Fights are likely this fall over taxes, marijuana, education, water and possibly campaign donations. But if Gov. Brown’s plan to reduce prison populations even farther by easing parole standards reaches the ballot, the biggest battle might be over crime. A major dispute already rages around the state over whether the combination of Mr. Brown’s prison realignment program and the 2014 … Read More

Donald Trump is about to become a major presence all around California. So are Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, both of whom want to stop the Trump express and force an open Republican National Convention in July on Mr. Kasich’s home turf in Cleveland. Helping them out might be two arcane GOP convention rules adopted in … Read More

In a little more than a month, the Metro Expo Line’s final portion will open for business, making it possible to take trains from the far eastern portions of Los Angeles County to the often-crowded beach in Santa Monica. This will come barely two months after a new section of Metro’s Gold Line opened, allowing a simple, cheap 31-mile jaunt … Read More

Gov. Brown has tried for months to ignore the growing scent of corruption afflicting his administration. Instead, he pushes the worldwide battle against climate change even as he virtually ignored the world’s largest methane leak while it spewed greenhouse gases for months in his back yard. Serious conflict-of-interest allegations reach directly into his office, targeting his chief of staff, Nancy … Read More

Barely three weeks after Ronald Reagan became the first professional actor elected governor of California, in late January 1967, he gave an hour of his time to a small class of Stanford University graduate students led by the great Prof. William Rivers. The class first attended his weekly news conference, then visited Mr. Reagan’s office before lunching with Lyn Nofziger … Read More

Watch the primary election process playing out nationally and in California, and you almost have to wonder whether the state and national Republican Party have a suicide pact. Yes, the result this year might see either candidate Donald Trump or rival hopeful Ted Cruz win the party nomination for president. If one of them or someone sharing their harsh ideas … Read More

If all goes according to the plans of a relatively new environmental agency, the most progressive part of California soon will inflict the most regressive tax known to America upon all its residents. Because the wetlands around San Francisco Bay are fast drying up, with many thousands of acres developed and wildlife habitats threatened and shrinking, the seven-year-old Bay Restoration … Read More

There is little doubt about past corruption at the state’s Public Utilities Commission, repeatedly caught in bed with executives of California’s largest utility companies. A few years ago, the PUC’s conduct was largely ignored, but calls for reform are now common. Where state lawmakers last summer staged a friendly, rubber-stamp confirmation hearing for the new commission president, some legislators now are … Read More

Turn on the TV next time a NASCAR stock car race is on and get a good look at the coveralls worn by the drivers. They are covered with patches bearing the logos of many and varied companies that sponsor their automotive efforts, from oil and carmaking companies to breweries. Now imagine a normally staid state legislative hearing, where politicians of … Read More

A few months ago, it seemed the November election might produce the silliest silly season in modern California politics. The essential good sense of shoppers around the state appears to have prevented that. Shoppers at big box stores like Home Depot, Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Costco provide the bulk of voter signatures needed to qualify initiatives, referenda and recalls … Read More