by jpitney | Jan 19, 2025 | California Politics, counties, Local Government
Aaron Davis at WP: Two years before wildfires incinerated swaths of Los Angeles, the city’s Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley identified “one significant area of weakness” in her department’s ability to contain wildfires. L.A. had no specialized wildland unit to respond...
by jpitney | Jan 18, 2025 | Budget, California Politics
Alexei Koseff at CalMatters: [In] his six years in the governor’s office, Newsom has steadily guided California’s government to expand its mission and scope: launching flashy initiatives, creating new departments and offering more services to more people, even during...
by jpitney | Jan 3, 2025 | Bureaucracy, California Politics, Ethics
Yue Stella Yu and Jeremia Kimelman at CalMatters: Historically plagued by what some staff called an “enormous” backlog, California’s campaign watchdog [the Fair Political Practices Commission] has sometimes taken years to resolve cases — exposing violations or...
by jpitney | Dec 26, 2024 | California Politics, Crime
Karen Garcia at The Los Angeles Times: The In-N-Out in Oakland earlier this year became the first location in the restaurant chain to be permanently closed, a decision the owner of the fast-food company recently doubled down on by blaming rampant crime, slow police...
by jpitney | Dec 24, 2024 | California Politics, Housing, Insurance
David Siders at Politico: Today, home values in California are more than double the national average, with high rents and low homeownership rates — and the number of homeless people is growing. In part because of devastating wildfires, insurance companies keep...
by jpitney | Dec 11, 2024 | California Politics, Taxes
Adam Hoffer, Jacob Macumber-Rosin at the Tax Foundation: California pumps up its gas tax the most at 68.1 cents per gallon (cpg), followed by Illinois (66.5 cpg) and Pennsylvania (58.7 cpg). The lowest gas tax rates are levied in Alaska at 8.95 cpg, followed...
