CA120: Election Day is nearer than you think

Lorena Gonzalez, a victor in major political fights

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez addressing lawmakers about her labor bill, AB 5. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

by LISA RENNER posted 11.12.2019

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez wrapped up this legislative year feeling pretty good about her accomplishments. Despite often fierce opposition, the San Diego Democrat was able to pass 11 pieces of legislation, including those that protect child sexual abuse survivors and workers.

Capitol Weekly Podcast: Who Saved the Redwoods?

1919 photo of four Humboldt County women and a touring car bearing a Save the Redwoods banner has become an iconic image of the early save the redwoods movement. The women are, from left to right, Lucretia Anna Huntington Monroe, Kate Harpst, Mary Anne Atkinson, and Ella Georgeson. All were members of the newly-formed Humboldt County Women’s Save the Redwoods League and pillars of the Humboldt County establishment. The driver is Eureka chauffeur Frank Silence. The photograph originally appeared in The Humboldt Standard on September 6, 1919. Photo courtesy of The Humboldt County Historical Society Archives.

by Capitol Weekly Staff posted 11.12.2019

California’s Redwood forests are celebrated worldwide for their beauty and wonder – but few realize that the Redwoods came close to being logged out of existence. The first reports of California’s giant trees made it back to the US in the mid 1800s, before statehood. It wasn’t long afterward that loggers began harvesting the redwoods,

Divided, car makers clash over California rules

The Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles at rush hour. (Photo: Joseph Sohm

by BRYNDON MADISON posted 11.05.2019

Toyota, Chrysler, GM, Nissan, Subaru and Hyundai sided with the Trump administration in its efforts to ease mileage efficiency on rules imposed by the Obama administration. But earlier, California signed an agreement with Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen that assures more stringent rules – a move that the Trump administration denounced as illegal.

The push for clean energy is powering up

Photovoltaic modules capture sunlight. (Photo: foxbat, via Shutterstock)

by JR DeShazo and Colleen Callahan posted 11.05.2019

OPINION: Americans have grown accustomed to a parade of bad news on climate change coupled with a stream of  federal policy shifts designed to promote fossil fuels. But outside of the Beltway, in cities and towns across the country, the move to 100% clean energy is becoming a reality.Dozens of cities and counties in California and elsewhere are already running on 100% clean electricity, and over 150 American cities and counties have set 100% clean energy goals.

CA120: California’s Voters Choice Act and the 2020 elections

Voters in their booths casting ballots in a Los Angeles election. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)

by PAUL MITCHELL posted 11.04.2019

One constant in California elections is change. In the past 20 years, we’ve seen changes to when the primary is held, then changed back, then back again. We’ve seen an open primary, then another version of the open primary. We shook up the Legislature with term limits, then imposed different term limits. We have moved increasingly to vote by mail, shifting the timeline of our elections.

Adam Schiff: From obscurity to center stage

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. (Image: Screen capture, ABC This Week)

by CHUCK MCFADDEN posted 10.30.2019

Throughout most of his political career, Adam Schiff has been low-key, laboring mostly in the background in the California Senate and then in Congress.  Now, at age 59, he finds himself in the national spotlight as a major target of Donald Trump amid the hot glare of presidential impeachment.

Study raises concern about e-cigarette waste

Discarded e-cigarette pods and vape devices recovered by University of California, San Francisco researchers. (Photo by Jeremiah Mock).

by ELI WOLFE, FairWarning posted 10.29.2019

Nearly two years ago, Jeremiah Mock heard a student in Marin County complain that her school was littered with e-cigarette waste. A health anthropologist by training, Mock did some shoe-leather investigating in a student parking lot, where he found a significant amount of e-cigarette and tobacco trash.

Stem cell agency eyes ballot perils

A liquid nitrogen bank containing stem cells.(Photo: Alena Pavlovich, via Shutterstock)

by DAVID JENSEN posted 10.29.2019

The 29 directors of the California stem cell agency are hearing a warning this week that certain types of their possible activities on behalf of a proposed $5.5 billion ballot initiative could lead to a criminal investigation by state or local law enforcement agencies. While that would seem to be an unlikely event, it has caught up another California public enterprise (the Bay Area Rapid Transit District).