Covered California Gets High Marks Entering Year 2
In the first full year under the federal Affordable Care Act, California led the nation – embracing the new law eagerly, implementing it quickly, and providing relatively robust choice with low premiums through a web site that, most of the time, actually worked. There was nothing in Thursday’s announcement about the early stages of Year […]
Californians and the Carbon Tax
California is leading efforts to address climate change, and public support for state action on this policy has been strong and steadfast. In the July PPIC Survey, six in 10 likely voters say that global warming’s effects have already begun and favor the state’s requirements that greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 1990 levels by […]
Does Anyone Cover the News in Sacramento?
California is perhaps the most significant state in the union both culturally and economically. One in every eight Americans lives here. In 2012, California’s GDP was $1.9 trillion — roughly the same size as that of Italy and Russia. If we were a nation, we’d consistently be in the top-10 largest economies in the world. And […]
LA Council Flunks Infrastructure 101
The high profile rupture of a high pressure water trunk line on Sunset Boulevard that dumped 20 million gallons of water (160 million pounds) onto UCLA and the recently reconstructed Pauley Pavilion is just another example of the City Council’s failure to maintain the City’s aging infrastructure. While numerous reports over the years have highlighted […]
Implement FCC Rule on 9-1-1 – Save 10,000 Lives Each Year
In recent months, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a proposed rule that would update their standards to improve location accuracy for wireless calls to 9-1-1, so that emergency responders are better able to find mobile-based 9-1-1 callers. According to the FCC, their rule change would save about 10,000 lives a year—TEN THOUSAND LIVES EVERY […]
Reunion with the Past of “Separate But Equal”
I have lived in California since 1959–which should now qualify me as a native. Before coming to California, though, I lived in a farming community in Mississippi, and was among the last group of Black students to attend segregated schools in the pre-Brown v. Board of Education era. Recently, I made the journey back to […]