Samantha Corbin (in green), John Howard and Caity Maple taping Politics on Tap at the Brasserie Capitale on K Street. (Photo: Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly)An unusual anniversary: It’s been one year since the distribution of an open letter in which scores of women detailed allegations of sexual misconduct over a period of years involving lawmakers, staffers, lobbyists and others in the state Capitol community.
Tom Hannigan and his daughter Erin, a Solano County supervisor. (Photo: Erin Hannigan Facebook page)Tom Hannigan, formerly a major legislative leader, director of California’s Department of Water Resources and an avid marathon runner, has died of natural causes. He was 78. Hannigan, a Marine Corps veteran who fought in the Vietnam war, is the father of Solano County Supervisor Erin Hannigan, who announced his death on her Facebook page.
Children at a "Day Without an Immigrant" rally in Los Angeles. (Photo: Krista Kennell, via Shutterstock)California has hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children that cannot be accounted for. They are among the estimated 45,704 unaccompanied undocumented minors who were apprehended by federal authorities between Oct. 1, 2017 and Aug. 31, 2018 as they tried to enter California through its southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The sun appears red through a haze of wildfire smoke in California. (Photo: Neil Lockhart) Nearly a year after the 2017 California wildfires hit the north and south state, the report card on FEMA—the Federal Emergency Management Agency—is in. The Sept. 4 analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office detailing FEMA’s performance credited FEMA with fulfilling its own disaster readiness goals, but says that wasn’t enough for the agency to be sufficiently prepared to deal with the horrific fires that engulfed parts of the state.
An illustration of the 2020 census. (Image: Maria Dryfout, via Shutterstock)In the most recent year for which an estimate is available (2015), California received about $77 billion in census-related funding—more than 80% of the total federal funds the state received that year. A number of federal programs draw on population estimates derived from the 2010 Census to calculate the share of federal funding for each state. The 2020 Census will soon update these estimates.
State Sen. Richard Pan, center, at a Sept. 13 discussion of children's health care issues. (Photo: Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly)The anti-vaccine movement is alive and well in California. Despite legal requirements for vaccination and a preponderance of clinical evidence showing that vaccines are effective in protecting children from measles, mumps and rubella, among other diseases, there are pockets of resistance across the state.
A flowering marijuana plant in a California destined to be used for medicinal purposes in California. (Photo: PRO Stock ProfessionalThe California cannabis conundrum: A lot more weed, a lot less money. Since Proposition 64 took effect earlier this year, the cannabis industry has raked in nearly $135 million of revenue for the state through sales taxes, not including local jurisdiction taxes. Even with increased sales each quarter, some officials are calling the revenue “substantially below projections.”
A sweeping new California Supreme Court ruling restricting who is an independent contractor is shaking up an exceptionally diverse range of industries. The ruling, issued in April, affects an estimated 2 million independent contractors working in healthcare, beauty salons, gig economy jobs like Uber and Lyft, journalism, music, real estate, education, financial planning, agriculture, construction, technology, insurance, transportation and more
Anthony Bowden, chief of the Santa Clara County Fire Department, testifies before the Assembly's Select Committee on Natural Disaster,Response, Recovery and Rebuilding. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press)As California’s largest wildfire moved swiftly, the internet speed in the area slowed to a crawl: Verizon choked it down to the first responders battling the Mendocino Complex blaze. Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, says a new law is necessary to protect first responders’ access to high-speed internet, although Verizon acknowledged the move and quickly apologized.
Lab supervisor Marilyn Mitchell pulls samples during tests for Valley Fever at the Community Medical Center lab in Fresno. (Photo: Fresno Bee/Craig Kohlruss, 2014, via AP)The first sign that Rob Purdie had valley fever was when he woke up one day with what felt like a hangover but he hadn’t taken a drink. He had a splitting headache that was so bad that he had to stay in dark room with the blinds drawn and his sunglasses on. He was eventually diagnosed with coccidioidomycosis meningitis, the most severe form of valley fever.