Author Archives: Public Press staff

By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local Retirement, for Larry Bush, looks a lot like work did. The former journalist, politico, fixer and government apparatchik is seated on a recliner in his Castro district living room, his feet up; his tiny dog, Izabel, sitting across his legs; and a MacBook in his lap. He’s following the money. […]

By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters Three companies found to have sold toxic lead paint for decades — despite knowing it posed health hazards for children — are waging a major battle to avoid paying the several hundred million dollars in liability that California courts have slapped on them. And they’re asking you, the California voter, to […]

By Kelly O’Mara, KQED News Fix San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is located downtown, bordered by some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. Yet, it has a bad reputation. Tourists are told to avoid the area. You can often see drug dealing out in the open, and garbage on the streets. “Growing up we always […]

By Judy Lin, CALmatters California’s tax system, which relies heavily on the wealthy for state income, is prone to boom-and-bust cycles. While it delivers big returns from the rich whenever Wall Street goes on a bull run, it forces state and local governments to cut services, raise taxes or borrow money in a downturn. During […]

By John Fensterwald
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David Washburn, EdSource Teachers are on the march. Lashing out against low pay and what they see as paltry state spending on education, teachers in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma — and recently Arizona and Colorado — have made national headlines by walking off the job in unprecedented displays of statewide solidarity. Although […]

By Ashley Hopkinson, EdSource Teachers of English learners find it challenging to communicate in classrooms where students come from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds. Some children may speak Spanish at home, while others speak Vietnamese, Punjabi or Arabic. However, learning can improve by incorporating students’ languages in classrooms, increasing teacher access to dictionaries […]

By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters Lobbyists in slick pinstriped suits and burly veterans with tattooed arms crowded into a Capitol hearing room this week as lawmakers considered a bill to make it easier for Californians to buy legal marijuana. One supporter said people need more access to the “beautiful sacred plant.” But at its core, this […]

By Carolyn Jones, EdSource As Californians celebrateed Earth Day and the ecology movement, the state’s public schools are making steady progress in implementing some of the most comprehensive environmental education standards in the country, educators and environmentalists say. Buoyed by $4 million in the current state budget for K-12 environmental education, teachers are planning field […]

By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local When the barbarians arrived at the gates of besieged cities of yore, they weren’t riding venture capital-backed scooters — though, in a way, underwriting a band of for-profit marauders was the medieval precursor to venture capitalism. But, lo, that’s San Francisco circa right now, a city that has allowed itself […]

By Vanessa Rancaño, KQED News/The California Report Two legislative proposals aimed at providing greater oversight of California’s estimated 15,000 homeschools died this week after a massive lobbying effort waged by parents and homeschool supporters. Homeschools are private schools under California law. Neither the state, county or local district has any legal responsibility to monitor conditions, […]