We often take a rather insular view of public policies at the state level -- the notion that what happens in the state stays in the state, to paraphrase the famous marketing line.
Over several decades, the public has been deceived into voting for water bonds that have little new water in them—phony promises to build new water storage and aqueducts. About 12 percent of bond funds are spent on new water storage. The rest of the bond funds have been squandered on scores of local and special-interest environmental projects, e.g., tearing down four Klamath-area dams—killing fish to save them—and opposing substantial new water projects, e.g., raising Shasta Dam and building...
Eighteen California children who allege the United States' climate policies intentionally discriminate against minors appeared in federal court this week with their landmark lawsuit in jeopardy. The children, ages 8 through 17, sued the U.S. government and the federal Environmental Protection Agency for violating their constitutional rights. Their attorneys claim the nation's environmental policies have allowed dangerous levels of greenhouse gases to be released and accumulate in the atmosphere,...
Politicians fear perceived costs of green transition are driving poor and rural voters to parties such as AfDRaising his voice above the pounding drums and honking tractors, Lutz Jankus, a city councillor from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), distanced himself from the furious protest unfurling before him.“They’re rightwing extremists,” he said about Free Saxony, a loose political movement that includes neo-Nazis and skinheads, as his colleagues began to pack up their tent on the...
Wisconsin 14 back extending Medicaid postpartum, paid family leave and more.
Dozens of people across California have been wrongly convicted of crimes largely because of law enforcement officers’ flawed handling of eyewitness evidence. Courts have found instances of eyewitnesses feeling pressured to make an identification from a lineup even when the true culprit wasn’t present; making shaky identifications that were ultimately presented at trial as smoking-gun evidence; and choosing from lineups of photos in which some bore no resemblance to their description of the...
Labour and the Tories should not be turning their backs on the green transition - one of the UK's big success stories - at a time when taking action is more important than ever, Jessica Frank-Keyes argues
The most vociferous crusaders in the ostensible campaign against climate change often sound less concerned with tackling greenhouse gas emissions and more with undermining pro-growth capitalism. Introducing her magnum opus, The Climate Book, anti-global warming avatar Greta Thunberg blamed the phenomenon on “racist, oppressive extractivism that is exploiting both people and the planet to maximize […]
European lawmakers have voted to escape a treaty that lets investors sue
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release, officials announced Monday. The so-called nature-based solutions will span natural and working lands such as forests, farms, grasslands, chaparral, deserts and other types of ecosystems and urban...
Supreme Court justices sounded sharply split Monday over whether to give cities in the West more authority to restrict homeless encampments on sidewalks and other public property. The court's three liberals said they were wary of giving cities a broad and unchecked power to use arrests and fines to punish homeless people who are sleeping outside. "Sleeping is a biological necessity," Justice Elena Kagan said. It "seems like you are criminalizing the status of homelessness," she told a lawyer...
California pet owners struggling to find a rental that accepts their furry, four-legged family members could have an easier time leasing new housing under proposed state legislation that would ban blanket no-pets policies and prohibit landlords from charging additional fees for common companions like cats and dogs. Backers of the bill, which recently cleared a key committee, say the lack of pet-friendly units is pushing renters to forgo housing or relinquish beloved pets to overcrowded...