Lobbyists crowd around video screen to watch the floor votes on the last night of the Legislature's session. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)The final curtain fell early Thursday on a legislative session that coursed through a pandemic, bolstered reproductive rights, saw a speaker nearly dispatched by his own caucus and drew the national spotlight to a governor who had survived an effort to recall him from office.
A pre-school girl and her therapist. (Photo: ABO Photography, via Shutterstock)Mental health services are crucial to our well-being. I think that most people will agree with me. As I write, mental health clinicians employed at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California are beginning week three of a strike over work conditions. As these essential workers see it, their employer’s rules are harmful to them and their patients. Count a young family member of mine among the latter. What follows are my reflections on his experience with Kaiser clinicians.
Sen. Richard Pan delivers remarks on the Senate floor. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)A California lawmaker who rose to national prominence by muscling through some of the country’s strongest vaccination laws is leaving the state Legislature later this year after a momentous tenure that made him a top target of the boisterous and burgeoning anti-vaccination movement.
A stem cell researcher at UC Davis. (Photo: UC Davis Stem Cell Program.)In a first in its 18-year history, the California stem cell agency has begun posting on its website a list of its governing board members who have conflicts of interest as they award hundreds of millions of dollars. The most recent example comes next Tuesday in a $48 million round that will benefit at least 16 public and private colleges in the Golden State and up to 400 students at a cost of $58,220 each.
Power transmission wires on a Fontana tower carry electricity on a sweltering summer day. (Photo: Matt Gush, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Recently, California called for a “Flex Alert” for the first time this year. Amongst other things, these Flex Alerts are plea from the state’s grid manager to conserve energy because it anticipates that the electric grid will be unusually strained. Californians, as they typically do, showed up – mostly out of the goodness of their hearts and wanting to do the right thing.
A restaurant worker prepares to take orders. (Photo: SaiArLawKa2, via Shutterstock)A broad coalition is lobbying California lawmakers to pass a bill called the Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Act., which would require the phased-in publication of pay data for private employers with 250 or more workers.
Scant water at Granite Island and River Valley along the North Fork of the American River east of Sacramento. (Photo: Lisa Parsons, via Shutterstock)In 2019, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled what the city calls “The Green New Deal.” This ambitious sustainability plan stipulates many policy and infrastructural changes to prepare the four-million-person city for climate change. To name a few, the Deal includes: transitioning the power grid to 100% renewable energy by 2045; modifying 100% of buildings to be net zero carbon by 2050; increasing zero emission vehicles, and electrifying all Metro and LADOT buses, to reach zero carbon transportation by 2050.
Joe Stephenshaw, left, the new director of the Department of Finance, takes the oath of office from Gov. Gavin Newsom.(Photo: H.D. Palmer, via Twitter.)As a budget analyst in the California Department of Finance in 2005-2008, Joe Stephenshaw never imagined that he would one day come back to lead the division. This month, Stephenshaw, 47, was sworn into the post, becoming the first African-American to hold the position.
Capitol Weekly Top 100 logo. Photo by Matt FraserThe sad thing about the pandemic is that we’re actually getting used to it. This is the third Top 100 list in the era of COVID-19 and – amazingly – our 14th overall. (There’s just no getting rid of us.)
A journalist on the job taking video of a street protest. (Photo: wellphoto, via Shutterstock)In late June, as protesters in Los Angeles took to the streets in opposition to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, journalists covering the demonstrations found themselves at the center of another issue of concern: the treatment of the press by police officers during protests.