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Before he was hospitalized with COVID-19, before his roommates kicked him out of their shared apartment because of his illness, before he found himself unhoused for the first time in his life, Francisco Tzul noticed people at his downtown Los Angeles garment factory start to cough. In a few days, they would disappear. Tzul, 56, is an undocumented worker in the city’s massive garment industry, one that relies on men and women like him to produce shirts, blouses and skirts for major fashion brand

Is affirmative action “the enemy of white people who are contractors and Americans of Asian descent who are trying to get into the University of California at Berkeley,” as one influential critic called it? Or is neglecting race as a factor in admissions denying the reality that many students endure racism as an impediment to academic progress? Rising from the heat of those passions are complicated data points that both backers and opponents of Proposition 16 — the November ballot item that ask

Editor's Note: This article originally published on Governing and has been republished on IVN with permission from the author. ‍ Election specialists and national security experts have been gaming out scenarios for this November, assessing how candidates, supporters and media will respond if voting results are delayed or disputed. The 40 secretaries of state who are chief election officials also play important roles in these scenarios. Local-level officials handle ballot-counting and other key

Before 2020, Court Jones and his wife, Debbie Burmeister, said they thrived in the arts industry, finding an abundance of work in drawing live, digital caricatures at parties and trade shows. But when Jan. 1 rolled around, the couple said their careers became complicated with the pandemic and Assembly Bill 5, a new law that limits how much work an independent contractor can perform before being classified as an employee. “We’ve lost a lot of work this year,” Jones said. “But it’s kind of hard t

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Write it! Email it to hoa@ivn.us We've all heard the famous quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet — "What's in a name?" — which suggests that the name of things do not affect what they really are. But what happens when the thing in question is a crime, and the name given that crime could result in the early release of a criminal? This is actually what's been happening in California since the passage of Proposition 57, where a long list

Housing First is a program developed by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness that requires that homeless individuals receive stable and permanent housing before they can benefit from other services. In San Diego, the Housing Commission launched its program in 2014. Since that time the Housing Commission has created nearly 8,500 permanent housing opportunities and approved 761 new housing units. The effectiveness of the housing first program has been questioned by some local leaders, wh

The Embarcadero Institute released a report in September titled, "Double Counting in the Latest Housing Needs Assessment." The acronyms stand for “Yes in my backyard” and “Not in my backyard.” The term “NIMBY” is a decades-old term adopted by the development industry aimed at local residents and environmental groups who opposed development projects near or in their neighborhood. “YIMBYs” are nationally organized and funded by real estate investors and Silicon Valley high-tech interests primar

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Ohio will provide updates starting election night on the number of absentee ballots that haven't arrived to be counted. It's an apparent first, especially in a battleground state, that good-government experts are hailing as a smart way to help the public through the unique rhythm of this election. The obvious benefit is to underscore that races too close to ca

"The Extra Point with Jeff Marston" is aired weekly on Mightier 1090 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday. In this episode, Marston talks to former California lawmaker Steve Peace about SDSU West, IVN San Diego columnist Ron Donoho about San Diego homeless choir, Voices of Our City, and more. ‍

With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, campaigns across the country are ramping up their activities the best they can in the final eight weeks of a pandemic-affected election. This includes several campaigns that look to expand the historic momentum behind nonpartisan election reform. Open Primaries hosted the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers’ second Spotlight of the year, which highlighted 9 reform efforts happening right now to ensure all voters have an equal and meaningful vote