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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

Momentum continues to build for broad systemic changes to how US citizens elect their public officials. Reforms like ranked choice voting and nonpartisan primaries are growing in popularity as voters look to solutions to make the political process fairer and voter-centric. With 2020 near its end, political reformers are looking toward the future, and what proposals are working and what proposals need more attention. One proposal that is getting more attention from some reformers is proportiona

This is an independent commentary. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone is tasked with re-imagining the future. Drive-in movies, flu shots. Take out and to go orders. Outdoor weddings and family gatherings. Christmas celebrations might be full of “bubbles,” Zoom calls and FaceTime visits. Ocean Beach continued its Christmas tree in the sand happening, but needed to redo its annual parade of floats, people, pets and cars in a “reverse para

It’s been a month since Election Day, and we still don’t know who won the 2020 election! While it’s looking more and more clear every day that Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January, Donald Trump has yet to concede. At least the president has confirmed that he will step aside if the Electoral College votes for Joe Biden. Looks like we dodged WWIII and Civil War II this year: ‍ ‍ Adding to the confusion, is the fact that a 73,700 vote swing Trump’s way in AZ, PA, and GA would have changed th

Earlier this fall, Occidental College junior Luigi Maruani laid in bed anxious and angry, swiping through his phone. His 75-year-old father had just contracted the coronavirus, and Maruani felt the federal government wasn’t responding to the pandemic with enough urgency. A post in a Facebook group for students living off-campus caught his eye. “We’ve heard some rumblings and want to be clear about infections within our small community,” senior Avani Johnson wrote. “If you end up testing positi