California Connected Newsroom

The Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News report that a federal judge has given California six more months to properly accommodate its bulging prison population. But if matters do not improve after that time, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton says he may be forced to impose a […]

The New York Times reports in-depth that power executives and economists are increasingly worried about global warming’s future impact on profits and society at large. To head off a crisis, more and more of them are calling for a federal pricing policy that taxes or caps carbon emissions and encourages technological innovation.
“Global warming can be […]

The Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News report today on the epic political battle to reform the Los Angeles Unified School District. The Times reports that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has selected a five-member team to implement his administration’s reform measures. Most experts applauded his choices but the general counsel for the […]

The Stockton Record ran a touching and informative feature Sunday on a mother’s story of her son’s tragic fate as a methamphetamine addict. Once a straight-A student, her son David Johnston became addicted to meth as a teenager. In recent years he became a petty theft and on Nov. 13th after being released from jail […]

The Los Angeles Times’ Janet Wilson filed another strong story today on air pollution and public health, reporting that according to outside experts the Environmental Protection Agency has reduced the influence of its scientific advisory in determining the impact of dangerous pollutants. She reports that the EPA is replacing independent, scientific recommendations with those prepared […]

The Los Angeles Times’ George Skelton, Sacramento Bee’s Daniel Weintraub, Los Angeles Daily News, and San Jose Mercury News comment and report on a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California that finds a clear majority of voters want the bipartisan tone at the state capitol to continue. “Voters really are heaping praise […]

The New York Times and Wired News report that the popular social-networking site MySpace.com will soon begin screening its system for registered sex offenders using software created by the Sentinel Tech Holdings Corporation. “Forty-six states have public data bases that include 550,000 registered sex offenders,” reports The Times’ Matt Richtel. “The technology will compare the […]

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairwoman-to-be of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, announced that she will summon Gov. Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to Washington to testify on climate change and California’s landmark law to reduce greenhouse gases.
Boxer says she intends to model a federal global warming […]

The Sacramento Bee’s Peter Schrag comments on how to discourage illegal immigration but reach a realistic compromise when it comes to driver’s licenses and the federal “Real ID” program. Beginning in 2008, the Real ID process is supposed to help secure the country against terrorism and illegal immigration by making state driver’s licenses tougher to […]

The Orange County Register reports that a federal agent is helping Costa Mesa check the immigrations status of arrestees at its city jail. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Angel Garcia will interrogate those arrested by Costa Mesa police for violent and nonviolent crimes. About 500 people will be screened each month by Garcia, who […]