Asm. Tina McKinnor at her swearing in ceremony, 2022.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: It’s our Halloween episode, so it’s an appropriate time to look at an attempt to bring a dead bill back to life! Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, who was elected in June to finish Autumn Burke’s term in the 62nd District, has promised to reintroduce AB 1577, Asm. Mark Stone’s bill to unionize the legislature.
Roz Wyman at bat. (Photo: Screen capture, Capito, weekly oral history)Rosalind “Roz” Wiener Wyman, the youngest person ever elected to the Los Angeles City Council and who played a key in bringing the Dodgers to Los Angeles, has died. She was 92. Wyman, a lifelong Democrat, was a political force in California politics. She put together fund-raisers for candidates, organized major events and was a scrappy campaigner herself and had an inexhaustible supply of energy.
The California Capitol in Sacramento, surrounded by Capitol Park. (Photo: Merge Digital Media LLC, via Shutterstock)In the final weeks before Election Day on Nov. 8, support for Proposition 30, the state ballot measure on funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has slid to less than a majority. On the congressional front, Democrats hold an overall edge across the 10 competitive districts that could determine which party controls the US House of Representatives.
Gov. Gavin Newsom attends a September 2021 rally in Culver City during the unsuccessful campaign to recall him from office. (Photo: Maxim Elramsisy, via Shutterstock)Readers of Capitol Weekly understand how “blue” California is. That’s why you’re up in the middle of the night thinking about Democrat -versus-Democrat races for State Assembly while you probably can’t name the full slate of Republican statewide candidates. But what about the average California voter?
State controller candidate Lanhee Chen, center, speaking with potential voters. (Photo: Chen campaign committee)Lanhee Chen decided to become a Republican at age 10 after watching the 1988 presidential debate between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. He has a vivid memory of watching Bush talk about “compassionate conservatism” and how important it is to encourage people to help one another. “Government is not the reflexive solution to everything,” said Chen, 44. “That was the vision.”
An El Segundo Blue butterfly. (Photo: esbcoalition.)The 2028 Summer Olympics will take place in Los Angeles between July 21 and Aug. 6, 2028. The event will cost an estimated $6.9 billion, will host 15,000 athletes, and could potentially attract at least one million visitors, both foreign and domestic. Most of them will pass through Los Angeles International Airport near one
The cap of a well used to monitor groundwater samples in Gilroy. (Photo: Matthew Corley, via Shutterstock)More than 60% of California’s groundwater wells are operating at below-normal levels, endangering much of the Golden State’s population that relies on the precious resource. Although relatively unknown to many Californians, who see water supply in terms of rivers, streams and reservoirs, groundwater is a hugely vital source that is largely invisible.
Photo illustration of California justice showing a gavel in a courtroom. (Image: sirtravelalot, via Shutterstock)A spate of smash-and-grab robberies and a rising crime rate may have dampened their hopes early on, but criminal justice reformers say the recently ended legislative session brought a raft of significant improvements to the way California treats people caught up in the system.
An array of solar panels capture sunlight in the Mojave Desert of southern California. (Photo: Andrei Orlov, via Shutterstock)With record heat waves and stubborn droughts, the state needs electricity. A partial solution? California’s first project to cover a major canal with solar panels. The Turlock Irrigation District (TID), the state Department of Water Resources, the water and energy project developer Solar AquaGrid, Marin County and UC Merced have partnered up on the project.
(Photo: Solitary confinement cells along a corridor in San Quentin Prison.)The Mandela Act, or AB 2632, would have reformed the practice of solitary confinement, which places people, convicted and awaiting trial, in isolation for up to 24 hours a day in jails, prisons and detention facilities.