California in Focus

While fuming over the state of California roads a few weeks ago on a harrowing drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco — I swore to look into why they were so bad. What I found shocked me to my pot-hole-rattled bones – California’s measured road quality had increased 53% since 2015. That’s weird. What’s weirder is that federal statistics claim 65% of California’s roads have disappeared. This set o...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a video blaming oil companies’ “greed” and “price gouging” for the state’s gas prices, which, at an average of $4.60 per gallon, are $1.16 above the national average. Newsom’s own energy commissioner, however, disagrees, noting in May testimony that no “price gouging” has been found and that “increasing supply in the market” would best “protect consumers.” Total...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he is deploying California National Guard lawyers to prosecute cases in Alameda County, where Oakland is. Newsom’s office also detailed Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s months of delays preventing CalGuard’s deployment, publicly highlighting the state of the district attorney’s office. Alameda County violent crime rose 188% in 2023 compared to...

The California legislature is advancing a bill that would ban library governing bodies from banning a book or requiring that a book be purchased. As noted by the state legislature’s analysis, most ban requests in California and nationwide target “books accessible to minors that include LGBTQ themes or sexual content.” The bill would also ban library governance bodies’ decisions on  librarians’ pro...

Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, which have the largest homeless population in the nation, rejected California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order to clear out homeless encampments from government property. Officials are concerned that homeless individuals who do not comply could face fines that, if unpaid, would lead to incarceration for the simple fact of being homeless. The City...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order demanding the state streamline housing development and determine how to use federal climate change funding towards housing as a climate mitigation element. Housing experts note that Newsom’s suggestions could reduce the cost of building housing by as much as 30%. Newsom’s directive orients building housing as an element of achieving the state’...

California battery-electric vehicle sales are stabilizing after peaking halfway through 2023 and entering steady decline. BEV sales peaked at 102,730 in the second quarter of 2023, bottoming out at 89,503 in the fourth quarter of 2023, before recovering to 101,443 in the second quarter of 2024. However, with BEV market share remaining in the same steady 21% range since the start of 2023, it’s uncl...

Giving Americans $1,000 per month in taxpayer-funded guaranteed income makes them worse off, says a new three-year, 3000-participant study. The National Bureau of Economic Research’s massive study found recipients and their partners work and earn less, with the negative effect on wages and earnings getting worse over time. While proponents of universal basic income theorized such programs would im...

Despite broad support, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state didn't need increased oversight on how tax dollars are spent on homelessness. Newsom vetoed an unopposed bill that would have required the state to evaluate the money it gives to cities and counties for homelessness programs, saying it would create “unnecessary ongoing workload” and that other actions already to increase oversight...

Just after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning parental notification for gender change requests from K-12 students, entrepreneur Elon Musk announced he is moving the headquarters of X, formerly known as Twitter, and SpaceX from California to Texas in response to the law.  “This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families...

California’s Little Hoover Commission, a bipartisan and independent state oversight agency, issued its much-awaited report on retail theft, finding that theft is underreported — at an unknown degree — and causes inflation. The commission’s two recommendations are the state collect more data on individuals arrested for theft, including law enforcement response, people arrested, demographics, charge...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a measure to impose a curfew on businesses in the city’s Tenderloin District over concerns that open businesses are hotspots for crime, drug dealing and drug use. The legislation also noted how the city’s police officers are typically outnumbered by large groups of “people engaged in illegal activity,” suggesting crime in the area's disar...

 California Governor Gavin Newsom touted the state’s job growth in his State of the State Address last week, but a new report from a state agency found the state’s private sector employment has been declining since 2022, with public sector hiring accounting for the entire state net increase in jobs. California’s state-funded, non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found the private sector lost...

California Governor Gavin Newsom withdrew his competing ballot measure to reform the state’s reduced prosecution of drug dealing and theft just days after Democratic legislators rejected his supported amendments to their anti-crime bills. Newsom’s measure would have required the majority of legislators’ support on July 3 to make it on the November ballot, and would be in competition with another p...

The California legislature erupted in chaos before it passed a ban on parental notification for gender change requests from TK-12 students. If signed by the governor, the bill would render moot the parental notification policies that have been adopted by many California school districts. After the California Department of Education issued guidance that schools should not disclose students’ gender-...

In his State of the State pre-recorded video address, California Governor Gavin Newsom continued to repeat claims about greater than 30% declines in crime in the Bay Area that seem to face challenges from local crime data. Newsom devoted much of the video to national politics, drawing a sharp comparison between safety in Republican states compared to California, before going into further detail on...

The city of San Francisco is projecting a cumulative $3 billion deficit in its general fund from 2024-25 through 2027-28. The city agreed to raises in union contracts shortly after those projections that resulted in salary and benefits costs that were greater that those used to project the deficits. Mayor London Breed’s proposed budget for 2024-25 and 2025-26 was included in the June 21 agenda for...

San Francisco opened its first $5.5 million free food “market”, where approved residents can show a benefits eligibility card, put what they want in their carts, check out to keep track of outgoing inventory, and leave without paying. The Bayview-Hunters Point facility aims to be a food pantry alternative that replicates the supermarket experience in an area where many grocery stores have come but...

As homicides and robberies continue to rise, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has created a backlog of 15,000 unfiled criminal cases, leading to concerns that unprosecuted criminals in the zero-bail county are able to stay on the streets and keep committing new crimes without any consequences. While LAPD did not respond to a public records request on updated crime data by the time of pu...

One hundred forty-eight days after California Governor Gavin Newsom used new executive authority to expedite infrastructure projects, a court cleared a major hurdle to construction of California’s first major reservoir in decades. In 2023, California passed State Bill 149, which granted the governor the authority to require courts to rule on projects’ environmental impact reports within 270 days....

California, the largest state in the nation, finally ranks as the nation’s top home of valuable Fortune 500 companies after a 10 year hiatus. Due to the state’s vast population, however, its standing erodes when evaluating states’ numbers of Fortune 500 companies per capita. Rounding out the top three states by Fortune 500 headquarters were California, Texas, and New York, coming in at 57, 52, and...

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Congress is investigating California’s $128 billion high speed rail project, demanding the California High Speed Rail Authority provide information on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “justification for continuing to fund the California High-Speed Rail project.”  California’s high speed rail project has completed environmental clearance for the entire downtown Los Angeles to downtown San Fr...

A new California law now allows criminal defendants from disproportionately-convicted racial groups to challenge lawful convictions as state leaders seek to balance criminal justice reform with skyrocketing violent crime. The law also allows for additional challenges in the case of demonstrated racial bias inside or outside the court, or if a conviction or sentencing could have negative immigratio...

When Albuquerque announced plans to acquire a new fire engine, New Mexico's governor lauded the " zero emissions " technology while a fire department spokesman called it "all electric" and KRQE 13 gushed about the "fully electric" fire truck. San Diego's NBC 7 reported on what it called that city's first "all electric fire apparatus." When the electric fire engine debuted in Portland, NBC's KGW 8...