News
With the close of the 2018 primary election cycle, we get another chance to see how campaigns have evolved under California’s top-two open primary system. The most noteworthy change appears to be the manner by which campaigns are extending their reach across the partisan aisle. But they are not doing it in the way that the authors of the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, which took effect in 2011, intended.
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The pressure is on: High-stakes, closed-door maneuvering involving lawmakers and the fate of a November ballot initiative is roiling the Capitol. The initiative would boost privacy rights for millions of online customers. But it won’t go directly to voters at all, the sponsor promises, if a bill emerges from the Legislature and makes it to the governor’s desk by Thursday, June 28.
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Some folks in Europe are worried about stem cell research, particularly about organizations like California’s $3 billion stem cell agency. The alarm was sounded just yesterday in Horizon, which calls itself “The EU Research and Innovation Magazine.”
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The Capitol’s six-story annex is a functional, granite hive of lawmakers’ offices, committee hearing rooms and assorted legislative staff offices, joined at the hip with the domed Capitol. One factoid: The third floor of the annex matches the second floor of the historic wing, which leads to no end of confusion for visitors trying to navigate the labyrinth. But change is coming.
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The Madera patient says he likes his Kaiser doctor and has no desire to switch to publicly funded Medicare, even though he qualifies. But if Senate Bill 1156 is approved, Adames likely wouldn’t get that choice. The bill would require that patients like him receiving third-party assistance would either need to enroll in Medicare or Medi-Cal (for those who are low income), or if they choose to stay on private insurance, they will only receive reimbursement at Medicare or Medi-Cal’s much lower rates.
Recent News
It has been said, over and over again, that “The Devil is in the Details.” If Californians approve splitting themselves up into three new states this November, and the remaining political obstacles can somehow be overcome, the details will indeed become devilish. The three new states would be “Northern California” “Southern California” and (wait for it) “California.”
News
Deborah Kratter sat in her Half Moon Bay home, explaining her decision to move to Washington state to live, and then die with life-ending medication alongside family members when her terminal pancreatic cancer worsens. “My gosh, when the time comes and you can’t be who you are … I don’t see why you should have to lie in a bed and wait to die,” Kratter said.
News
It’s an art form that no one wants to get really, really good at. Perhaps that’s because no one wants to practice it. It starts with “…a few minutes ago, I telephoned…” You guessed it. Concession speeches.
News
Stem cell researchers rarely have a chance to talk directly about their work to thousands of people at a time, including those in the farthest reaches of the globe. But Jeanne Loring at the Scripps Research Institute did it last week. The California stem cell agency did it last month with Stanford researcher Gary Steinberg. And it could well be that the technique that they used will emerge as a critical tool in the effort to stave off the death of the $3 billion, stem cell program.
News
The once-a-decade national census is still nearly two years away but it’s already generating heated discussion. Among the myriad concerns raised so far is that this survey will be the first conducted in part online. People are also expressing alarm over the inclusion of a new citizenship question, the wording for questions on race and ethnicity and the way prisoners are counted.
A political rally in southern California during the 2016 election cycle. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)
