by jpitney | Sep 10, 2024 | California Politics, Homelessness
Lynn La at CalMatters: An exclusive CalMatters analysis of the latest California homeless count reveals some good news and bad news: Though the growth rate of homelessness appears to be slowing, the overall number of unhoused Californians increased from two years ago....
by jpitney | Sep 6, 2024 | California Politics, Education
John Fensterwald at EdSource: States’ websites that annually report the scores on standardized tests and other valuable data, like chronic absenteeism, could provide a reality check by clearly and easily displaying performance results over time. However,...
by jpitney | Sep 4, 2024 | Business, California Politics, Local Government
From Kosmont-Rose Institute 2024 Cost of Doing Business Survey: Our analysis indicates that cities in Los Angeles County are collectively more expensive places to do business than cities in other parts of the region and also more expensive than the top destination...
by jpitney | Sep 2, 2024 | California Politics, Infrastruture, Local Government
At LAT, Steve Lopez on the failure of Los Angeles to fix its dilapidated sidewalks: The city still does handle sidewalk repairs if the service request is by or for someone who is disabled, but that program is nothing to cheer about. In 2016, under terms of a federal...
by jpitney | Aug 31, 2024 | California Politics, Journalism, Journalists, Local Government
Ryan Fonesca at LAT: A state bill with bipartisan support that aimed to throw a lifeline to California’s struggling news industry is no more. In place of the proposed “journalism usage fee” levied on Google and Meta annually to help fund local newsrooms, state...
by jpitney | Aug 25, 2024 | California Politics, Crime, Drugs
Steve Lopez at LAT: When he was a boy of 12 or so, and his parents were busy running the family restaurant, Norm Langer spent hours across the street in MacArthur Park. It was, at the time, an elegant urban oasis, with lollipop palms standing over a lake fed by...