News
The environment plays a big part in Capitol legislation, but here’s a topic rarely linked to the environment – cremation. Traditional fire-based cremation entails emissions and pollutants. But a little-known bill signed by Gov. Brown allows the use of a water-based method called alkaline hydrolysis, which has been used elsewhere since the 19th century.
News
California’s $3 billion stem cell research program later this month is expected to unveil detailed plans for extending its life beyond the middle of 2020 in hopes of avoiding a lingering death. The latest proposals, which are not yet public, are scheduled to be discussed Nov. 27.
News
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “Tough on Crime” program of maximum prison sentences and crackdowns on undocumented immigrants is “absolutely wrong” and threatens to drive the country into poverty, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Tuesday. “He’s taking us back to the days when the bogeyman drives public policy,” Becerra, the state’s top law enforcement officer, told an audience at a Venice forum sponsored by Atlantic magazine.
News
Behavioral health is a touchy subject for many. For some, there is a stigma attached to receiving mental health care. Sometimes, help is hard to find. Understanding the roots of a behavioral problem can be difficult, and there are additional barriers of cost, insurance coverage and the amount of time that must be invested to visit a mental health specialist.
News
It’s being called the Wine Country Fire, but the fatal October fires that blackened nearly 200,000 acres across Northern California might also be called the Cannabis Country Fire. While most of the coverage has focused on damage to the losses of homes, business structures and the wine industry, marijuana growers were also hit hard.
News
Capitol observers often complain about certain procedural aspects of California lawmaking. So I took an informal poll: I asked some of my lobbying colleagues, as well as staff in the Legislature from both houses and both political parties, for suggestions on how to make things more efficient.
News
It’s been almost 70 years since Michael J. Machado was born in San Joaquin County, but he still calls Linden home. Having seen the decades pass has given him a perspective on small town farming in the Central Valley. “Linden hasn’t changed much since I was born,” Machado reflected recently, “It’s tripled in size since I was a boy, now with a bursting population of 2,500.”
News
More than four in 10 California adults are seriously considering moving away from their part of the state because of the cost of housing, with the highest proportion in the coastal counties and the lowest in the state’s interior. A slight majority of those recently surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California — 55 percent — are staying put.
News
It will take awhile before Californians can enjoy the much-heralded free community college offer recently approved by Gov. Jerry Brown. The earliest the free tuition could go into effect is fall 2018 and that’s only if the Legislature agrees to budget the $31.1 million needed to pay for the expected 19,000 students who would take advantage of the waiver.
News
The California stem cell agency has awarded $33 million for clinical trial research, but not before some governing board members questioned the appropriateness of backing an effort to treat osteoarthritis of the knee. The awards on Thursday bring to 43 the number of clinical trials funded by the stem cell agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
A wilted rose bouquet at the Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego. (Photo: Sherry V. Smith)
