CA stem cell agency boosts spending amidst state budget deficit

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by BY DAVID JENSEN posted 05.29.2023

It was a $24-million-a-minute meeting for California’s stem cell and gene therapy agency.

Lawmakers seek more coordinated approach to housing the homeless

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by BY SARAH CHUNG posted 05.26.2023

Many homelessness experts and lawmakers believe that a more coordinated approach to information sharing and outreach is needed to ensure that those in need of services receive the support and assistance they require.

Bridging the information gap between tribes and the rest of California

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by BY BRIAN JOSEPH posted 05.24.2023

California is home to about 100 Native American reservations, located from rural areas to highly populated cities like Sacramento and San Diego. To a lay person, there’s often very little to visually distinguish these territories from the rest of California. But practically and legally, these reservations often operate like islands or even totally separate countries.

WeToo: Parenting, parity and progress in running for the California Legislature

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by BY RICH EHISEN posted 05.23.2023

This is the second in a series looking at efforts to reach gender parity in the California Legislature. Today we offer a closer look at one of the biggest challenges female candidates and officeholders face – parenting. Read Part I here.

Running for office was one of the scariest experiences of

Rising Stars: Kimberly Sanchez, NextGen Policy

Kimberly Sanchez photo by Scott Duncan

by BY LISA RENNER posted 05.17.2023

Though Kimberly Yareni Sanchez grew up amid poverty and gang violence, she managed to graduate from college at age 19. Now just 21, she is an education policy analyst at NextGen, a nonprofit advocating for progressive policy.

WeToo: pushing for gender parity in the California Legislature

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. Photo by Scott Duncan

by BY RICH EHISEN posted 05.15.2023

Advocates for greater gender parity in California politics believe that women could reach 50 percent – or beyond – before the end of the decade. On Election Day 2022, women took 11 seats previously held by men, three in the Senate and eight in the Assembly, bringing the total number of women in the Legislature to 50, or 42 percent of the membership.

SB 18 could hike state funding of housing for Native Californians

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by BY SETH SANDRONSKY posted 05.16.2023

SB 18 would establish a tribal-specific housing fund dedicated to paying for the building and rehabbing of affordable homes for rent and sale.

Call to legalize SF sex work going nowhere fast

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by BY ALAN RIQUELMY posted 05.12.2023

It’s been three months since San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen urged state lawmakers in a proposed resolution to legalize sex work in California. “It is time to recognize this and move towards decriminalization and ultimately legalization and regulation of sex work,” she says.

Will CA force Big Tech to pay news organizations for co-opting content?

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by BRIAN JOSEPH posted 05.11.2023

The idea is to make Big Tech companies pay journalism organizations for the content they repurpose to help generate advertising revenue – a dynamic that has been undercutting the bottom lines of news outlets for years

Sexual assault evidence in California: a slow moving story

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by BY CLAIRE MCCARVILLE posted 05.10.2023

California has only recently begun to take a legislative approach to dealing with its backlog of rape kits