Search query: california

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing recession have forced Californians and San Diegans to grapple with a new reality. Daily ways of life – sending kids off to school, being able to safely go to work, and seeing and caring for aging family members – all looks very different these days. All this change also brings opportunities to make choices about how we govern our schools, create better access to health, housing, a

When the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1978, Sassan Rahimzadeh’s family made its way to the U.S., escaping the violence that killed thousands of people and toppled the regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Just a few years later, his family opened its first dry cleaning business in San Diego County. “It was your typical mom and pop shop,” said Rahimzadeh, owner of Arya Cleaners. “Over the years we opened more locations from Horton Plaza to Del Mar.” Today, his business has shrunk to just f

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Write it! Email it to hoa@ivn.us‍ When I moved to San Diego more than 50 years ago, the mayor and entire City Council were made up of very conservative Republican white men and you could probably have counted all the police officers of color or female on both hands. Yes, the late Rev. George Walker Smith often called San Diego "the Confederacy of the West Coast" as our city was very segregated. Now a half century later, not only is the Gold

First-time voter Fernando Villarreal is looking forward to participating in the upcoming presidential election. “I think it’s a really important election for democracy and I think young people have a lot at stake when it comes to education, healthcare and a lot of other issues,” said the Palomar College freshman. But that doesn’t mean the process is straightforward for Villarreal, who registered to vote just a few months ago while applying for a business license for an apparel company he recen

When Californians approved Proposition 13 in 1978, critics of the landmark ballot measure say voters did not foresee many of the unintended consequences of capping property taxes on both residential and commercial land: lower school funding, cash-strapped cities, major corporate tax benefits. Forty-two years later, Californians are about to vote on Proposition 15, which proponents say will solve many of those problems by raising taxes on commercial properties. But opponents, and even some supp

Sarah Rivas was barely making rent since she’d moved to the city of Sunnyvale, in Silicon Valley, California. When, three months into the pandemic, she woke up to an email from her school announcing a nearly 7% cut in teachers’ pay, she gave up a three-year battle. “I moved into my parent’s house,” said Rivas, who’s been teaching her class of twelfth graders from Sacramento, three hours from their high school. “Not what every 26-year-old wants to do.” Rivas makes above the median household inc

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ October is the last chance for most Americans to register if they want to vote for president this year. But 86 million eligible Americans, or one-third of the national total, can even sign up — and then proceed to cast a ballot — on Election Day. That's because they live in the 19 states (plus D.C.) that allow what's known as same-day registration. Eligible res

Californians are voting on 12 propositions, but not all are funded equally. Just take a look at that fat slab of lilac in the graphic below. No surprise for even the most dimly engaged Californians who have been bombarded with ads for weeks now: Funding for Proposition 22, a measure to exempt gig-economy companies from a new state labor law, dwarfs just about everything else. To date, its yes campaign has raised nearly $188 million. That’s $3 of every $10 that’s been spent for or against any pr

As the pandemic forced Terry Delamater’s two Bakersfield-area fitness centers to shut down for months, the pharmacist-turned-gym-owner in desperation turned to his county supervisor for help. Maybe, Delamater suggested, the gyms could reopen as an essential business? After all, Delamater said, he had kept up his pharmacist license. And he and his daughter had been working since last year with a national organization, the Medical Fitness Association, to certify the Sculpt 365 gyms as “medical fi

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Write it! Email it to hoa@ivn.us Gov. Gavin Newsom made the right decision when he vetoed Assembly Bill 331 that would have required all public high school students in California to take at least one semester of ethnic studies in order to graduate. Approximately 33% of California’s 6.3 million students do not even meet the minimum state standards in math and English, and a whopping 72% of high school students did not meet standards on the C