In the final episode in our series of interviews with the candidates running for state senate to represent District 11, current State Senator Scott Wiener discusses his legislative record in areas ranging from housing policy to conservatorship to criminal justice reform.

A California proposition on the March ballot would issue $15 billion in state bonds for facilities construction at public schools. John Fensterwald, a staff writer at EdSource, explains how districts will be prioritized for funding, and addresses confusion that has arisen over the measure’s number designation and implications for property taxes.

If you are a registered democrat living in San Francisco, your ballot for the March election is likely to be long because there are more than 50 candidates running to fill 24 seats on the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), the governing body of the local Democratic Party. Jason McDaniel, associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University, helps explain the committee’s structure, history and role in city politics.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: More details emerge in corruption arrest, sobering center planned for the Tenderloin, and the POA votes on leadership. Coming up: Supervisors to consider property purchase and tenant buyout law, and a 100-unit building proposed for California and Polk is expected to go before the Planning Commission.

San Francisco has rent control – rents can only go up by a certain percentage a year in buildings constructed before 1979 – but there are some costs that landlords can pass on to tenants. Tenants, in turn, may apply for an exemption by showing that the cost creates a financial hardship for them. A report from the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office indicates that the pass-throughs individually may not seem like they amount to much, but they can add up to substantial rent increases, up to 13% in some cases.

Decades of explicitly and implicitly racist policies have left the Bay Area not just unaffordable, but deeply segregated, according to panelists at a gathering of regional government administrators, nonprofit staff and community advocates. They convened recently at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Building to talk about the future of fair housing in California and how governments and community advocates could implement new laws to undo the wrongs of the past.

As part of Civic’s series of interviews with candidates for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, Jackie Fielder details her platform and shares insight into her background. Fielder is an indigenous organizer who co-founded the San Francisco Public Bank coalition. She calls for increased taxation of corporations and billionaires to build and preserve affordable housing, universal rent control, and single-payer healthcare.

As part of Civic’s series of interviews with candidates for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, Erin Smith tells her story and lays out where she stands on policy issues. She calls for reforms of policies like Proposition 47, a state ballot measure passed by voters in 2014 that reduced six nonviolent felonies including drug possession to misdemeanors, and AB 5, the “gig worker” law that makes it harder for companies to label workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: FBI arrests a top city employee, City College gets a funding boost, and the CA governor demands changes at PG&E. Coming up: Workshops to determine the future of public transit, supervisors to weigh naming part of City Hall after Buck Delventhal, and a proposed resolution to return a deported asylum seeker.