News

California’s first surgeon general settles in

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California's first surgeon general. (Photo: UC Davis Health Magazine)

California’s head cheerleader on improving statewide health says it’s all about “bringing people together.” And after almost a year on the job as the state’s first surgeon general, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, exudes optimism, saying she has enjoyed an “absolutely phenomenal outpouring of support” from various factions of California’s vast health care sector.

News

Feds to California: Open up lands to oil, gas drilling

A pumpjack in California's San Joaquin Valley. (Photo: Mark Geistweite, via Shutterstock)

The Trump administration is to opening up 1.2 million acres for oil and gas drilling across California from the Central Valley to the coast, targeting eight counties — Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obisbo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura.T he plan follows an earlier move by the federal Bureau of Land Management to issue leases for oil and gas drilling on roughly 800,000 acres in 11 counties.

News

State offers scant funding to rape crisis centers

California’s 84 rape crisis centers are in a funding crisis. While California has experienced a steady rise in the number of reported rapes (over 5% per year since 2015), the state’s annual General Fund contribution to rape crisis centers over the past decade has been a miniscule $45,000.

News

New law targets cosmetics testing on animals

Testing cosmetics on a laboratory rabbit. (Photo: Artfully Photographer, via Shutterstock)

Animal-rights activists are heralding 2020 as a groundbreaking year because of a new, unprecedented state law that cracks down on cosmetics testing on animals. It takes effect Jan. 1, and will outlaw the importation for profit or sale most of the cosmetics tested on animals in California. 

News

Toyota has settled hundreds of sudden acceleration cases

(Photo: jeffkubes, via Shutterstock)

On the last day of 2015, Berta Orellana picked up her seven-year-old grandson from daycare in a brand new Toyota and headed on a road trip with the boy and two of her children, planning to spend the holiday in Las Vegas with her daughter who lived there.Orellana, then a 51-year-old delivery driver for Amazon, left the minivan she used for work at home in Northridge, California.

News

‘Progressive veteran’ faces uphill fight in 53rd CD

Jose Caballero, candidate in the primary for the 53rd Congressional District in San Diego. (Photo: Joaquin Romero)

As California’s 2020 primary election nears, congressional districts across the state face major changes. One of the most significant is the 53rd Congressional District in San Diego. For the past 19 years, the seat has been held by Democratic Rep. Susan Davis, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Administration.

News

State Supreme Court blocks Trump tax-disclosure law

Demonstrators urging Preident Trump to make his tax retyurns public, 2017. <(Photo: Christopher Penler, via Shutterstock)

The state Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a new law that would have forced presidential candidates — including Donald Trump — to disclose their tax returns in order to get on California’s primary election ballot. The Legislature cannot bar a legally certified contender from the primary election, “even if that candidate fails to disclose five years worth of federal tax returns,” the court said.

News

PG&E in the crosshairs of bankruptcy, fires, regulation

A PG&E worker checks power lines during a San Jose grass fire in July. (Photo: Geartooth Productions, via Shutterstock)

Things are not going well for PG&E. Amid massive blackouts that PG&E has put in place to avoid liability in the event of a wildfire, millions of Californians were left without power — for days at a time in some cases. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has called for a public takeover of PG&E — a move backed by at least two dozen cities — that would reclassify the company as a nonprofit electric and gas cooperative instead of an investor-owned company.

News

Tracking poll: Warren leads, but California field still in flux

Elizabeth Warren addresses Democrats earlier this year at a state party convention in San Francisco. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Our November tracking poll for California’s 2020 presidential primary election shows some significant changes in the field, with the national field gelling around four major candidates and the potential havoc of new candidates entering the race. The poll, in the field since April, has now surveyed over 7,500 likely voters, utilizing data supplied by Political Data Inc. It uses an online survey emailed directly to voters deemed likely to vote in the March Democratic primary.

News

CA120: Election Day is nearer than you think

Illustration of the road to the California's 2020 elections. (Image: karenfoleyphotography, via Shtuterstock)

Believe it or not, California’s much-anticipated primary election is right around the corner. Sure, we’ve got Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Super Bowl Weekend intervening. And all the air is about to sucked out of our news cycles with the impeachment inquiry and, yes, we could have a government shutdown in a few weeks.

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