Image by Ritu Manoj JethaniMICHELI FILES: Despite no constitutional provision allowing them (or prohibiting them), many California Governors have used “signing messages” to accompany a Governor’s signature on a bill. U.S. Presidents also have long used signing messages.
Maria T. Millan CIRM photoThe chief executive officer of California’s $12 billion stem cell and gene therapy program, Maria T. Millan, resigned abruptly this week, leaving what is the largest such state research effort in the nation without even an interim leader. Millan’s departure comes as the agency faces major challenges. They include expansion of an embryonic effort to assure the affordability of CIRM’s potential treatments that could cost millions of dollars. Some of the directors are also behind a move to sharpen its focus and reset its priorities.
De-focused electricity transmission towers in countryside at sunset, panoramic landscape. AChanPhoto, ShutterstockCAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Loretta Lynch, the former President of the California Public Utilities Commission is sounding the alarm on a proposed change to California’s commercial electricity providers’ rate structure that, she says, will dramatically increase rates for electricity customers. Now, Lynch and others are urging the CPUC to intervene before it’s too late.
Laura Wilcox, whose shooting death in Nevada County inspired "Laura's Law." (Family photo)Ever since Ronald Reagan signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967 granting people with severe mental illness greater rights and speeding the emptying of state asylums, governors have been sidestepping the issue, until now. Unlike governors before him in this state or perhaps any other, Newsom is confronting the issue of untreated mental illness.
Image by TungCheungMICHELI FILES: Resorting to legislative history is generally appropriate only where statutory language is ambiguous. As the California Supreme Court has said, “Our role in construing a statute is to ascertain the Legislature’s intent so as to effectuate the purpose of the law.
Monika Lee, photo by Scott Duncan PhotographyMonika Lee’s story showcases many of the possible avenues for creating meaningful change in Sacramento. In her five years in the community, Lee has moved up the ranks in three different organizations and worked with a variety of issue areas, letting her passion for equity guide her along the way.
Image by Stock-AssoHalloween is upon us, so with that in mind we reached out to our esteemed panel of Capitol insiders with the following question: What is the scariest thing for you in the political world right now?
Phil Isenberg, screencapture of a video.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Former legislator Phil Isenberg died last week after a brief illness. Isenberg wore many hats: Mayor of Sacramento, Assemblymember, Vice Chair of the Delta Stewardship Council, and husband to Marilyn Araki Isenberg. Dan Morain covered Isenberg for decades and joined us to look at Isenberg’s career and his impact on California.
Phil Isenberg, photo courtesy of the Public Policy Institute of CaliforniaPhil Isenberg, a former Sacramento mayor and one of the most influential Democratic members of the Assembly in the 1980s and 1990s, died Thursday after a short illness. He was 84.
Image by Salivanchuk SemenMICHELI FILES – Hearings are a regular part of life in the California Legislature. But as with all things under the dome, nothing is a one size fits all. There are, in fact multiple types of hearings in the effort to educate legislators and staff about the subject matter at hand.