By Dan Aiello
Kern County almond farmer, Fred Starrh, is an unlikely darling of the anti-fracking movement in California.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is an environmentally risky oil production method of pumping under pressure large volumes of wa…
By Lizzie Buchen
After a year of defying court orders to alleviate the state’s prison crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown seems to have finally pushed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to its limit. In an April 11 ruling, having already “exercised exceptional restraint,” the exasperated federal judges declared the state “will not be allowed to continue to violate the requirements of the Constitution of the United States,” giving Brown until May 2 to develop a plan that will reduce the prison population by nearly 10,000 people by the end of the year.
By Dick Price
As California grapples with a prison system so broken that the U.S. Supreme Court has mandated reductions in the number of prisoners it holds, the three-part “Smart Justice: Rethinking Public Safety in California” discussion begun this pa…
By Paul Hogarth
It is never wise to predict U.S. Supreme Court decisions on oral arguments, or else Obamacare would have been repealed. Based on the Justices’ line of questioning, however, it appears that they will overrule Proposition 8 – but on narro…
By Christopher AllenCalifornia Progress Report
California Governor Jerry Brown unveiled his 2013-14 budget proposal yesterday, declaring that the state’s lean years of budget deficits are over. In place of dramatic spending cuts, the governor’s $97.6 b…
By Mike Males
Just-released 2011 arrest statistics from the state Criminal Justice Statistics Center show that pioneering legislation downgrading simple marijuana possession from a criminal offense into an infraction – an effort to deter passage of Pro…
By Mike Males and Barry Krisberg
Over the last 30 years, California has created an oversized, overcrowded prison system entailing billions of dollars in taxpayer expense, endless safety and health crises, a dismal record of rehabilitation, and increasi…