Political columnist George Skelton has covered government and politics for 60 years and for The Times since 1974. He has been a Times political writer and editor in Los Angeles, Sacramento bureau chief and White House correspondent. He has written a column on California politics, “Capitol Journal,” since 1993. Skelton is a Santa Barbara native, grew up in Ojai and received a journalism degree at San Jose State.
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California has arguably the nation’s strictest gun laws. And we’ve got one of the lowest rates of gun deaths. States with lax gun controls, especially in the South, have some of the highest gun death rates.
The revised $307-billion budget proposal that Gov. Gavin Newsom recently submitted is either too fat with spending or too thin on taxes, Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek asserted.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers need to say where they stand on reparations for slavery and how the state should correct the injustice and discrimination of the past.
Californians should be wary of hidden fees in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised budget, but there are also a few gems and no major tax increases.
Now that a jury has branded Donald Trump a sexual assailant, you’d think that Republican politicians in California might muster the courage to finally dissociate themselves from the poisonous polarizer.
There’s a bipartisan attempt in the California Legislature to finally finish the mental health reform that Gov. Ronald Reagan and lawmakers began 56 years ago.
Researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California found that residents moving elsewhere because of high housing costs tend to pick states with no income tax.
Former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson proved to be short on ethical standards. Journalists are supposed to expose liars like former President Trump, not parrot them.
If Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis or another woman is elected as California’s next governor, she’ll be California’s first female governor. There have been 40 governors over nearly 173 years and they’ve all been white males.
Gov. Gavin Newsom would have to recruit an experienced legislator willing to give up her seat to become a short-timer.