Fifty years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the spirit of that moment and movement lives on in the fast-food workers who, since beginning in New York in November, have held rolling one-day strikes at big-name chains in different cities to call for better wages and conditions. The restaurant industry employs more than 4 million fast-food workers in the United States today — or more people than live in Los Angeles — many of them earning as little…

It has been a wonderful experience and privilege hosting 40 representatives from the House Assembly of Delta, Nigeria for the Goldman School of Public Policy.  The Global and Executive Programs developed a two week program, bringing in faculty members and practitioners to provide their insight in the areas of leadership, sustainable development, poverty alleviation, city planning, education, food security, and agriculture.  The goal of this program was to provide snapshots of innovation in California and enable  the legislators…

Hotter weather and increasingly extreme rainfall patterns will exacerbate both interpersonal and group conflicts, finds a study by Professor Solomon Hsiang entitled, "Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict." The study and accompanying article was published in the journal Science. 

The Levine Book Prize committee of the Governance Journal awarded special recognition to Corruption and Reform in India: Public Services in the Digital Age (Cambridge University Press, 2012), by Jennifer Bussell, who recently joined the Goldman School faculty.  “This book masterfully draws on both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the implementation of state-level, IT-based service centers in India," writes the selection committee. "The book convincingly shows how the nature of corruption in each Indian state interacts with political…

US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has been nominated by a special committee of the UC Regents to be the next president of the University of California.  “This is a very intriguing appointment for the University of California,” says Dean Henry E. Brady. “Someone of this stature could change the game in California. Janet Napolitano has a law degree from an eminent public university.  She is a distinguished public servant, and her extraordinary political…

Children's advocates high-fived when President Obama called for "high quality preschool" for "every child in America" in his State of the Union Address. The details of the plan are considerably more complicated -- for one thing, federal money would be used mainly for poor and working-class kids, though states would be encouraged to include middle-class youngsters as well; and for another, the proposal encompasses initiatives for infants and toddlers, like Early Head Start, as well as pre-k -- but…

Ding! That sound could soon be the USPS app alerting you to an imminent delivery, after which a driverless Postal Service vehicle arrives at your door and a robotic arm delivers your package. While this may sound like science fiction, driverless vehicles will be coming to streets near you sooner than you may think. Sixteen states already have introduced driverless vehicle legislation and California, Nevada, Florida, and the District of Columbia have enacted laws allowing driverless vehicles on their roads.…

Hurricane Sandy. Record-breaking wildfires in Colorado. Ninety degree weather in Alaska. A deadly tornado in Oklahoma. No wonder President Obama is getting impatient with the slow progress on climate action. These events are the new realities of a changing climate, and they are the reason I am compelled to join the President’s call for climate action. The President’s Climate Action Plan, announced today, outlines five key targets to address climate change: Reducing carbon pollution through new…

Last month, the California State University, Fresno named Joseph Castro (MPP '90) its next president. Joe is currently a vice chancellor at the University of California, San Francisco. He begins his post at the end of July. Have you always had an interest in higher education?  I was the first in my family to attend a university when I enrolled at Berkeley in 1984. This opportunity completely transformed my life. I realized this almost immediately and decided during my junior year…

Like many Americans, I took my kids to see the new Jackie Robinson bio-pic “42."  They were appropriately shocked and appalled by the vile way he was treated by the bigots he faced in the streets and on the field.  On the way home, I warned them to “brace yourselves – sometime very soon we’re going to see a major sports figure coming out of the closet and announcing he’s…