Illustration by Adrià Fruitós.
“Politics is often defined or understood as the art of making a deal. But I think, at its best, it’s the art of making possible tomorrow that which we can’t even imagine today,” says Chesa Boudin, the district attorney of San Francisco County. The son of two members of the Weather Underground sentenced to long spells in prison, Boudin was narrowly elected in 2019 under San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system. He talks of the pain of growing up with imprisoned parents; of the collect calls he still receives every Saturday from his incarcerated father; and of his belief, inculcated in him from childhood, that simply locking people up is a failure of the political imagination. “My personal experience shapes me my worldview, my fears and hopes, my dreams and aspirations,” he acknowledges.1
Salesforce, Google, Facebook. How big tech undermines California’s public health system.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has embraced Silicon Valley tech companies and health care industry titans in response to the covid-19 pandemic like no other governor in America routinely outsourcing life-or-death public health duties to his allies in the private sector.
At least 30 tech and health care companies have received lucrative, no-bid government contracts, or helped fund and carry out critical public health activities during the state s battle against the coronavirus, a KHN analysis has found. The vast majority are Newsom supporters and donors who have contributed more than $113 million to his political campaigns and charitable causes, or to fund his policy initiatives, since his first run for statewide office in 2010.
Solar panels on homes in Boulder, Colorado. Industrial customers pay the largest share of Boulder s carbon tax, which funds equity programs and climate initiatives. Photo by Dennis Schroeder/NREL
U.S. city budgets are tighter than ever due to COVID-19. The American Rescue Plan Act, recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden, will provide some relief in the near term, while the proposed American Jobs Plan offers a tantalizing vision of federal infrastructure investments that could drive local climate action and equity nationwide.
Yet there remains an immutable reality that U.S. cities without dedicated revenue streams to fund climate change mitigation, resilience and environmental justice will continue to face fiscal constraints. Simply put, these social and environmental causes are at risk of being deprioritized when they stand side-by-side with other essential services.
Alaska overhauls elections
Author:
May 6, 2021
Turnout in Alaska Native villages such as Togiak, shown here, surged in 2014 thanks to improved voting access. (Photo by Stephanie Woodard)
âItâs going to be a great testâ
Joaqlin Estus
In November, Alaskans voted by a narrow margin to overhaul their election process.
How might it help or hamper the state’s senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, who is up for reelection in 2022?
Greg Razo, Yup’ik, was a sponsor of the voter initiative that brought the changes. He supported Ballot Measure 2 for several reasons.
“First of all, it opened up the books so that we can see who is donating money to political campaigns so that there s no dark money coming in. Everybody has a fair playing field when we know who s paying for their candidacy,” Razo said.
Opinion | America already has a realistic solution to Republican authoritarianism washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.