by Daniella Lake | Nov 2, 2025 | California, Climate Crisis, Disabilities, LA fires, Los Angeles, News
When wildfire tore through Los Angeles County’s Altadena community in January, Retha De Johnette never expected the disabled residents of the assisted-living facility she runs to remain displaced across the Southland nearly a year later. “They’re spread out all over, in all kinds of random places right now, and it’s pretty devastating,” she said. After disasters — natural or otherwise…
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by Sonali Kolhatkar | Oct 24, 2025 | California, labor, News Analysis, Prison Labor, Prisons, Wildfires
California relies heavily on incarcerated firefighters to protect life and property, but pays them a pittance. Recently, a major grassroots and legislative push to improve working conditions for incarcerated firefighters enjoyed some success. On October 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 247 into law, raising their base pay and doubling the amount by which they can reduce their sentences.
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by Jake Johnson | Oct 24, 2025 | ballot initiative, Billionaires, California, federal budget cuts, health care, Health Care Workers, Inequality, Medicaid, medicaid cuts, News, Taxes
A coalition of frontline healthcare workers, unions, and economists launched an effort Thursday to build support for a proposed ballot measure in California that would impose a one-time tax on the state’s billionaires to avert a looming crisis spurred by national Republicans‘ unprecedented Medicaid cuts. The proposed ballot initiative, titled “The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act…
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by Chris Walker | Oct 23, 2025 | 2026 midterms, California, Gerrymandering, News, Redistricting, redistricting reform, Trump redistricting scheme
New polling of California voters shows strong support for temporarily changing the state’s process of drawing congressional boundaries in order to diminish the effects of a nationwide Republican gerrymandering scheme. At the behest of the Trump administration, several GOP-led states have either started or completed redistricting processes to give their party added advantages in next year’s…
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by Dan Ross | Oct 23, 2025 | Agriculture, Biodiversity Crisis, California, Climate Crisis, DOGE, DOGE cuts, Drinking Water, fresh water, groundwater, groundwater depletion, India, Iran, News, resource scarcity, Water, Water crisis
India is the thirstiest user of groundwater in the world, sucking up more of this valuable resource than both the U.S. and China combined. Indeed, the country relies on groundwater (like lakes and rivers) to keep its crops irrigated, its industries running, and its people quenched. In some rural communities, as much as 85 percent of their drinking water is pumped from underground.
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by Jessica Corbett | Oct 23, 2025 | California, Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom, ICE, immigration, News, San Francisco, Trump Administration
President Donald Trump’s assault on immigrants in Democrat-led cities continued Wednesday with confirmation from the US Coast Guard that its base in Alameda, California is preparing to host 100 federal agents — whose looming arrival is seen as “a likely precursor” to the Republican deploying National Guard troops to San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle initially reported that agents…
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