News
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.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST:It’s Labor Day, so we’re just offering up a very brief episode, looking at the sad fate of AB1577, the bill that would have allowed legislative staff to unionize. We’ll be back with a full regular episode next week.
News
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.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Political data guru and “District Whisperer” Paul Mitchell joins us for a status update on the November election. Since Paul’s last visit to the podcast we’ve had a sea change: the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade has galvanized the Democratic electorate, and seems to have overturned conventional expectations about Midterm elections.
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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.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Today we are joined by Robb Korinke, a principal, along with Mike Madrid, at GrassrootsLab. We asked Robb, a Democrat, about working with a Republican partner, the dramatic party shift that has taken place at the local level since 2015 and the LA Mayor’s race.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
A pre-school girl and her therapist. (Photo: ABO Photography, via Shutterstock)
