5. Joe Stephenshaw
Joe Stephenshaw is the director of the California Department of Finance, making him the governor’s top advisor on the state budget. Compared to his counterparts with the Speaker and the Pro Tem, Stephenshaw is relatively new, having started in the job in August 2022. Given our current budget shortfall, one could argue
A tangle of glass and plastic beverage bottles at a Santa Monica recycling site. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)After a nice dinner with your loved ones, make sure to keep the wine and spirit containers alongside the recyclable bottles. The state Senate passed Senate Bill 1013 on a 39-0 vote and sent it to the Assembly just before lawmakers left for their summer recess.
A dining room at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, which closed last year. (Photo: CDCR)With California’s prison inmate population flatlining, authorities are pondering the closure of three institutions. But many questions remain. The 2022-2023 state budget notes that there is a possibility of three prison closures during 2024 and 2025, based at least in part in the reduction of California’s prison population to about 94,000 in prisons and camps
Office workers rushing to their jobs. (Photo: IR Stone, via Shutterstock)Within their homes and offices, tensions are rising between employers and employees. At least for now, COVID-19 levels appear to be declining, and companies have begun to push their employees to return to the office following an extended period of working from home.
A view of Malibu, one of California's wealthiest enclaves, looking southward from the pier. (photo: Atomazul, via Shutterstock)For the third time in a decade, voters have a chance to raise taxes on the rich, but this time the money would pay for electric vehicles and charging stations instead of schools and community colleges, a distinction that has drawn opposition from key supporters of those previous tax hikes.
A surfer catches a wave in Malibu, where the Surfrider Foundation was launched in 1984. (Photo: JAVS, via Shutterstock)A landmark bill designed to drastically reduce plastic pollution in California, SB54, was signed into law on June 30. It imposes the most stringent plastic reduction rules in the United States. It has to. California, like the world, is enduring a seemingly insurmountable plastic pollution crisis.
The railroad trestle over Gaviota Creek. (Photo: Robert Ashworth, via Wikipedia)Approximately 75% of California’s population lives along the state’s 1,271 miles of coastline. By some estimates, half a foot of that coast will be lost by 2030, and as much as seven feet of coast by 2100. Along with rising sea levels, increasingly strong king tides, flooding, and El Niño events will affect low-lying areas with greater power and frequency.
A high school student reads and answers examination questions. (Photo: Arrowsmith2, via Shutterstock)California collects voluminous data on its residents every year, but the huge trove of information is flawed – and officials are trying to figure out why. A prime example of this is the data taken from 11th-grade public high school students taking an annual state-wide standardized test.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announces Asian American Pacific Islander Day at City Hall in May. (Photo: Ringo Chiu)Asian American Pacific Islanders, or AAPI, is a rising political force, but it has yet to flex its full muscle. About 16 percent of the nation’s 22 million people identified as Asian and Pacific Islander Americans live in California, according to the latest census, but the community’s elected state officeholder are less than their numbers suggest.
The 2020 Silverado Fire burns toward homes in Orange County, northeast of Irvine. (Photo: markmandersonfilms, via Shutterstock)Sarah Mapel bought her dream home in Santa Cruz County’s Boulder Creek neighborhood in 2018. Later, she purchased fire insurance through the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plan, a state-mandated program for consumers unable to acquire such insurance due to high-risk factors. “It was quite expensive,” she said.