Voting may become harder for people experiencing homelessness in coming elections if California’s Proposition 39, a new voter ID law, passes. The measure would add another hurdle in a long line of barriers to civic engagement that unhoused people already face.
Category: California
Posted inCalifornia, Environment, Health, Housing
State Vulnerability Metric Overlooks SF Neighborhoods, Excluding Them From Billions in Funding
Several dense San Francisco neighborhoods — including Chinatown, the Mission and swaths of SoMa — scored too low in the recently updated tool, CalEnviroScreen 5.0, to qualify for a preliminary list of the state’s most disadvantaged communities.
Posted inCalifornia, Public Safety, Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data, Transportation
California Regulators Voted to Release Ride-Hailing Safety Reports. Then They Didn’t.
California’s ride-hailing regulator has repeatedly promised to release safety data on Uber and Lyft — most recently voting last August to do so. It still hasn’t, leaving the public in the dark about the scope of driver assaults and whether the agency has done its job.
Posted inCalifornia, Elections
How California’s Next Governor Could Affect Latino Communities
El Tecolote and the San Francisco Public Press sent a callout to our Latino readers, asking them to highlight which issues they believe are most important for California’s next governor to address.
Posted inArtificial Intelligence, California, Economy & Business, Government & Politics, Technology
Following California’s Lead, New York Says AI Companies Need Not Warn Regulators of Safety Risks
Seventeen minutes into his final State of the State address on Jan. 8, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared California’s newly enacted artificial intelligence safety law “a template for the nation.” He boasted that New York “adopted our approach” in regulating the Silicon Valley companies that are releasing increasingly powerful chatbots.
Posted inCalifornia, Health
Researchers Back $23 Billion State Science Fund in Response to Deep Federal Cuts
Pushing back against what they called politicized attacks on science, state lawmakers, labor unions, university officials and researchers on Monday announced plans for a 2026 ballot initiative that would make California the largest independent funder of scientific research in the nation.
Posted inCalifornia, Elections, Politics
Souring on GOP Economics, California Latinos Favor Redistricting, Poll Finds
Proposition 50, a contentious California measure to redraw congressional districts, which experts say could flip five Republican seats, is poised to give Latinos a big say at a time when economic pessimism has spread in this voting bloc.