Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Paul Mitchell joins us to talk about California’s March 5 Primary. Experts are predicting a historically low turnout: What does that mean for the four main candidates vying to make it into the Top Two for California’s open US Senate seat? Plus, Ron Hughes, Deputy Director of the EDDNext Modernization and Innovation Branch tells us about how EDDNext will improve the user experience for the public and add needed security to the system.
Micheli Files
We hear most often in the California Legislature that a rule is being “waived” or that someone is seeking a “rule waiver.” However, many rules may be “dispensed with” or “suspended,” rather than waived. So, what is the correct terminology to be used? Fortunately, or unfortunately, all of the above is the answer, depending on the specific rule.
Capitol Spotlight
When she was working as a journalist, Cynthia Moreno rejected the possibility of ever working in government communications. When the idea was suggested to her, it was a “hard no,” she said. “That’s the dark side,” she thought. But today, she is Press Secretary for Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas and considers it a dream job – one of the best positions she’s ever had.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Michael Weinstein, is the president of the LA-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a sprawling international nonprofit with the stated mission of providing its 1.5 million global clients with “cutting-edge medicine and advocacy regardless of ability to pay.” Weinstein is also the driving force behind several statewide ballot measures, including two previously failed attempts to implement statewide rent control. Undeterred, he is back again this year with a new rent control measure on the November ballot. This time he could also face a challenge of his own – a competing measure aimed at limiting his ability to use AHF funds for these other political campaigns. He’s here today to talk about all of this with us.
News
California’s $12 billion stem cell agency is under “’unprecedented strain” and is ready to impose a five-month hold on applications for the key, $15 million research awards that support the final steps in bringing revolutionary treatments to patients.
Analysis
There’s only two weeks before the completion of the 2024 March Primary and early numbers are suggesting an historically low turnout. Will this have an impact on a big race like the US Senate contest? Maybe.
News
Lobbyist employers, otherwise known as special interests, paid firms a little more than $77 million to lobby California state government in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports. That figure doesn’t include all of the funds spent on lobbying during the fourth quarter. Lobbying firm disclosure reports don’t include wages and expenses for in-house lobbyists, for example.
Micheli Files
Those who listen to the Assembly or Senate Floors will often hear the “call of the house” being made and that “a quorum is established” or that the “quorum call is lifted.” What do these different phrases mean and why are they used?
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Our guest today is one of the most accomplished figures in recent California political history: The first person in 150 years to lead both chambers of the Legislature, as well as being the first woman – and the first openly LGBTQ woman – to do so at all. And, if she succeeds in her latest political quest, California’s first woman Governor. Of course we are talking about Sen. pro Tem Emeritus Toni Atkins.
News
The man considered to be the father of the $12 billion California stem cell agency popped up in the news twice this month, once in a $38 million Sacramento lawsuit and then again as the host this month of a Biden campaign fundraiser whose tickets cost as much as $100,000.
