George Skelton: Newsom and California lawmakers need to say where they stand on reparations for slavery

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature will soon receive a sweeping set of recommended reparations for African Americans whose ancestors suffered economically from slavery and racial discrimination. Then what?

Then the governor and lawmakers will need to emerge from cover, face the public and devise a better response than we've been hearing: "I'm waiting for the final report of recommendations."

The report will be sent to the state Capitol by July 1. That's the deadline for the California Reparations Task Force — created by Newsom and legislators — to finish its two years of often-acrimonious work.