Californians

One of the strangest pieces of legislation ever enacted in California took effect Jan. 1, giving state residents and visitors the same power to threaten the gun industry that Texans now wield over abortion providers.Even backers of the law say this isn’t an entirely good thing. SB 1327 authorizes anyone other than state or local government officials to sue people who violate the state’s laws against the manufacture, distribution or sale of assault weapons, ghost guns and other banned firearms. Lawsuits could also be…

Widespread cancellations by Southwest Airlines disrupted holiday plans across the country, stranding passengers and causing chaos at some airports.The airline cited extreme weather across many parts of the country as the reason, adding in a statement “our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning... We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize.”Southwest did not disclose how many fights were cut. But many media and aviation outlets said about two-thirds of the fights were canceled. The website Flightware put…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 13. I’m Ryan Fonseca. Last week I brought you a perspective from parking prophet Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at UCLA. Shoup has spent decades studying the effects parking has on cities. One focal point in his research is mandates that require developers to construct a certain amount of off-street parking spaces per unit of housing. These drive up construction costs (the U.S. average cost per space is over $24,700) and have…

Motorists returning to Southern California after a Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas had nothing but bad luck Sunday as traffic on the main route across the Nevada border backed up for 16 miles.“Heavy traffic to California,” the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada tweeted at 11:30 a.m. “Prepare for long delays.”The bottleneck on Interstate 15 started just south of Primm on the Nevada side of the border and added about an hour to the drive from Las Vegas to Ontario, Calif., said Carmen Perkins, a traffic…

SACRAMENTO —  California will codify its progressive abortion protections in its state Constitution after voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, a measure placed on the ballot in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.With its passage Tuesday, the state’s constitution will expressly guarantee a person’s “fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.” California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature placed…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, Oct. 31, which means it’s Halloween — a holiday purpose-built for the city of make believe. I’m Jon Healey, senior editor of the Utility Journalism Team, and I am writing from South Pasadena, where tonight I will definitely not be visiting the boyhood home of Michael Myers. The news coming out of California these days certainly has the feel of Halloween (the unsettling day, not the unsettling movie). Take, for example, Friday’s brutal attack on…

California homeowners might soon see some reprieve in skyrocketing property insurance rates. That is, if they take steps to wildfire-proof their houses. The West Coast state is the first in the country to require insurance companies to lower premiums when and where customers enact suggested wildfire safety and mitigation tactics.The goal of the new regulation is to “protect consumers and hold insurance companies accountable,” said California’s insurance commissioner Ricardo Larain a news release announcing the proposed…

The Golden State will send tax refunds to about 23 million Californians starting Friday to help them navigate the rising costs due to inflation.California will spend $9.5 billion as part of the “Middle Class Tax Refund Estimator” program, with one-time payments ranging from $400 to $1,050 for couples who filed jointly on their 2020 state income tax return and $400 to $700 for those who filed independently.Payments will arrive in several ways starting Friday, including direct deposits to roughly 8 million bank accounts for…

Young adults in California experience mental health challenges at alarming rates, with more than three-quarters reporting anxiety in the last year, more than half reporting depression, 31% experiencing suicidal thinking and 16% self-harm, according to the results of a survey commissioned by the California Endowment.The numbers reflect a years-long trend of worsening mental health among young people that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say.The poll of nearly 800 Californians ages 18 to 24 also found young…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Sept. 30, and I’m Anita Chabria, The Times’ California columnist. This week, my colleague Erika D. Smith and I published a four-part series that asks an unpopular but crucial question: Should California rebuild every vulnerable town burned by wildfire?Our natural instinct is to offer aid to our fellow citizens in need — be it from fire, flood or other natural disasters such as the hurricane that devastated Florida this week. But Erika and I…