CIRM chair Vito Imbasciani at the January CIRM board meeting, which was both online and in-person. California Stem Cell Report photoCalifornia’s $12 billion stem cell agency is under “’unprecedented strain” and is ready to impose a five-month hold on applications for the key, $15 million research awards that support the final steps in bringing revolutionary treatments to patients.
Image by Cagkan SayinThere’s only two weeks before the completion of the 2024 March Primary and early numbers are suggesting an historically low turnout. Will this have an impact on a big race like the US Senate contest? Maybe.
Image by Cagkan SayinLobbyist employers, otherwise known as special interests, paid firms a little more than $77 million to lobby California state government in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports. That figure doesn’t include all of the funds spent on lobbying during the fourth quarter. Lobbying firm disclosure reports don’t include wages and expenses for in-house lobbyists, for example.
Image by Sharaf MaksumovThose who listen to the Assembly or Senate Floors will often hear the “call of the house” being made and that “a quorum is established” or that the “quorum call is lifted.” What do these different phrases mean and why are they used?
Sen. pro Tem Emeritus Toni AtkinsCAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Our guest today is one of the most accomplished figures in recent California political history: The first person in 150 years to lead both chambers of the Legislature, as well as being the first woman – and the first openly LGBTQ woman – to do so at all. And, if she succeeds in her latest political quest, California’s first woman Governor. Of course we are talking about Sen. pro Tem Emeritus Toni Atkins.
Robert Klein, Art Torres and Jonathon Thomas. Photo courtesy of the California Stem Cell ReportThe man considered to be the father of the $12 billion California stem cell agency popped up in the news twice this month, once in a $38 million Sacramento lawsuit and then again as the host this month of a Biden campaign fundraiser whose tickets cost as much as $100,000.
Image by Ritu Manoj JethaniIn the California Legislature, there are “special statute” bills that are used when legislators believe a bill’s provisions are unique and should apply in only a specified circumstance or to a specified entity or jurisdiction. Not any bill can be given a special statute designation.
Sen. Mike McGuire, photo by APNew Senate pro Tem Mike McGuire announced his Senate Democratic Leadership Team and committee membership assignments for the 2024 Legislative year. The Senate Rules Committee will ratify the committee memberships next Wednesday, February 14, 2024.
Curt Pringle, who arrived in Sacramento as a brash 29-year-old conservative Republican in 1988, became the first Republican Assembly speaker in a generation, and likely the last Republican to hold that post for many years to come. In this newly published oral history interview, the former Assembly leader provides a first-hand account of the battle for the speakership following the 1994 election in which Republicans gained a shaky 41-39 seat majority in the 80-seat Assembly, but lost that majority when Republican Paul Horcher sided with Democrats to retain Willie Brown as speaker.
Image by Melnikov DmitriyIt’s an election year, and once again the California is not expected to do very much on the statewide level. With that in mind we posed a new question to our panel of esteemed experts.