California

If children are the future, then looking at a state's educational system is like peering into a crystal ball. California is a state teeming with young children -- 4.7 million under age 8, to be exact. One in every eight young American children lives in California. And many of these children come from minority ethnic and racial backgrounds and speak languages other than English. If Americans want to get a glimpse at our future as a "majority minority" country they don't have to look beyond California.

Gautam Dutta of the New America Foundation, an election reform group that has been pushing for the council to consider IRV, refutes these criticisms. ...

More than 30 US states have followed the California example with climate action plans, and “even more are copying it,” said Terry Tamminen, former secretary ...

The first rule of Jerry Brown's campaign for governor is that he doesn't talk about his campaign for governor.

Besides the capitalists of the Bay Area Council, the center-left New America Foundation loves it. So does the left-left Courage Campaign, ... and more »

Joe Mathews moderated a panel discussion in which the policy leaders were asked to address the topics of fiscal or governance reform, "silver bullet" solutions, and the impact severe cuts and revenue shifts would have on local government, health and education. ... Original Article

As you ride the bus or freeway to work tomorrow, ask yourself: Can the person seated next to me, or driving past me, be trusted with the job of redesigning California's basic political and budgetary rules? Are "average Californians" ready to don the white powdered wigs to become the Founding Mothers and Fathers of a new California?

California, broke and dysfunctional, desperately needs a white-hot public debate over how to fix its budget, its economy, and its state constitution.

What the state may get instead is a white-hot public debate over marijuana.

Karen Bass is an unlikely tax cutter. She's the Democratic speaker of the California State Assembly, a fierce defender of the labor movement, and an advocate for repealing a constitutional provision that requires that tax increases pass the state legislature with a two-thirds majority.