California props and hot races results: What we know and don’t know

Californian’s app-based corporate luminaries such as Uber and Lyft just waged the most expensive state ballot measure campaign in U.S. history — and it paid off big time, allowing those companies to thwart the will of all three branches of California government. By approving Proposition 22, voters allowed those companies to avoid a 2019 California labor […]

In ballot box battle, Dems and GOP both claim victory. Why this fight fizzled.

In a press conference seemingly designed to deescalate a week-long legal standoff, declare victory and profoundly confuse the California press corps, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla said they would not be taking legal action against the California Republican Party for its makeshift ballot box program.  But the two Democrats insisted […]

Veep debate: Fact-check on Kamala Harris as California prosecutor

A few things distinguished the vice presidential debate from the Trump-on-Biden interruption-fest that the nation suffered through last week: The two were separated by prophylactic plexiglass Tupac was invited for some reason A fly made a surprise appearance on the vice president’s head The back-and-forth was, for the most part, actually a back-and-forth, rather than […]

Court bans “abusive” spiking, but sticks with pension protections

For 65 years, the California Supreme Court has taken a rigid line on pensions for public employees: Any retirement benefits promised to a worker at the outset of a job can only be reduced if they are replaced with something of equal value. That iron-clad precedent has been dubbed “the California Rule.” Today the state’s […]

Riskier bet: Why CalPERS, the country’s largest pension fund, is getting into banking

Retired DMV clerks, former firefighters and aging government bean-counters across California, put on your three piece suits: You might be getting into the banking business. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which manages a nearly $400 billion basket of nest eggs for retired public workers across the state, is wading into the rollicking market for […]

State AG to probe one of two high desert hangings of black men

California’s Justice Department will send officers to Palmdale to investigate the hanging death of a black man — one of two similar incidents in the high desert over the last few weeks, Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced this morning. Last Wednesday, the body of 24-year-old Robert Fuller was found hanging from a tree near city […]

Is now the time to bring back affirmative action in California?

Depending on your viewpoint, now is either exactly the right time or precisely the wrong time to take up a proposed change to the state constitution that seems certain to reignite a heated debate about race and justice in California. At issue: a measure pending in the Legislature that seeks to reinstate affirmative action policies […]

Pension Reform Kicks Off Before California Supreme Court

For California Supreme Court watchers, this all may sound strangely familiar: A public agency is being sued by its unionized employees for fiddling with their pensions and the state’s highest court is now preparing to weigh in. At stake in the case is more than a single squabble over retirement benefits, but one of the […]

Embrace the uncertainty: Waiting for results during California’s “election month”

As you read this article, Proposition 13, the $15 billion school construction bond either failed by a historically wide margin, or it didn’t. Likewise, Bernie Sanders bulldozed the competition, beating out California’s second place Democratic finisher, Joe Biden, by hundreds of thousands of votes. Or he didn’t. And turnout might have been historically high — […]

Shenanigans? Under California’s primary rules, some campaigns boggle the mind

Kathy Garcia is not your typical Republican candidate for the California Senate. For one, she only just joined the GOP. A lifelong Democrat, she won election to the Stockton school board member with the backing of the county Democratic party. She changed her affiliation to Republican in June 2019, six months before the deadline to […]