CALIFORNIA MATTERS - “The Big Short” was a 2015 film about how some financial whizzes, realizing that the nation’s overheated housing market was on the verge of collapse, made billions of dollars by betting on failure.
STATE WATCH
California Population Decline is Real
THE STATE OF OUR STATE - Has the California proposition changed fundamentally? And does it matter for real estate?
Did the Pandemic Create More Income Inequality in California?
PANDEMIC ANALYSIS - Recessions in California tend to widen the gap between rich and poor.
Big Tech Takes Flight
SILICON VALLEY - The record meltdown of Meta stock earlier this month suggests turbulence in the tech world and a difficult period ahead for the company formerly known as Facebook.
How California Mistreated Its Working Families
WHAT'S UP WITH CALIFORNIA - Democratic politicians frequently and vehemently express their admiration for and support of what they call “working families,” while contending that rival Republicans lack such empathy.
How the Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy Drives Housing Inequality
HOUSING CRISIS - I work and live in California, the poster child of the national housing crisis.
California Bill Would Allow Citizens to Enforce Assault Weapon Ban
SACRAMENTO WATCH - California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday endorsed legislation that would allow private citizens to enforce the state's ban on assault weapons.
Crime, Homelessness Drag Down Newsom’s Approval
WHAT’S UP IN SACRAMENTO - Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is very gingerly lifting the restrictions on personal behavior that were imposed to counter the omicron surge of COVID-19 — particularly the requirement to wear masks inside public places.
Newsom's Transfer Of California’s Death Row Inmates Means More Killings And Bloodshed In Prisons!
CALIFORNIA POLITICS - Governor Newsom made a self-imposed pledge to dismantle San Quentin's California's Death Row for good and transfer all of the death row inmates to one of 7 other California state prison facilities and place them in their general prison population.
California Families Need More Utility Debt Relief
CALIFORNIA MATTERS - As we gear up for what will likely be another challenging summer, millions of families will have to make the unthinkable choice between keeping the lights on, paying their rent, buying groceries or paying for their prescriptions.
A History of California in Six Super Bowl Stadiums
CONNECTING CALIFORNIA - On February 13, the most watched event in America visits its birthplace, California.
Will California Take the High Road to Good Jobs?
LABOR VIEW - The question was deceptively simple, California State Controller Betty Yee remembers, yet it arose again and again as she and other leaders pondered the future of the state’s workforce.
Is Public Office the Best Place to Do Public Service?
BEING OF SERVICE - If you want to serve the people of California, is public office the best place for you?
Small Businesses Hit Hard in California
CALIFORNIA MATTERS - The single biggest challenge facing California small businesses: Labor shortages.
Report: Restoring The California Dream
COMMENTARY - This newly released report examines how the California dream can be restored for California's middle- and working-class families. An excerpt follows:
California Tries New Approach On Social Maladies
CAL MATTERS - While it deals with the stubborn COVID-19 pandemic, California is also contending with a smorgasbord of equally resilient social pathologies, including chronic illness, homelessness, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness and street crime.
Here’s What’s Ahead For California Businesses In 2022
BUSINESS WATCH - Clogged supply chains. Hiring struggles. New mask rules. A virus that trampled right over return-to-work schedules. Last year was chaotic for many businesses across California.
Tough-On-Crime Debate Needs Balance of Effective Policies
CALIFORNIA MATTERS - Splashy headlines, viral videos and fear of lawlessness have spurred the beginnings of a proverbial pendulum swing in California.
California Can’t Isolate Itself, Try As It Might
CALIFORNIA MATTERS - The first Europeans to visit California were Spanish explorers who assumed it was an island and named it for a fictional island in a 16th century Spanish novel, occupied by a band of woman warriors led by a queen named Calafia.
Why I Drove 80 Miles Across Southern California on Surface Streets
CALIFORNIA HIGHWAYS - Don’t ever complain about freeway traffic, especially around my mother.
Trouble in Paradise: The Crumbling California Model
STATE OF THE STATE - Yet California is not doomed, at least in the near term, nor is it anything like a model of social democracy.