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Editor's Note: This piece originally published in Press-Enterprise out of Riverside, CA, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the author. ‍ Centrist solutions exist to many of California’s and our nation’s problems. Politics makes it easier to attack an opponent’s position than to advance one’s own, however. Nuance dies in the toxic environment of social media- based politics. If you’re explaining, you’re losing; and simply to rebut the demonized version of your own position qu

Looking at our recent polarized presidential elections — and even the politicization of wearing masks (to combat COVID-19) — it’s easy to say that the partisan divide in our country has never been greater. 

Looking at our recent polarized presidential elections — and even the politicization of wearing masks (to combat COVID-19) — it’s easy to say that the partisan divide in our country has never been greater. This shouldn’t be surprising, given that our single-seat, winner-take-all electoral system generally divides us into two large electorally-viable camps. If you and I are in different camps, I succeed by your camp’s failure and you by mine. Anyone who doesn’t identify with this internecine co-

In the five years before the pandemic, low-income Californians had begun to see substantial wage gains, chipping away at the income inequality gap between California’s haves and have-nots that has widened over the past 40 years. But the coronavirus pandemic is “likely stripping away many of these gains,” researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California found in a new report. The current coronavirus-induced recession has hit low-income workers the hardest, while higher income workers, la

New research finds the pandemic has likely stripped away most of the wage gains made after the Great Recession by California’s lowest earners.

US voters and reform practitioners had an opportunity over the weekend to wrap up 2020 celebrating the success of historic proposals for better elections and discuss future endeavors to give the American people a fairer, more empowering, and more accountable political process. Leaders in the nonpartisan reform space gathered together Friday and Saturday for the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers’ virtual conference, “Winning Reforms: Wrap Up & Gear Up for 2021.” The event featured p

Before Social and Emotional Learning became widely recognized as a critical component of teen lives, Marisa Fogelman was well ahead of the curve. Fogelman spent two decades developing a curriculum that integrated SEL with California state standards for traditional subject matter, and put her holistic academic philosophy into practice as co-founder of the School of Universal Learning (SOUL), a charter school for students in grades 6-12. SOUL was perhaps the first school in San Diego County to

Laura Fink is an up-and-coming TV news pundit. She isn’t offended by the “talking head” label, which can carry negative connotations, but certainly would prefer “political analyst.” She agrees to meet and discuss the dubious current and future states of TV news. We’re not going to talk about specific issues of the day. Rather, the focus will be on the process of news presentation itself. Socially distanced across a picnic table, we’re chatting at Quartyard, a funky-cool, outdoor urban park a

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us In San Diego and throughout California, COVID-19 cases are rapidly increasing, putting our state’s frontline workers more at risk than ever before. These essential, frontline workers continue to show up for our communities in the face of this growing danger with more than 20,000 COVID-19 deaths statewide and over 1,100 in San Diego County. More of our friends, neighbors, and family are getting exposed or sick every da

Never-before-released data from the federal government has shed new light on the debt burden of low-income families in California. More than 13,500 low-income students attending California’s two public university systems had parents take out federal loans on their behalf in recent years, according to a CalMatters analysis of figures released by the U.S. Department of Education last week for every college in the nation. The numbers show how much parents borrow in federal loans for their student