Author Archives: Public Press staff

By Matt Weiser, KQED News Fix/Water Deeply California is well behind the curve on groundwater regulation. With a few exceptions, groundwater extraction has never been regulated in the state or even monitored with any precision. However, a 2014 law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, at last will require groundwater basins in the state to reverse […]

By Carolyn Jones, EdSource Most teachers are embracing California’s new science standards, but the rollout has been hampered by teacher shortages, lackluster elementary science education, lack of supplies and other obstacles, according to a new report. The report by the Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 204 school districts across California at the end of […]

By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local At some point on Wednesday, the meeting’s going to careen off the rails. “S**t-show breaks out” isn’t a Police Commission agenda item, but it might as well be. Various members of the public will recriminate one other and members of the government; members of the government will recriminate various members […]

By Julian Mark, Mission Local Nearly three years have passed since Dora Mejia filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco that exposed the barriers many monolingual sexual assault victims experience when interacting with the San Francisco Police Department, but advocates say the problems still remain. Mejia was arrested after her ex-partner sexually assaulted […]

By David Washburn, EdSource Fifty years ago this week, Latino students in Los Angeles shocked their teachers, their principals — and the world — by organizing massive school walkouts to protest their unequal education in the Los Angeles Unified School District. School authorities were caught unawares. They stood by dumbfounded as high school kids — […]

By Sukey Lewis, Marisa Lagos and Lisa Pickoff-White, KQED News Fix/The California Report Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann wasn’t scheduled to work until Monday morning, but he decided to head in Sunday, Oct. 8, just in case. He knew that conditions in Napa’s wine country, known for its Mediterranean climate and valleys of vineyards, […]

By Liza Veale, KALW/Crosscurrents San Francisco recently began construction on a housing development in Mission Bay, a complex that will house 62 homeless veterans and 59 low-income families. Inclement weather one last week did not stop housing leaders from gathering under a muddy tent to celebrate. “Thanks for coming out in the rain,” said Michael […]

By Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED New Fix More than 200 protesters surrounded the offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown San Francisco Wednesday and closed the area to traffic, after the federal agency arrested more than 150 people in Northern and Central California this week. About half of the immigrants arrested since Sunday […]

By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on a high-profile case that could slash the power of public-employee unions. But California labor leaders are already planning to push for new state laws to blunt the impact of an unfavorable ruling. The case argued before the court Monday, Janus v. […]

By Louis Freedberg, EdSource Were California to try to implement anything remotely along the lines of what President Trump has proposed for arming teachers to prevent firearm massacres in schools, the state would have a massive and expensive undertaking on its hands. It would also almost certainly require significant legislative changes, because if anything California […]