But is that all there is to it? What is democracy? And how does it work …

Image caption: Since 1972, the California Coastal Commission has ruled over the state’s shoreline.
California Coastal Commission: Where It Comes From, What It Does

What is the California Coastal Commission? How one of the state’s most powerful agency protects public access to the state’s scenic coast from Mexico to Oregon.

Image caption: The Pajaro River levee broke during the 2023 atmospheric river storms, flooding the town of Pajaro.
Is California Ready for More Extreme Weather Driven by Climate Change?

This year, a series of extreme events in California and around the country have wreaked havoc, driven by climate change. How prepared are we for things to get worse?

Image caption: Since the Gold Rush era, land reclamation has cost California 90 percent of its wetlands.
How Land Reclamation Hurts California’s Environment

Since the Gold Rush era, land reclamation projects have helped to build California, but they are also damaging the state’s environment for people, plants and animals by eliminating essential wetlands.

Image caption: How California reclamation districts turned millions of acres of wetlands into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush.
Reclamation Districts: Turning ‘Swamps’ Into Farmland

California has used reclamation districts to turn millions of acres of unusable swamps into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush. Here’s how it happened.

Image caption: Zoning laws tell you what you can and can't build on the property you own. How does government get away with that?
How Zoning Laws Shape California and Society

Zoning laws determine what can be built and where. These laws have shaped California, but are they really just tools for social engineering? The history of zoning is closely tied to racial segregation, as well as the state's shortage of …

Image caption: The California Supreme Court has defined the state’s legal and political agenda for more than 170 years.
How the California Supreme Court Blazes Legal Trails

The California Supreme Court has kept the state at the forefront of legal issues surrounding abortion, the death penalty and same-sex marriage, starting in its earliest days in the Gold Rush era.

Image caption: Owning homes is the primary way the middle class builds wealth, and an option no longer available to most Californians.
Is California’s Housing Crisis Making Inequality Worse?

California has some of the worst economic inequality in the United States. Is the housing crisis a cause?

Image caption: Moss Landing in Monterey Bay is the world’s largest battery storage facility for solar and other renewable energy.
Solar Power and California’s Clean Energy Goals

Solar power, and a network of giant battery storage facilities, are playing an essential role in moving California toward its goal of exclusive reliance on renewable energy sources.

Image caption: California transportation history runs from railroads to today’s car culture.
California’s History of Transportation: From Railroads to Highways

The history of transportation in California has shaped the state, from the railroads to today’s highways, making the need for planning increasingly urgent. Here’s how it all happened, and where we stand today.

Image caption: Over two weekends last October, residents of Santa Cruz and Watsonville  participated in demonstration rides aboard an electric streetcar on rails.
The ‘Rail Trail’ Movement, Explained

Thousands of miles of railroad track, including some in Santa Cruz County, now sit idle. The fate of those largely abandoned tracks has become a burning controversy.

Image caption: California continues to work on legislation that would make voting easier.
Voting Rites

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

Image caption: There are more than 300 community service districts in California.
Community Services Districts, Explained

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

Image caption: Mosquitos kill about 725,000 people every year, worldwide.
Taking a Bite Out of the Mosquito Population

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.

Image caption: RCDs look after the land, whether it’s used for grazing, growing, or getting out into nature.
California Dirt

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

Image caption: Water is a human right under California law, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Agriculture and Water Shortages in the State’s Breadbasket, Explained

Residential wells are drying up in the state’s main agricultural region at the same time that agricultural businesses consume almost 90 percent of the water there.

Image caption: States have expansive powers to protect the health of the general public.
The State’s Broad Power to Protect Public Health, Explained

Since long before the COVID-19 pandemic, states have possessed broad authority to protect public health, even to suspend laws and commandeer private property. Here’s why, and how it works.

Image caption: California's sprawling public education system encompasses approximately 10,500 schools.
California’s Education System: How the Bureaucracy Works

How California's extensive public school system is organized and managed, explained.

California Local Pin Marker From Local News Matters...

01/31/2025
CHRIS BENNER AND MANUEL PASTOR have had front row seats to the changes taking place in the so-called Lithium Valley, the region around the Salton Sea, where a network of companies have hatched a plan for local and state government entities to mine vast quantities of lithium to use in the batteries that power electric vehicles.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/31/2025
Read on to learn more about the $56 million City of Manteca project to build a new police station, and the shift from the planned location at West Yosemite Avenue to one to be determined.

California Local Pin Marker From Tracy Press...

01/31/2025
Read on to learn more about the 36-unit condominium project on C Street recently approved by the City of Tracy Planning Commission.

California Local Pin Marker From Tracy Press...

01/31/2025
In their January 22 meeting, the City of Tracy Planning Commission considered a proposed business park on 169 acres. Read on to learn more about the project and how to give your feedback before the public comment deadline of February 10.

California Local Pin Marker From Stocktonia...

01/30/2025
Repairs to the Victoria Island Levee have been complete, just in time as an atmospheric river approaches the region. Read on to learn more.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/30/2025
Read on to learn more about upcoming developments in River Islands at Lathrop, including a new rental neighborhood and grocery store.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/30/2025
The Manteca City Council is sending the $2.9 million Woodrow Park splash pad project out to bid. Read on to learn more about the project and when construction is projected to be completed.

California Local Pin Marker From Escalon Times...

01/30/2025
A free screening of Fentanyl High, a film exploring teen exposure to fentanyl, will be held on February 26. Read on for more information about the film and how you can attend.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/29/2025
Read on learn about Manteca Mayor Gary Singh's desire to build a plaza honoring local veterans.

California Local Pin Marker From Los Angeles Times...

01/29/2025
Struggling with prior cuts, California State University calls latest proposed budget cuts unacceptable. Read on to learn more.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/28/2025
Read on to learn more about the City of Manteca's "growth management ordinance," and how the city remains in compliance despite a record year of new housing permits.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/27/2025
Read on to learn more about upcoming increases to water and sewage rates in the City of Manteca, and why the rate increases are necessary.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/27/2025
Read on for more information about projected 2025 population increases in Manteca, Lathrop, and Tracy.

California Local Pin Marker From CalMatters...

01/27/2025
One of President Trump’s first executive orders threatened to withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. California is one of them.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/24/2025
Read on to learn how fifty-one months after the Manteca City Council began considerations for legal retail sales of cannabis, the first dispensary has opened for business.

California Local Pin Marker From Tracy Press...

01/24/2025
Read on learn what two new parks in Tracy have been named.

California Local Pin Marker From Tracy Press...

01/24/2025
Read on to learn how you can apply for serving on the boards and commissions advising the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

California Local Pin Marker From Manteca Bulletin...

01/23/2025
Read on for more information about Ripon's South Main Street resurfacing and restriping projecty.

California Local Pin Marker From Stocktonia...

01/23/2025
Read on to learn more about remarks made by San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow with regard to support for local immigrants.

California Local Pin Marker From LodiNews...

01/23/2025
The City of Lodi and the Public Health Services Agency for San Joaquin County are partnering as part of a health and longevity study, with an aim to improving a healthier place to live. Read on to learn more about this Blue Zone research project.