A laboratory assistant examines stem cells used in cancer research. (Photo: Science Photo, via Shutterstock) Directors of the California stem cell agency on Thursday virtually endorsed a plan to stave off its financial death, pinning their hopes on a possible $5 billion bond measure and a private fundraising effort to bring in an additional $222 million.
Traffic on the 405 in Los Angeles, the nation's busiest freeway. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)California’s new gas tax hike to fund billions of dollars worth of overdue road repairs has only been in effect for a little over a month but Republicans are already trying to overturn it. On Nov. 1, Senate Bill 1, signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown in the spring after a fierce political battle, increased the excise tax on gas by 12 cents a gallon and the excise tax on diesel fuel by 20 cents a gallon.
A derelict vessel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. (Photo: Mitch Goode)They lie washed up on the side of levees, they sit silently moored in the quiet sloughs of the vast Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, sometimes drifting aimlessly down the middle of the waterways. There are hundreds of these abandoned recreational watercraft and commercial vessels in the Delta; some of them have been slowly wasting away for 60 years or more. Many pose a danger to navigation and the environment.
Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, left, chair of an Assembly committee targeting sexual harassment in the Capitol, confers with Assemblywoman Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, at a Nov. 28 hearing. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)Allegations of rampant sexual assault and harassment in the California Capitol have ensnared three lawmakers and brought promises of reform from leadership. But some women who have spoken out say they are also facing consequences for telling their stories.
California Gov. Jerry Brown addresses a December 2015 conference on climate change in France at Le Bourget, near Paris. (Photo: Frederic Legrand, COMEO)In recent years, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed groundbreaking legislation establishing the most ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in North America, and he has been praised globally for his environmentalism and his efforts to curb global warming. But at home – and elsewhere — he faces opposition to some of his environmental policies.
A stem cell researcher at work. (Photo: 18percentgrey, via Shutterstock)The California stem cell agency handed out $16.4 million in research grants seeking therapies for afflictions ranging from gum disease and cancer to vision loss and Parkinson’s Disease. The award for Parkinson’s was relatively tiny — only $150,000 — but represented a rare case in which the agency’s governing board overturned its reviewers, who make the de facto decisions on awards
A photo illustration of menthol cigarettes and peppermint leaves, from which menthol is synthesized. (Photo: Miriam Doerr Martin Frommherz)FairWarning: Anti-smoking groups, frustrated by federal inaction on restricting menthol cigarettes, are taking matters into their own hands. In recent months, cities ranging from Oakland and Los Gatos, Calif., to Minneapolis and St. Paul have passed laws limiting the availability of menthol cigarettes, which health advocates say have a particular appeal to beginning smokers.
Pat Nolan addresses a 2014 meeting of CPAC <(Photo: Gage Skidmore)Pat Nolan has Southern California credentials that are about as solid as they come. The future Assembly Republican leader was born into a family that had been in the area for generations. One of his great-grandfathers had been an early settler of the area for whom two cities (Agoura and Agoura Hills) are named. Nolan also played a role in one of the Capitol’s darkest episodes – the FBI’s investigation of Capitol corruption, which included a dramatic nighttime raid on the building in the summer of 1988.
State Senate Leader Kevin de León at a conference last year in Mexico City. (Photo: Fernando Ramirez, El Universal, via AP)The contrast between Kevin de León and his political opponent Dianne Feinstein is stark. De León, the leader of the state Senate, grew up in the San Diego barrio of Logan Heights. His mother cleaned houses and did odd jobs to support the family. Feinstein grew up in a wealthy family in a posh section of San Francisco, the daughter of a prominent surgeon and a beautiful mother.
Robert Klein addresses a meeting of two governing board committees of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. (Photo: David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report)Facing the likelihood of a slow and withering death, the California stem cell agency is edging gingerly forward on a path of “cuts” and risky fund-raising in hopes that its research results will soon generate voter support for more billions of dollars. Two governing board committees of the $3 billion agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), on Monday. Nov. 27, recommended that the full board “entertain” the proposals at its Dec. 14 meeting.