Past approaches to forest fires have been a misinformed regime of fire suppression: extinguishing all flames quickly. Now California’s forests are overgrown tinderboxes-in-waiting; the approach is changing, but there’s a lot of work to do.

When lightning sparked fires in the 1850s, they were left to burn, naturally clearing out dry fuels. Just a few decades later, officials started shifting toward a strategy of fire suppression.

Jeannie Bruins knows Citrus Heights; she’s lived there for 35 years and has served on its city council for five terms. She also co-chaired the campaign to give Citrus Heights cityhood in 1996. Comstock’s spoke with Bruins about how the community has changed and what’s in store for the future.

In January, two of the biggest adversaries in California housing politics appeared on the verge of detente.

Sacramento boasted of being one of the first four test cities for Verizon’s 5G network, with officials calling it a major step toward the future. But nearly a year after launch, none of the city’s eight council districts have full 5G coverage — and it isn’t clear when any of them will.

Nonprofit groups and businesses have launched programs to help inmates better prepare for life and a career outside the walls of a prison with the goal of nurturing productive citizens and reducing recidivism rates.

A study backed by California Chamber of Commerce has found that adopting a business service tax — i.e., a tax on lawyers, accountants and consultants — would hurt the economy and put the state at a competitive disadvantage.

When Uber and Lyft began trading on Wall Street as idealistic, tech-disrupting startups, some of their earliest investment came from the nation’s largest public pension funds.

It is tempting to employ any number of puns when considering California’s transportation future:  The state is at a crossroads, its policies could run out of gas, dangerous curves lie ahead.

A group of public and private sector leaders in Sacramento are working to craft a protocol for self-driving vehicles that could be replicated in other municipalities across the country.