About 1.8 million Californians – primarily Latinos – live in low-income, unincorporated communities that lack sewers, clean drinking water, sidewalks, streetlights or gutters – infrastructure known to curb public health and safety risks. The U.S. Census Bureau only tracks some of them, and federal tallies of characteristics like income often diverge markedly from more localized surveys. Without hard numbers, advocates have found it difficult to argue effectively for change.
More than 17,000 local agencies across the country have taken advantage of the Defense Department’s equipment giveaways. California police accumulated more equipment in 2011 than any other year in the program’s two-decade history.
Five institutions in California house nearly 1,800 patients with developmental disabilities, including those with cerebral palsy, mental retardation and severe autism. This population is at a high risk for physical abuse and injury. The Office of Protective Services and the state Department of Public Health investigate allegations of patient abuse and unexplained injuries at the centers, which are located in Sonoma, Los Angeles, Orange, Tulare and Riverside counties.
This map shows how much money each county received in 2011 through Secure Rural Schools, as well as total payments since 2001.
Mercury, a potent neurotoxin, has an effect that is difficult to quantify, but is believed to be most dangerous for pregnant women and small children. It can also contaminate bodies of water and cause fish to be unsafe for human consumption. It may also cause other symptoms like reduced IQs, behavioral problems and heart conditions.
Data provided by Bay Area Rapid Transit covering calendar year 2006 through October 2011 show a 20 percent increase in the number of bike theft reports, with eight stations – Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre, Dublin/Pleasanton, Ashby, Fremont, North Berkeley, MacArthur and Concord – accounting for half of the thefts. The Walnut Creek and neighboring Pleasant Hill stations are the top targets for bike thefts. The two stations accounted for more than 430 thefts of bicycles or bicycle parts, nearly 17 percent of the thefts in the entire system.
California's attorney general has joined the U.S. Department of Justice and several other states in a whistleblower lawsuit against for-profit educational firm Education Management Corp. See which attorneys general in other states have launched investigations of for-profit colleges.
Super PACs, independent expenditure groups that can raise unlimited sums from individuals and organizations, already have begun outspending presidential candidates in the 2011 race. Use our database to see who is giving to these groups across the country.
California Watch and the Sacramento Bee have gathered thousands of formal declarations of opposition and support to bills filed in the California Legislature and 2011. Use our database to see which bills powerful organizations are supporting.
