We’ve got a two-fer episode today: first up, we speak with political data expert Paul Mitchell, who gives us an update on the status of California’s new district maps, and then we turn to Bruce and Lane Campbell, who run Capitol Enquiry, the publisher of GovBuddy.
Students at the campus of the University of California in San Diego. (Photo: Kapi Ng, via Shutterstock)About 17,000 graduate student researchers calling themselves Student Researchers United (SRU) at 10 University of California campuses are seeking to form a union with the United Auto Workers, a campaign that began in early 2020. UC management is not wholly on board with this move of unrepresented employees.
We are joined today by Bob Stern, one of the authors of the The Political Reform Act of 1974, and a former counsel for California’s Fair Political Practices Commission. We asked him about Behested Payments – the practice isn’t illegal, but strict reporting rules do apply.
The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in South Lake Tahoe. (Photo: EQRoy, via Shutterstock)Voters are facing the possibility of deciding among three fiercely competing ballot initiatives next year – all of them involving tens of millions of dollars and a revolution in California’s gambling industry. One of the three has already qualified for the November 2022 ballot. The remaining two must still gather signatures.
This special episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live on November 17, 2021 at a panel discussion hosted by Capitol Weekly as part of our California Conference series An Energy Forum.
An illustration of employment in California. (Photo: David Carillet, via Shutterstock)California employers added 47,400 nonfarm payroll jobs in September, the state reported, sending a mixed signal about the state’s economy with less than half of August’s 104,300 new hires. The Employment Development Department said September’s unemployment rate of 7.5% matched August’s 7.5%.
A major facility of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine at UC Merced. (Photo: CIRM)A multibillion-dollar matter was on the table when the 35-members of the governing board of the California stem cell agency huddled electronically to put together a strategy for the next five years. “Real Life” popped up during last week’s meeting along with diversity, legacies, voters, ballot measures. transformative medicine and cures.
The California state Capitol at dusk. (Photo: Karin Hildebrand Lau, via Shutterstock)You are an incumbent officeholder. You’d like to keep on being an incumbent officeholder. That means a re-election campaign – you know, where you kowtow to special interests, rail against fraud and waste and, above all, avoid being called “one of those Sacramento politicians” — even if you are one of those Sacramento politicians.
Our guest this episode is Professor Fernando Guerra, who teaches political science at Loyola Marymount University and founded the Center for the Study of Los Angeles in 1996. He joined us to talk about Los Angeles’ mayoral contest, the Mark Ridley-Thomas situation and the significant changes redistricting may bring to some council districts.
A man fires up a gasoline-powered generator to provide electricity to a trailer. (Photo: Virrage Images, via Shutterstock)California’s first-in-the-nation law banning the sale of new gas-powered mowers and blowers also targets a machine that has become increasingly popular with consumers in recent years — portable generators. As people face power blackouts — in areas where utilities have cut power to curb wildfire threats, for example — many have turned to generators as a backup energy source.