Maya Polon, photo courtesy of Scott Duncan photography Maya Polon stays focused on making sure the public realizes how the legislation she champions affects real people. “What I really love getting to do is finding someone with an inspiring story and connecting a reporter to them.”
Image by GoodIdeas via ShutterstockDirectors of the $12 billion California stem cell agency will face a fundamental question next week that could determine whether its efforts to produce revolutionary treatments for afflictions ranging from heart disease to cancer will live or die.
Image by IvanMel via ShutterstockUnder AB 716, ambulance providers couldn’t bill patients more than the established payment by Medi-Cal or Medicare fee-for -service amount, which is ever is greater.
Image by TimeStopper69 via ShutterstockThe latest Right to Repair proposal, Senate Bill 244, by Sen. Susan Eggman, (D-Stockton), has made it out of its house of origin, riding the momentum of similar bills that were approved this year in New York, Colorado and Minnesota.
Sean Porter, photo by Scott Duncan PhotographyPorter, who is the legislative director for Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, enjoys negotiating with the governor’s office, working with sponsors and committees and planning how best to get legislation approved.
Ted Kaczynski, circa 1968. Photo by George Bergman, courtesy of the Oberwolfach Photo CollectionNo town had closer connections to the case of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski than Sacramento: His first and last murder victims over a 17-year period occurred here – the first in an alley behind an Arden Fair computer-rental store, the last in an office downtown across from the state Attorney General’s office on I Street.
Photo by Andrey_Popov via ShutterstockRepublicans and Democrats, aides and outside advocates, Assembly and Senate, they may not agree on much. But there does appear to be consensus on at least one critical issue: the Swing Space elevators. They’re awful. Everyone seems to agree on that.
Image by retrorocket via shutterstockWomen have never achieved parity with their male colleagues in the California Legislature. Many advocates believe that could change before the end of the decade, but getting there is hardly a given.
Image by faithie via ShutterstockAfter decades of neglect, California’s infrastructure is poised for an upgrade. Thanks in part to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Biden in November 2021, the Golden State is set to receive more than $100 billion in federal and state infrastructure funds over the next several years.
Frank Lanterman, photo courtesy of the Frank D. Lanterman Political Papers, Lanterman House ArchivesFor more than five decades, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act has been the foundation for how California treats or fails to treat people with severe mental illness. Now, legislators from both parties seek to overhaul it in ways that reflect advances in medicine, and a better understanding of its failings.