News
Rich, poor: California’s split personality
A homeless man feeds the birds on an L.A. street. (Photo: Laurin Rinder)Two recent studies have confirmed it: In California, poverty exists in the most unlikely places.
A homeless man feeds the birds on an L.A. street. (Photo: Laurin Rinder)News
Medi-Cal faces major funding cuts
Doctors and nurses guide a young patient on a gurney down a hospital corridor. (Photo: Spotmatik LTD, via Shutterstock)Billions of dollars for California’s health care system serving 13 million poor and young people would be slashed dramatically under a GOP-backed proposal in Congress supported by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other top Republicans.
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California’s bumpy path to road repairs
A mid-1930s truck on a Kern County highway. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, Shutterstock)California’s already poor roads deteriorated to a whole new level of disrepair this winter. Sinkholes have popped up throughout the state and major roads have closed because of damage. To cite just a few major examples: Portions of Interstate 80 and Highways 50 and 49 were closed due to mudslides. Parts of Highway 1 remain closed because of storm damage. Numerous local roads were battered severely.
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Stem cell agency loses key executive
Synthetic cells, a 3D illustration. (Jurik Peter, via Shutterstock) The $3 billion California stem cell agency said it is losing one of its top leaders, James Harrison, one of the authors of the measure that created the agency and who most recently is serving as its “unflappable” general counsel.
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A discussion of cap-and-trade in California
From left to right, moderator Dan Morain and panelists Dave Jones, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, V. John White and Ross Brown. Cap and trade is either a sensible effort to reduce pollution in California without undue damage to the state’s economy, or it is a circumvention of the drastic action that is really needed to safeguard the environment.
Podcast
Capitol Weekly podcast: Dave Lesher
Dave Lesher of CALmatters. (Photo: Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly)Longtime California political journalist Dave Lesher stopped by Capitol Weekly’s office to talk about his latest gig: Editor and CEO of CALmatters, an ambitious nonprofit journalism startup that has quickly assembled one of the largest political news bureaus in the state.
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Gloves off, California vs. Trump
Protesters in Los Angeles, three days after Donald Trump's election. (Photo: llewellynchin, via Shutterstock)In the fight between President Trump and California over immigration, many wonder whether a state — even one as massive as this one — can successfully confront the White House. Thus far in Sacramento, the answer is yes — from the governor on down.
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State librarian hunts dollars in DC
State Librarian Greg Lucas. (Photo: California State Library)Prying funds out of the Trump administration may not be easy, but California State Librarian Greg Lucas is giving it a shot. And not just for California. Amid heavy snows and the unveiling of President Trump’s first budget, Lucas went to Washington this week to urge Congress to double the funding for the nation’s public libraries to $300 million, including the more than 1,100 libraries in California.
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A look at Capitol hearings, sessions and floor action
Chamber of the state Assembly in the Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: Felix Lipov)This is the third in a series of detailed articles dealing with the inner workings of the California Legislature. In this installment, we focus on the rules surrounding committee hearings, floor actions and special sessions.
News
CA120: High diversity, but low turnout looms in 2018
A Ventura County voter casts a ballot in the June 2016 primary. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)Any sound voter analysis tries to identify prior events that hopefully serve to predict future voter behavior. For this we examine several past elections, including the gubernatorial elections we mentioned in Part I, and other recent presidential primaries. But each appears somewhat flawed as a predictor of what the 2018 primary will look like.