In 1940, the Treasury Department holds a contest to choose an artist to paint a series of murals for the lobby of the Rincon Annex…
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Stories about government and power in California
On January 20, 2021, amidst political turmoil and civil unrest, Kamala D. Harris makes history as she is sworn in as the first female, first…
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For decades, nobody questions that Artie Samish runs Sacramento. Starting as a lobbyist in the early 1920s, Samish gradually amasses unrivaled power and influence as…
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Assembly member Blanca Rubio agrees to meet me at Chicory, a coffee shop in Sacramento frequented by members of the Legislature. We’ve never met. I’m…
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World War II effectively ends in 1945 when the United States detonates an atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, and another over Nagasaki on…
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After California’s male voters decisively defeat a women’s voting rights ballot measure in 1896, suffragists display plenty of public bravado. But it’s all for show. …
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Lt. Gov. Goodwin Jesse Knight, a genial, moderate Republican, is sworn in on October 5, 1953, as California’s 31st governor after the resignation of Earl…
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“The California Gold Rush was a “universal mass trespass that shortly created laws to legitimize itself.” — Wallace Stegner Some states are conceived in slavery.…
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On March 29, 1942, three months after America enters World War II, Lieutenant General John DeWitt issues Public Proclamation No. 4, which begins the forced…
Continue reading“One of the Most Sweeping Deprivations of Constitutional Rights” in American History
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On orders from his father, Ging Chuck Yee leaves China for the United States when he is just 14 years old. Ging is a paper…
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