Columnist

Dan Walters

Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He has written more than 9,000 columns about California and its politics and his column has appeared in many other California newspapers. Walters has written about California and its politics for a number of other publications, including The Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor. In 1986, his book, “The New California: Facing the 21st Century,” was published in its first edition. He is also the founding editor of the “California Political Almanac,” the co-author of a book on lobbying entitled “The Third House: Lobbyists, Money and Power in Sacramento,” and contributed chapters to two other books, “Remaking California” and “The New Political Geography of California. Email dan@calmatters.org.

We still don’t know whether the winter will, in fact, break more records, fall short of average or just turn out to be more or less ordinary in terms of water flowing into the state’s reservoirs. But the sequence of events so far underscores the simple fact that predicting California’s weather, despite enormous advances in technology, is still educated guesswork.

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Rollercoaster weather shows why state needs better infrastructure for wetter years | Other views

January 19, 2024 at 2:02 a.m.

We still don’t know whether the winter will, in fact, break more records, fall short of average or just turn out to be more or less ordinary in terms of...

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Deficit will test if school spending is key to achievement | Other views

January 16, 2024 at 3:03 a.m.

When California’s governors and legislators write state budgets, they begin with projecting how much revenue the state is likely to receive. It’s a semi-educated guess that is often billions of dollars removed...

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How will state respond to home insurance meltdown? | Other views

January 9, 2024 at 2:32 a.m.

While Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators wrestle with a massive state budget deficit this year, a few blocks from the Capitol another crisis that could have far more impact on California...

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State’s water wars see some breakthroughs, but more battles loom | Calmatters

December 20, 2023 at 2:12 a.m.

The politics of water in California could be likened to the constant grinding of tectonic plates 10 miles or more beneath its surface. The Pacific Plate battles with the North American Plate...

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Israel-Hamas war dividing state’s Democrats and progressives | Calmatters

December 14, 2023 at 2:31 a.m.

The deadly war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, a militant Palestinian faction, has revealed deep social and political fissures in America and California is not immune. Although polls generally indicate...

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Attaching accountability to all those piles of money | Calmatters

December 8, 2023 at 2:41 a.m.

A decade ago, California’s political apparatus finally recognized a yawning achievement gap in its public schools, separating poor and English-learner students from their more privileged classmates. While overall, California’s nearly...

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State’s history of regulating consumer prices often protects companies or providers | Calmatters

December 1, 2023 at 3:08 a.m.

The CPUC, whose members are appointed by the governor, has become a vast bureaucracy that oversees tens of billions of dollars in service charges affecting the budgets of virtually every...

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Let’s make sure kids can read and write first | Calmatters

November 17, 2023 at 2:59 a.m.

Last week, the attorney general’s office completed paperwork for an initiative that, if qualified for the 2024 ballot and approved by voters, would require California’s nearly 6 million public school...

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Management meltdown at EDD — what went wrong? | Calmatters

November 15, 2023 at 2:45 a.m.

In theory, we humans practice politics as a pathway to governance – providing an array of laws, regulations and services to protect and otherwise enhance the lives of the governed....

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At last — a highly competitive Senate race for California | Calmatters

November 10, 2023 at 2:05 a.m.

California has seen some humdinger contests for its U.S. Senate seats, but none worthy of note in this century. Two women, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, captured the two seats...

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