Newsom’s Gun Control Amendment Is the Most Important Idea in U.S. Politics

A Violent Country Desperately Needs Constitutional Protection to Fight This Epidemic. How Serious Is the Governor?

Gavin Newsom’s new campaign for a 28th Amendment is the most important political idea in the country today.

But you wouldn’t know that from reading media reports following the California governor’s proposal to enshrine four popular gun control measures in a new federal constitutional amendment.

Instead, political opponents dismissed Newsom’s proposal as at best a waste of time, and at worst a dereliction of gubernatorial duty. Reporters called it a mere tactic in his rhetorical and legal war with the red states. Republicans labeled it a distraction from his job running California. …

More In: Connecting California

What Will L.A.’s Regional Connector Bring Us?

A Two-Mile Rail Tunnel Could Help California Recapture Its Optimism—If It’s Not Too Late

What will the Regional Connector bring us? A new transformation in California life? Or has it arrived too late to change much of anything?

The June 16 opening of a two-mile …

The Fight to Save Stockton

In the Once-Bankrupt City, a Stanford Scholar Finds That People Are Poor Because Their Governments Are Poor

If California wants to curb poverty, its local governments must become richer.

That may be the most important lesson of the recent history of Stockton, as recounted by Stanford Law School …

We Can Keep Dianne Feinstein in the Senate Forever

From Fundraising to Legislating, AI Can Do the Job

The fight over Dianne Feinstein’s future is a foolish waste of time. Both sides in the controversy over whether she should resign her seat now, or serve out her term, …

Heartbreak and Yearning on the Streets of East Oakland

Columnist Joe Mathews Goes Nightcrawling

Kiara Johnson, 17, lives at the Regal-Hi apartments on High Street in East Oakland—for now.

She doesn’t have the money for next month’s rent, which her landlord is doubling. She can’t …