Addressing Homelessness Causes Homelessness, White House Says
Evan Vucci/AP In September, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), an office within the executive branch that advises the president on economic policy, released a report titled “The State of Homelessness in America.” The report provided a snapshot of regional homeless populations, the factors contributing to the concentration of homeless people in certain…
California’s Wildfire Policy Totally Backfired. Native Communities Know How to Fix It.
When it came time to set fire to the hillside, Kitty Lynch paused. A 70 year-old retired waitress, Lynch’s job during the controlled burn of a 2,200 acre ranch in Humboldt County, California this June was to keep the fire in check by tamping down small, errant flames with a tool called a McLeod. Lynch…
Unplugging PG&E Is Easier Said Than Done
Firefighters battle the Kincade Fire in Healdsburg in October 2019.Philip Pacheco/AFP via Getty Images As California finally takes control of the fires that have been burning for weeks, PG&E is—and will continue to be—in the hot seat. It seems likely that transmission equipment from the utility, which supplies power for roughly 40 percent of Californians, sparked…
Juul’s Hometown Really Does Not Want You to Juul
Jeff Chiu / AP A proposition to overturn San Francisco’s upcoming ban on e-cigarettes was soundly defeated at the polls on Tuesday—80 percent of voters rejected it. The measure was initially backed by Juul, and though the company withdrew its support in the fall, the vote marked a major blow for the company in its…
Trump Just Threatened to Pull Federal Funding From California Over its Handling of Fires. Again.
Gavin Newsom, Donald Trump, and Jerry Brown during the president’s visit of the Camp Fire in Paradise last year.Paul Kitagaki Jr/ZUMA Wire President Donald Trump just threatened to cut off federal funding to California over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “forest management,” which the president blamed for the wildfires that have ripped through wide swaths of the…
Should There Be a Public Takeover of PG&E?
In an interview with HuffPost, the Silicon Valley progressive accused the power company of prioritizing high executive salaries and payouts to investors over infrastructure upgrades needed to operate safely in a hotter, drier climate. “The for-profit motive does not work,” Khanna said by phone Wednesday. “The public utility is a much better option because you’re…