San Diego County voters will decide this November whether to change some of the rules governing accountability and oversight inside county government. The proposal comes as public spending and how that money is tracked remain part of a broader accountability debate in the county.

The charter reform would change parts of a system most residents rarely see, including oversight and the relationship between elected officials and county administration. San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson supports some of those changes and argues that others deserve a closer look.

Anderson, also a former state senator, explains why he believes safeguards matter regardless of who holds office. He makes the case that rules meant to prevent small shortcuts can matter most long before anyone realizes there is a larger problem.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

When people in California surrender a pet to a shelter or send an animal to a sanctuary, they expect that animal to be cared for. What happens after that can remain largely out of sight until something goes wrong.

In several recent cases around California, problems inside animal rescues went on for a long time before outside organizations were able to intervene. In this interview, we look at what can happen during that period before conditions become serious enough for outside intervention.

Gary Weitzman, president and CEO of San Diego Humane Society, helped lead the response to one of the most complex rescue operations his team has taken on. He joins us to explain what he has encountered at these properties and why animal welfare leaders are now asking the state for greater oversight of their own field.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

California families can spend years preparing a student for college, only for that student to reach graduation with little idea of what the work on the other side will actually be like. With the cost of going to college being so high, finding out too late that a career is the wrong fit can be an expensive lesson.

Students are also entering a labor market that has changed since their parents entered it. Yet many are reaching those decisions about college, training, and careers with little direct work experience.

April Barnes, president of Vital Link, and Brian Dozer, superintendent of Coastline ROP, work with students who are trying to make those decisions earlier. They join us to discuss why career exposure may need to start sooner than many families expect.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

Los Angeles is heading toward a mayoral runoff with public safety, homelessness, housing affordability, and the city’s finances still weighing on the race. Karen Bass and Nithya Raman are the two names left on the ballot, but the November electorate may look different from the one that put them there.

A significant group of voters backed someone else in the primary. Whether those voters return, and where they go if they do, leaves an important part of the race unsettled.

We sit down with Matthew Klink, partner at California Strategies, to examine the voter coalitions beneath the mayoral race. He explains what to watch as Los Angeles moves toward November and why the final contest may depend on voters neither candidate started with.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

Street takeovers can form quickly, leaving drivers, bystanders, and police facing a dangerous situation in the middle of a public road. In California, large groups can appear before authorities have much time to respond.

Some of these gatherings can form and disperse within a short window. By the time police can mobilize, much of the event may already have played out.

Heather Mac Donald, the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal, and Deon Joseph, an SoCal senior lead officer with 30 years on the job, join us to examine what is happening around these street takeovers and why they can be so difficult to contain once they begin.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

In the Bay Area, AI is bringing renewed attention and investment to Silicon Valley at the same time that many technology companies are expanding outside California. The region can remain important to a company even when more of its growth happens somewhere else.

The movement out of California is only part of the story. Companies can remain closely connected to Silicon Valley as they grow their hiring and operations elsewhere.

Aman Verjee, founder and general partner at Practical Venture Capital, explains what continues to draw AI companies to Silicon Valley and why that relationship can change as they grow. His view suggests California’s place in the AI economy is more complicated than either a comeback or a continuing exodus.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

Crime statistics say things are improving in California, yet for some residents, that reading does not square with what they notice in their own communities. When the official numbers and what people experience seem to point in different directions, it becomes harder to know what each is telling us.

Part of the difficulty is what never enters the official record. Some victims choose not to report crimes to police, so what the statistics can capture, and what may remain outside them, is an open question.

Patricia Wenskunas, founder and CEO of Crime Survivors, Inc., and Michael Gates, former Huntington Beach City attorney and candidate for California Attorney General, bring two different perspectives to that question. Their conversation examines what happens before an incident is included in the official crime data and what may be missed along the way.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

California voters can read a ballot title and still be left wondering what a measure would mean in practice. This November, 14 statewide propositions put some consequential policy choices into just a few lines of ballot language.

A title can do more than summarize a measure. A name that sounds reassuring can influence a voter’s first impression before they read what the proposal would change, giving those few words more weight than they may seem to carry.

Will Swaim, CEO of the California Policy Center, joins us to go through the propositions one by one and examine what each would change beyond its title. The conversation offers voters a way to read the ballot more closely, whether or not they agree with his conclusions.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

For families struggling to find a home they can afford, an available affordable unit can mean stability after months or even years of waiting. Yet in parts of California’s affordable housing system, some units are sitting empty while the need remains high.

That gap affects more than housing statistics. It reaches the families still waiting and focuses on a harder issue: what happens after affordable housing is built, when some of those homes remain vacant?

In this episode, Tia Boatman Patterson, president and CEO of the California Community Reinvestment Corporation, and Jim Righeimer, chief executive officer at Arbor Capital Partners, examine what they are seeing in California’s affordable housing system and what may be happening between an open unit and the person waiting for a home.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.

When a major industrial fire burns near a community, the danger is visible at first. Once the flames are put out and the smoke begins to clear, residents can still be left wondering what was in the air and whether the risk has passed.

That can become harder to judge when the effects reach beyond the immediate fire site, and residents do not always have clear information about their level of risk.

Physicist C. Michael Hogan joins us to explain what determines the area of concern around these fires and what that can mean for nearby residents after the visible emergency is over. Kim Bright, Founder of Brightcore, then looks at another concern tied to the aftermath of major fires.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.