California sends billions of dollars more to the federal government than it receives back, subsidizing states that vote against its interests and resulting in a transfer of wealth from the people of California to the rest of the country.
Tom Steyer’s housing platform is the most structurally complete from an MMT perspective, combining supply expansion, direct investment in affordable units, and structural fiscal reform, while the other candidates’ platforms are either insufficient or stop short of the public provision logic the crisis requires.
California is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain thousands of unused prison beds even as the incarcerated population continues to decline, and the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office recommends closing another prison in the next few years to save money.
A federal district court in Los Angeles ruled that California can prohibit masked ICE agents, as long as the law is revised to include law enforcement officers at all levels of government.
California Governor Gavin Newsom attended the Munich Security Conference to discuss the need for decisive climate action and to promote California’s partnerships with other countries to build a green economy, digital safety and innovation.
California has the economic power and moral responsibility to implement a universal healthcare system independent from the federal government, which can serve as a model for the rest of the country and ensure that healthcare is a human right.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced over $419 million in new funding for homelessness in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, citing a 9% statewide reduction in unsheltered homelessness, the first such decline in over 15 years.
Maryland and California are facing similar housing crises, with low-income renters, families with children, Black households, people with disabilities, and survivors of domestic violence being disproportionately affected, and advocates in both states pushing for increased funding for emergency rental assistance and tenant protections.
California’s new law, SB 79, is designed to ease the housing shortage by allowing taller apartment buildings near major transit stops, but some counties are exempt and it will take time for the first projects to be completed.
Abundance, a book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, argues that many of America’s most damaging crises are the result of deliberate choices that constrain supply, slow delivery and fragment authority, and that to have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading a multistate lawsuit challenging a Trump administration declaration that could restrict access to gender-affirming care by threatening doctors and hospitals with the loss of federal health funding.
Proposition 13 has had a greater effect on homeowner behavior and local politics than on city budgets, and the only way to solve California’s housing crisis is to move housing decisions to a level of government less susceptible to capture by incumbent homeowners.
A federal judge has ruled that California laws and policies designed to protect LGBTQ+ public school students from being forcibly outed to their families violate the U.S. Constitution, potentially placing transgender and gender-nonconforming students at increased risk while an appeal proceeds.
California’s housing reforms are being enforced, with the state using litigation, court orders, and suspension of local land use authority to ensure compliance, as demonstrated by the recent legal victory against Huntington Beach.
California’s population has increased slightly in recent years, but the state’s decades-long failure to build enough homes to meet demand has resulted in high rents and prices, making it difficult for people to afford to live in the state.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced over $52 million in federal grants to support local housing, infrastructure and homelessness initiatives, funding 90 projects across 53 counties.
A new proposal to build 768 housing units in downtown San Jose adds to California’s growing housing development pipeline, demonstrating that large, high-yield projects are needed to close the state’s housing production gap.
Federal attorneys argue that President Donald Trump’s continued federal control of California National Guard troops stationed in Los Angeles remains lawful due to an alleged ongoing “danger of rebellion,” despite California’s insistence that the deployment violates constitutional limits on presidential power and undermines state authority over its Guard.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has appointed Assemblymember Buffy Wicks to chair a newly created Select Committee on Housing Construction Innovation to examine ways to reduce housing costs, speed construction, and align housing production with the state’s climate goals.
Homelessness is primarily caused by unaffordable housing, not addiction or mental illness, and is exacerbated by a lack of safety nets and the collapse of low-cost rentals.