Climate crusaders: President Macron, right, with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg after a June 2 meeting at the Elysee Palace, following the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement.
Christophe Petit Tesson/Reuters
Of the 34 state ballot initiatives seeking to limit or abolish the death penalty, 31 have failed. Is this democracy at its worst?
A May Day protest in San Francisco. The state is at odds with the Trump administration on a number of policies, notably immigration and environment.
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Music festivals have been a boon to the music industry, but now we’re starting to witness some pitfalls of commercial success: consolidation and creeping conformity.
California is particularly earthquake-prone, hosting the great San Andreas fault zone.
wlscience/flickr
Can California’s wet weather make earthquakes more likely? Scientists are still learning about what triggers these events. Even human activity can be a culprit.
Trump and California Governor Jerry Brown have already had their run-ins.
cornstalker/flickr
A new federalism? Trump’s decision to green-light the Dakota Access Pipeline and early battles with states show a disregard for the sovereignty of domestic government bodies.
California Gov. Jerry Brown signs SB350 on Oct. 7, 2015. The bill calls for increasing the state’s renewable electricity use to 50 percent and doubling energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2030.
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
California has set ambitious goals for cutting carbon emissions and shifting to a clean energy economy. How will this strategy affect the state’s huge economy? An economist weighs the evidence.
The 2007 midwinter solstice illumination of the main altar tabernacle of Old Mission San Juan Bautista, California.
Rubén G. Mendoza/Ancient Editions
At many Spanish missions in the US and Latin America, the rising sun illuminates the altar on the winter solstice or other symbolic days. To the faithful, these events meant that Christ was with them.
Gov. Paul LePage speaks at a news conference at the State House in Augusta, Maine.
AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
No federal database provides reliable info on deaths that occur in police custody. It’s the same situation in 48 states. But now California and Texas are offering new models of accountability.
The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California is closing and the state has committed to replacing it with greenhouse-free sources of electricity.
Doc Searls
John Muir, born on April 21, 1838, was one of America’s first great conservation advocates. His letters and diaries convey the emotions Muir felt in Yosemite Valley, his ‘sanctum sanctorum.’
Campaigners stand outside the US Supreme Court in 2005.
REUTERS
Margot Kushel, University of California, San Francisco
Field research in Oakland highlights a major issue that Americans have yet to face up to: how to deal with growing numbers of homeless older people in our streets.
Wildfire Specialist at the University of California Cooperative Extension; Adjunct Professor Bren School of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Distinguished Blue Planet Prize Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Founding Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis
Adjunct Assistant Professor and a founder of the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles