California and Arizona are two states that couldn’t be further apart in temperament and size. But in one crucial issue – the drawing of political boundaries – they are joined at the hip, as California’s redistricting commission made clear Friday to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Continue ReadingOPINION: Make no mistake, while modest, legislative gains made by GOP candidates were the result of a well-crafted strategy, quality candidates and disciplined campaigning. The blueprint for these elections can become a foundation for a continued Republican resurgence and, long-term, it can help the Party compete and win statewide.
On the campus of UC Berkeley, Sather Gate. (Photo: cdrin via Shutterstock)Forty years later, the parsimonious Brown is still butting heads with the UC system’s president over money. The issue is simple: The state wants to know in detail how UC spends its money, the first step if the state is to give the system more money in the 2015-2016 budget.
A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)Gov. Jerry Brown proposed in his recent state-of-the-state address that California should take steps to approve an aggressive new greenhouse gas reduction goal for 2030. This additional proposal would take California beyond the current 2020 goal set by Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The AB 32 Implementation Group is concerned that creating a 2030 goal will shift attention away from current regulations that are intended to meet the greenhouse gas emissions goal California’s elected officials adopted in 2006 for 2020.
A Californian casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5 via Shutterstock)Skeptical, younger, grumpy and suspicious – that about sums up California’s independent voters. Distrustful of institutions, disenchanted with government and leery of the major political parties, the reach of the independent voter is widening, according to the head of a top research institution.
California’s voter-approved commission that draws the boundaries for legislative and congressional districts is going to the U.S. Supreme Court to support a similar commission in Arizona, which is locked in a power struggle with that state’s Legislature.
Photo of Dominga Sarabia by Lily Dayton, design by Cathy Krizik (HealthyCal.org)California Health Report: An estimated 2.6 million undocumented California residents are explicitly barred by law from the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The legislation has been a huge boon for many Californians: More than 3 million previously uninsured Californians gained health insurance since the start of the ACA’s first enrollment period. Almost 30 percent of the remaining uninsured, however, are undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for both Medi-Cal and assistance through Covered California.
Students at a Murrieta Valley Adult and Community education facility. (Photo: Murrieta Valley Adult School) Adult education in California may see its first funding increase in the state budget, following years of school closures and savage cuts stemming from the recession. The Department of Education estimates 100 school districts have closed their adult schools since districts were permitted to use “categorical” money in their budgets.
The apparent suicide last week of Alfred Villalobos, who faced a bribery trial next month, is a sad end for a former CalPERS board member paid more than $50 million by firms seeking money from the big pension fund. Most of his fees came from private equity firms during the years leading up to the financial crisis in 2008. Some call the period private equity’s “golden years,” when leveraged buyouts of corporations yielded huge profits.