California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking legal action against President Donald Trump’s deployment of military forces to Los Angeles to suppress anti-ICE riots, citing the high costs and aggressive military presence as an unlawful federalization of the National Guard.
California’s housing crisis is not about a lack of units, but about a lack of affordable units for middle- and low-income households, which is driving displacement, exacerbating homelessness, and eroding the state’s economic foundation.
California is facing a housing crisis due to local regulations that undermine state efforts to increase housing supply, such as inclusionary zoning and development impact fees, which act as a hidden tax on housing construction and slow production.
Thousands of Angelenos are stuck with costly, exhausting commutes due to decades of housing policies that have prevented working people from living near jobs and transit systems, and a bill in the state legislature, SB 79, offers a commonsense fix by requiring cities to allow more housing near transit.
A federal lawsuit has been filed challenging the constitutionality of East Palo Alto’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, which requires developers to set aside a share of units for lower-income renters and homeowners or pay a fee, potentially setting a precedent for other cities and counties across California with similar laws.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has reversed his previous position and now opposes sentencing violent youth offenders to terms longer than 50 years to life, as the state Supreme Court considers whether such sentences constitute life without parole or de facto death sentences.
The traditional narrative of red-state cities being the antidote to the coastal housing affordability crisis is breaking down, as cities like Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Austin, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Boise, and Salt Lake City are experiencing rapid price growth, worsening traffic, and local pushback against new development, due to the physical and economic limits of sprawl.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for issuing an executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, arguing that it violates the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Democrats are embracing an abundance agenda, which focuses on building more housing, transit, and clean energy, but critics warn that it risks enabling corporate capture and exacerbating inequality if not paired with mechanisms to ensure affordability, equity, and democratic accountability.
California is a donor state that loses billions of dollars every year, is subject to abusive relationships with the federal government, and is often ridiculed and hated by other states, making it better off as an independent country.
California’s housing reforms are being threatened by a federal immigration crackdown, which could lead to a shortage of skilled workers and a delay in the construction of new homes.
Senator Jerry McNerney’s SB 846 has been signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, aiming to protect California farmworkers from wage theft and ensuring that agricultural employers are held accountable for any mistreatment.
American cities are becoming increasingly divided, with wealth concentrated in certain areas while poverty is entrenched in others, and the housing crisis is not just a supply problem but a moral one that requires realignment of housing with opportunity.
California has expunged nearly one million old conviction records in 2024 under laws aimed at giving millions of residents a second chance, representing a significant milestone in efforts to dismantle the collateral consequences of past convictions.
California has passed a law to gut the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for most urban residential development, which is a win for individual property rights, economic mobility, and constitutional sanity, and the authors of a recent law review article argue that exclusionary zoning is a per se taking that violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
The US prison system is failing to provide adequate mental health care to its incarcerated population, with over half of prisoners reporting mental health issues and only 26% receiving professional help, resulting in a system that criminalizes illness and fails at basic human decency.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 137 into law, giving the state the power to prevent federal immigration authorities from using closed state prison sites for immigration detention, and CURB has urged state leaders to act quickly to reduce costs and prevent ICE from repurposing these sites.
California lawmakers have introduced a legislative package to honor the labor and sacrifice of incarcerated firefighters and provide them with better pay, reentry opportunities, and a formal path into professional fire service roles.
Governor Gavin Newsom called on President Trump to adopt a California-modeled executive order to increase federal forest management efforts and match California’s aggressive wildfire prevention work, while also criticizing the Trump administration’s “illegal federalization” of California National Guard troops and the federal government’s withdrawal from wildfire prevention efforts.
The housing crisis in America is now a nationwide issue, with cities like Phoenix, Atlanta, and Miami seeing housing costs rise even faster than in California, and the problem is not caused by ideology, but by the politics of land use and the privilege of homeownership.