Covering the Capitol, with Lia Russell of the Sacramento Bee

Rich Ehisen (L) and Lia Russell (R) in the Capitol Weekly office. Photo by Tim Foster

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Today’s guest is Sacramento Bee reporter Lia Russell. Russell covers the governor for The Bee’s Capitol Bureau, and was part of the team that broke the story of Dana Williamson’s arrest last year.  We asked about that story, covering the capitol, and what it was like to cover politics in their earlier gigs in Bangor, Maine and Baltimore, Maryland.

Continue Reading »
Opinion

Voters oppose advanced manufacturing CEQA exemptions

Image by ehrlif

OPINION – When lawmakers passed Senate Bill 131, exempting more than 75 categories of industrial facilities from California’s landmark environmental review law, perhaps they assumed voters either weren’t paying attention or didn’t care.

News

Will CA be next to offer Ink of Hope for trafficking victims?

Image by romkaz.

If a bill by Assemblymember Diane Dixon becomes law, tattoo artists would join a long list of professionals required to be trained in spotting signs of human trafficking, including first responders, healthcare workers, educators, hospitality staff, transportation workers, social workers and more.

News

California’s higher education Master Plan in flux?

Image by ismagilov.

Faced with growing concerns that California’s higher education system is outdated and unresponsive to the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, lawmakers are considering more structural changes to the state Master Plan’s vision of university and college education.

Opinion

Ending Medi-Cal coverage of GLP-1s is short-sighted thinking

Image by Love Employee.

OPINION – Modern GLP-1 medicines are evidence-based therapies that help patients achieve meaningful, sustained weight loss and reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and orthopedic complications. For many patients, these medications can change the course of their health and prevent the very surgeries I perform.

News

CIRM gets first approval of a one-and-done gene therapy

The Langenhop family. Photo courtesy of the Langenhop family and the CIRM.

After 21 years of “prospecting,” the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has fetched up its first “nugget” – federal approval of a one-and-done gene therapy for a life-threatening disease.

Micheli Files

Reading on the Assembly floor

The California Assembly in session. Photo by AP

On occasion, if you listen to the proceedings on the Floor of the California State Assembly, you may hear either a legislator seeking “permission to read on the Floor,” or you might hear a legislator raise a point of order that a colleague is reading on the Floor. What is the basis for either of these two statements?

Recent Posts
More Recent Posts »
Support for Capitol Weekly is Provided by: