Past Articles by Richard Gonzales
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On California Prisons, It's The Governor Vs. The Courts California Gov. Jerry Brown is trying to end federal oversight of his state's prison system, with little success. Legal experts have compared his position to those of Southern governors who defied court orders to integrate public facilities in the 1950s. |
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In Bankruptcy, Stockton Must Decide Pension Issue A federal judge says Stockton, Calif., may continue with its bankruptcy filing. The judge ruled Monday that the city does not have to take money from its pension obligations to pay its debts. |
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How To Be The Good Guy With A Gun At School In the aftermath of the Newtown school shooting, there's a raging public debate over placing armed guards in schools. Some say it's impractical, but about a third of American schools already have some kind of armed security. One school police officer in Stockton, Calif., finds the job is part protector, part mentor. |
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How To Be The Good Guy With A Gun At School In the aftermath of the Newtown school shooting, there's a raging public debate over placing armed guards in schools. Some say it's impractical, but about a third of American schools already have some kind of armed security. One school police officer in Stockton, Calif., finds the job is part protector, part mentor. |
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Rove Tells Calif. GOP To 'Get Back In The Game' Karl Rove had a sharp message to California's Republican Party Saturday. He implored party leaders to "get up off the mat" and work to revitalize the state GOP. Republicans hold no statewide offices in California and have given up a supermajority to Democrats in the state legislature. |
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Oakland To Issue IDs That Double As Debit Cards Oakland, Calif., is issuing municipal ID cards to anyone who can prove residency. It doubles as a debit card. Supporters say it will help residents who are poor, without a bank or undocumented. Immigration control advocates say the city is abetting illegal immigration. |
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Oakland To Issue IDs That Double As Debit Cards Oakland, Calif., is issuing municipal ID cards to anyone who can prove residency. It doubles as a debit card. Supporters say it will help residents who are poor, without a bank or undocumented. Immigration control advocates say the city is abetting illegal immigration. |
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Stanford Tops College Fundraising List Stanford University has set a new record for college fundraising: more than $1 billion in a single year. How did the school do it and what does it do with the money? |
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Berkeley Receives $1M For Undocumented Students   The $1 million gift will help 200 students pay tuition and living expenses to stay enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. While some undocumented students call the scholarship fund a game changer, not everyone is applauding. |
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School District Owes $1 Billion On $100 Million Loan The Poway Unified School District in California is facing a whopping $1 billion repayment on a loan of just $105 million. It borrowed the money using bonds that the state treasurer has compared to payday loans — and more than 200 other California districts are in the same boat. |
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Race For Redrawn Calif. District Is Tight And Pricey California's 7th Congressional District is the site of one of the most expensive races in the country. After California's independent redistricting committee redrew the district's boundaries, the seat has become competitive, and Democrats have put it on their list of seats they think they can take. |
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Calif. Death Penalty Opposition Focuses On Economy Among the propositions on the ballot this November in California: a referendum that would end the death penalty. The effort to end capital punishment is being sold as an economic issue - not a moral issue. |
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California's Gas Prices Begin To Stabilize Motorists should be seeing some relief from the recent record spike in gas prices. The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded hit $4.67, according to AAA. That price hike sent elected officials scrambling. Some are calling for a federal investigation, while others are taking emergency steps to increase supply. |
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Did Man Who Armed Black Panthers Lead Two Lives?  Richard Aoki, an early member of the Black Panther Party, gave the Panthers their first guns. He was a former soldier, a militant radical and, maybe, an FBI informant. |
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In Solyndra's Wake, Solar Company Sees Bright Spot SoloPower is on its way to receiving a loan of $197 million from the Energy Department - the same kind given to now-bankrupt Solyndra. But SoloPower has to meet a number of benchmarks before tapping into the fund, and one step toward that is the opening of a new plant in Oregon on Thursday. |
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It's Hard To Tell La Familia You're Gay  A new national campaign called Familia es Familia is hoping to help make coming out easier for LGBT Latinos. While the majority of Latinos are accepting of gays and lesbians, foreign-born and evangelical Latinos are less tolerant and remain opposed to same-sex marriage. |
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Calif. Leaders Agree To Overhaul Pension System California Governor Jerry Brown has reached a deal with legislators to overhaul the state's pension system. The changes include capping annual pension payments, requiring new employees to pay 50 percent of their pension costs and raising the retirement age. The package will save the state about $30 billion. |
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Budgets Tight, States Ask Voters To Raise Taxes In California and other states struggling to plug big holes in their budgets, tax increases will be on the ballot in November. Several measures ask voters to help ward off budget cuts, or to raise funds for basic functions like schools and roads. |
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Chevron Fire May Lead To Higher Calif. Gas Prices A fire at a Chevron oil refinery near San Francisco will likely push up gasoline prices in California. The state has strict environmental rules that require a special blend of gas for motorists, so it's not as simple as merely importing gas from other states. |
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Large Calif. Pot Dispensary Threatened With Closure There's an escalation of the battle between the government and California's medical marijuana providers. The U.S. Attorney in San Francisco has moved to close California's largest medical pot dispensary because it's too big and too profitable. |
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Oakland Turns A Corner As Calif. Faces Budget Woes Long associated with urban decay, Oakland, Calif., has experienced a resurgence in recent years with a revitalized downtown. The New York Times listed the city as No. 5 among its top "places to go" in 2012. But its comeback may be threatened by California's state budget tightening. |
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Walk This Way: Crossing The Golden Gate Bridge On May 27, 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened, connecting bustling San Francisco to sleepy Marin County to the north. The Oakland-Bay Bridge had opened six months earlier - but the Golden Gate was an engineering triumph. And on its first day, thousands of people walked across it. |
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With Eye On Future, Billionaire Investor Bets On Paul It may seem like a long shot, but that's exactly what Peter Thiel invests in. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist, who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, has said his support for Ron Paul is the best chance for now to encourage a libertarian movement. |
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LightSquared Files For Bankruptcy Protection LightSquared, which had been trying for years to build a high-speed wireless broadband network, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company's plans ran afoul of government regulators who said the new network would interfere with GPS signals. |
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Obama's Gay Marriage Stand May Not Sway Latinos There's a commonly held assumption that goes like this: Latinos have socially conservative views on religion and family; therefore, President Obama's support for gay marriage won't play well with Latino voters. But analysts say it's unlikely that the president's decision will make much difference. |
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Oakland Police: Former University Student Kills 7 Police in Oakland, Calif. say seven people at Oikos University are dead after a former student opened fire at the school Monday morning. Suspect One L. Goh, 43, is in custody. |
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An Example To Avoid: City Of Stockton On The Brink The California city is broke and on the edge of bankruptcy. Stockton's road to insolvency is a long one, and it appears that, financially speaking, everything that could go wrong in Stockton did. |
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For Cash, Murderer Leads Police To Victims' Remains Authorities in California are excavating the gruesome remains of murder victims who were buried many years ago by a pair of convicted murderers dubbed the "Speed Freak Killers." The case raises some thorny ethical and legal issues: Should convicted criminals be able to benefit from their wrongdoing? |
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Advocates Not Impressed With Foreclosure Settlement President Obama is touting Thursday's mortgage foreclosure settlement with big banks. Nearly two million people could benefit from the landmark settlement between states and big mortgage companies. But many homeowners and former homeowners are not too excited about the deal. |
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Unions Create TV Ad To Appeal To Young People  Hoping to continue a conversation about inequality started by the Occupy Wall Street movement, a recently tested ad by the AFL-CIO doesn't mention unions. Instead, it focuses on a "Work Connects Us All" theme. |
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Silicon Valley Homebuilder Finds A Profitable Niche The U.S. housing industry has yet to recover from the last recession, but you wouldn't know that by looking at rising home prices in California's still-prosperous Silicon Valley. By being conservative with his ventures, James Witt has made a successful business out of rebuilding Palo Alto homes. |
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Calif. Gov. Brown's Speech To Outline More Cuts California Gov. Jerry Brown gives his State of the State address Wednesday, and things aren't going well in the state financially speaking. Brown has already made huge cuts in government, and faces even more if voters do not back his tax increase ballot measure. |
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Latinos Get Little Thanks For Rebuilding New Orleans Workers who helped reconstruct New Orleans after Katrina are putting down roots in the city. The construction jobs aren't as easy to get as they once were, and many immigrants report that employers sometimes don't pay them for their work. |
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Occupy Protesters In Oakland Ponder Next Move The Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York and soon protesters were pitching their tents across the country. Since then, protesters have been evicted from their campsites in Oakland, Calif., and in a number of other cities across the country. Protesters in Oakland will no longer be able to spend the night at the site. |
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Proposition 8 Proponents Fight For Appeal Rights On Tuesday, the California State Supreme Court will decide if proponents of the initiative have the legal authority, or standing, to pursue an appeal. |
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California Same-Sex Marriage Ban Returns To Court On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court will decide if proponents of the initiative have the legal authority, or standing, to pursue an appeal of a ruling that the ban is unconstitutional. |
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Need A Parking Space? Look In Your Hand San Francisco is testing a smartphone app that shows drivers the locations of available parking spaces and how much the space will cost. Under this new system, parking meter prices are adjusted higher in areas with high demand. |
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New Deportation Rules Give Boost To Gay Rights The government says it will now prioritize deportations, giving lower priority to those with families in the U.S. The Obama administration has included same-sex couples in its definition of family. But immigration control groups are blasting the new policy. |
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Home Sales Stall Even As Mortgage Rates Are Low Home sales figures across the country for July came in well below expectations - especially in western states. That could be, in part, because Wells Fargo stopped taking applications and locking in rates for Fannie, Freddie and FHA-backed loans. New rules for such loans go into effect Oct. 1. |
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Airport Contractors Feel Sting Of FAA Shutdown The stalemate in Congress over FAA funding has stalled more than 200 airport expansion and renovation projects across the country. And it's putting tens of thousands of contractors out of work. |
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Is San Francisco Driving Its Families Away? Census data confirms what many San Francisco lawmakers and policy wonks know: The city is bleeding families. San Francisco has about 5,000 fewer children than 10 years ago, despite the city's reputation for being among the most family-friendly in the country. The culprit: the cost of housing. |
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Inside San Quentin, Inmates Go To College The Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison organizes volunteer instructors from schools like UC-Berkeley and Stanford, who conduct classes inside the prison walls. Inmates can earn degrees, and in the process, help bring calm to the once-notoriously violent prison. |
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After Officials Watch Man Drown, City Changes Policy Alameda, Calif., rescue personnel remained on shore while a man stood in icy water, apparently waiting to die. The firefighters said they were prohibited from rescuing people in the water. Police said they feared he would become violent. Residents said they were outraged. |
