With California Freeway damaged by mudslides, commuters find alternatives

Jan 17, 2018
California commuters are relying on whale watching ferries and Amtrack to get to work while the 101 Freeway is under repair.
The Amtrak Pacific Surfliner is operating more (and longer) commuter trains along the Santa Barbara-Ventura coast while the 101 Freeway and other major roadways are closed off due to storm and mudslide damage.  
Steven Cuevas/ for Marketplace

How to be a winemaker

Jan 12, 2018
According to winemaker Elizabeth Vianna, making wine is more scientific and less romantic than most people think.
Chimney Rock Winery in Napa Valley, CA, where Elizabeth Vianna is the winemaker and general manager. 
Courtesy Chimney Rock Winery

Feds change marijuana policy, which could affect businesses involved

Jan 4, 2018
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions today rescinded an Obama-era policy that helped legal marijuana thrive in parts of the United States. Sessions, a longtime critic of marijuana legalization, says it causes spikes in violence and crime. He has likened marijuana to heroin. What Sessions repealed today is known as the “Cole memo.” It discouraged federal […]

With increased wildfires, utilities in California are trying to pass on the cost of damages to customers

Jan 2, 2018
Lawmakers in California have introduced a bill to make it harder for state utilities to have customers cover the cost of fire damage.
Firefighters assess the scene as a house burns in the Napa wine region of California on Oct. 9, 2017.
JOSH EDELSON/ Getty Images

California to flip the switch in the new year and phase out incandescent light bulbs

Dec 25, 2017
Light bulbs sold in the state will need to be three times more energy efficient than the old incandescent bulb.

California consumers are buying gold health insurance plans in record numbers

Dec 13, 2017
Obamacare’s open enrollment period closes for most states Friday. Thanks to a complicated federal formula, a spike in premiums this year has given consumers who are eligible for subsidies more money to buy insurance. And early signs suggest some people in California and Washington state are going for the gold —the gold, normally expensive, plans. […]

With low pay, finding qualified early childhood teachers remains a challenge in some areas

Nov 30, 2017
If the early childhood education system is a food chain, district-run preschool programs in California are the new big fish, gobbling up a lot of the resources – including qualified teachers.
Selma Sanchez, program director of the Child Development Consortium of Los Angeles, oversees ten child care centers. When the majority of staff at this Canoga Park center left for other jobs, she stepped in to pick up the slack.
Priska Neely/ for Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

How do you report sexual harassment in politics when there's no HR?

Nov 9, 2017
Lobbyist Jodi Hicks says she thinks change is coming, but I think "it's going to be uncomfortable along the way."
Most provisions of SB 731, which was signed into law recently, will go into effect in July.
David Paul Morris/Getty Images

For states, hiking the gas tax can be politically risky

Nov 1, 2017
California is hiking gas taxes today by 12 cents a gallon. It’s also raising an annual fee based on a car’s value. The transportation package is expected to raise $54 billion over the next 10 years. The idea is the money will pay for repairs to roads, highways and bridges. California isn’t the only state […]

This California neighborhood was exempt from fire rules. Now much of it is in ashes.

Oct 16, 2017
Over the past week, Northern California has seen some horrific fires blaze across its neighborhoods. One of the remarkable things about those fires, in addition to their speed and the scale of the destruction, is what buildings burned and where those buildings were. The Tubbs Fire, which hit the city of Santa Rosa, has burned […]