What happened to California’s students?

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This week in the land of broken zoning laws and burning dreams: California may finally put its sacred environmental cow out to pasture, modular homes click into wildfire zones, and our schools continue their disappearing student act. Plus, San Francisco enlists private sector partners to address homelessness, a shocking number of the state’s bridges are quietly crumbling, and Red Bluff reminds us that sometimes the solution is more cowbell. Saddle up, scroll down. It’s all happening.

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Let’s get to it…

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BUFFY THE CEQA SLAYER?

CEQA — California’s sacred cow of environmental law and bête noire of anyone who wants to build anything in the state — may have finally met its match. A bold new bill from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks would strip its power to block urban housing, ending decades of delay-by-lawsuit. NIMBYs, unions, and green groups are predictably circling the wagons. But Wicks argues that endless red tape isn’t environmentalism — it’s privilege disguised as process. If her bill passes, it won’t just tweak the rules; it’ll bulldoze the status quo. And maybe build something useful.

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🏗️ 📦 🏡 -  HOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED — Modular homes are muscling into California’s wildfire recovery scene, offering speed and simplicity in a housing crisis built on ashes and red tape. Survivors like 83-year-old Sue Labella are opting for prefab over nostalgia, trading Tudors for sleek snap-together ADUs. While critics worry about bland design and neighborhood identity, companies like Cover and Samara are betting big on convenience and fire-resilient materials. It’s fast-track rebuilding meets factory chic. Keep your cookie-cutter comments to yourself; we’re trying to innovate our way out of twin disasters: a crushing housing shortage and devastating fires. LA Times

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🏫 🧑‍🎓 💨  -  ROLE CALL REBELLION — California’s schools are suffering a slow-motion crisis of empty chairs. Chronic absenteeism — 30% at its pandemic peak, still a bleak 20% today — has become the academic equivalent of a leaky roof: obvious, damaging, and largely unfixed. Defined as missing at least 10% of the school year, chronic absenteeism has a strong link to academic underachievement and research suggests it contributed to both pandemic-era learning loss and the subsequent slow recovery. Kindergarteners ghost school, high schoolers trail close behind, and even kids who show up are dragged down by empty desks around them. The state suggests mentorships, home visits, and messaging campaigns — none cheap, none proven. Meanwhile, districts bleed funding every time a seat goes unfilled. PPIC

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💰 🏙️ 🤝 -  SHELTER HELPERS — Facing a daunting $800M deficit and an intractable, age-old homelessness crisis, San Francisco is doubling down on collaboration. The city renewed a key waiver allowing officials to work hand-in-hand with major philanthropies and private sector experts to co-develop strategies, fund solutions, and scale what works. It’s not just about dollars — it’s about tapping private expertise to bolster public efforts. The hope: faster, smarter action on one of the city’s toughest challenges. SF Examiner

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🎧 🔊 🎧 ON THE POD: THE HOUSING MATTERS PODCAST

Housing Matters — the official podcast of the California Association of Realtors — leads your safari into California’s real estate jungle with news, insights, and just enough clarity to help you navigate buying, renting, or dreaming — without losing your shirt or your sanity. Housing Matters

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🕵️ 🌉 👍 - BRIDGE BUSINESS

California’s bridges are aging into disrepair—1,500 and counting labeled “poor.” Not collapsing, just crumbling slowly while counties scramble for cash to fix them. Caltrans inspects, but localities are on the hook for many of the bills. Rural areas take the hardest hit, stuck managing rust, cracks, and red tape while the backlog quietly grows. - KCRA

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STIRRUP SOME FUN IN TEHAMA COUNTY

The Red Bluff Round-Up isn’t just a rodeo — it’s a full-throttle, three-day spectacle of dust, grit, and cowboy glory. (Cue the Garth Brooks soundtrack.) The largest three-day rodeo in the country, the Round-Up draws top-tier competitors, die-hard fans, and curious newcomers to Northern California each April. Expect mutton busting, bull riding, parades, and pageantry, all steeped in Western tradition. It’s not just an event — it’s Red Bluff’s identity, flying chaps-first into the heart of American rodeo culture. Catch the action this April 18-20. Red Bluff Round-Up