Prop 50 threatens this GOP stronghold in Southern California

With one week until Election Day, the Yes on Proposition 50 campaign has far surpassed his opponentand support for the redirection measure is slightly ahead in recent polls. Early in-person voting is also open in some counties, although President Donald Trump has discouraged voters from voting early and by mail — putting California Republicans, accept these voting methods in binding.

If voters pass Prop. 50, one of California’s congressional districts that will undergoing remarkable change is the 48th districtwrites Nadia Lathan of CalMatters. It currently covers an area in San Diego County known as the East District, includes rural areas such as Lakeside and Blossom Valley, and is represented by Republican U.S. Representative Darrell Issa. Lakeside, for example, is 64 percent white and has a median household income of $103,000.

But to the southwest, the East District also includes Democratic-leaning urban cities, including El Cajon and La Mesa, which are represented by Democratic Rep. Sarah Jacobs of the 51st District. La Mesa’s population is about half white and its median income is $90,000.

Under Proposition 50, these districts would merge. The 48th District would absorb more Latino voters, as well as more Democratic voters from the left-leaning city of Palm Springs. Republican electoral strength is likely to weaken as a result, making incumbent President Issa, who has won re-election in the last two elections, more vulnerable.

• Friedrich Barke65-year-old Lakeside resident: “I don’t like that they’re changing this and putting us in urban areas. It’s going to put us in a neighborhood with people with very different views in our area.”

Issa isn’t the only GOP congressman who could find himself at a disadvantage: Congressman Kevin Kiley in Third District of California will attract more Proposition 50 voters who were previously represented by his last challenger, physician and former Democratic senator Richard Pan.

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Los Angeles officials are deciding today whether to move a 67-year-old power plant to hydrogen-ready turbinesat a time when the Trump administration wants to rein in California’s clean energy ambitions.

As Alejandro Lazo of CalMatters explains, the Scattergood Generating Station is owned and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The department’s commissioners are considering an $800 million plan to upgrade the facility to burn hydrogen, a potentially cleaner fuel.

But burning hydrogen is expensive, requires a lot of water, and still requires oil and gas. Some critics of the plan see it as a gamble.

• Alex Jassettdirector of energy justice at Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles: “We’re throwing away so much of our very limited resources to address the climate crisis in an inefficient, expensive option when we could instead be investing in cheaper, more scalable, more immediate benefits.”

Further complicating matters is the federal administration, which earlier this month denied $1.2 billion in funding for the California Hydrogen Center, an initiative to promote renewable hydrogen projects, including the Scattergood upgrade. The administration this summer also limited tax credits for clean hydrogen production.

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For students who struggle with the structure and rigor of typical high school classes, a school like Fresno County’s CART High can be a boonCalMatters’ Carolyn Jones reports.

Founded in 2000, the Center for Advanced Studies and Technology allows students to choose an area of ​​focus — including business, psychology, or law and politics — and learn about the topic in three-hour “labs,” or classes. These classes are taught by a team of teachers who weave in other academic subjects, such as literature, that are relevant to the subject.

CART 11th and 12th graders spend half their day at their regular high school in the Clovis or Fresno Unified School Districts and half their day at CART. Students are selected by lottery.

Attendance at CART is nearly 100 percent, according to its principal, and more than 90 percent of its students scored at least “proficient” on a standardized English test. His alternative approach could serve as a model for broader state efforts to rethink the traditional high school format, which is based in part on the factory model of the early 20th century.

• Muroga MountainsSenior student at CART: “At my other school they just throw stuff at you and never explain it to you. Here they actually teach us. And it’s all the stuff we really want to know, so it sticks in your brain.”

Read more here.