News & Commentary

As most Californians become eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, California is rightly centering equity in distributing doses to communities that have been hardest hit.

The term pro bono comes from the latin pro bono publico, meaning “for the public good.” And that indeed describes the enormously valuable volunteer work of law firms that have co-counseled with us on lawsuits and other actions to further civil rights and civil liberties for our communities in the southland.

OCFA is one of the first fire departments in the country to put a lactation room in all 77 of its fire stations.

When the City of Lancaster and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department banished J. to the Mojave Desert, she came close to paying with her life.

District Attorney George Gascón’s battle for criminal justice reform in Los Angeles County, where long outdated policies have resulted in the largest jail system in the nation, had a setback this week that can’t be ignored. 

Governor Newsom should fund student mental health.

“A counselor on a domestic violence hotline told me my life was more important than things and that I should get away quickly,” Deborah Kraft recalled. Leaving everything behind, Deborah drove west until she reached Orange County, where she entered the homeless shelter system. 

With many of us doom-scrolling about democracy and the smooth transition of power, it’s easy to miss the local and state progress voters willed to life in California. With about 96% of votes now tallied, here are our five takeaways from this historic eleciton and how the results stacked up with our ballot guide:

Today, we turn a page from one of the darkest moments in civil liberties and civil rights. Over the last four years, we weathered an all-out attack on immigrants, withstood racist dog whistles as loud as bull-horns, and witnessed presidential back-slapping of white supremacists. For his anti-civil rights and civil liberties agenda, Donald Trump was democratically and ceremoniously removed from the Oval Office by his employer: the American people.