News
As final exams neared in the 10-campus University of California system, United Auto Workers Local 5810 representing postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers announced that it reached a tentative five-year agreement with the University amid a strike that began on Nov. 14. This bargaining unit with 12,000 of the 48,000 striking UC workers will vote to ratify the tentative new contract to run through Sept. 30, 2027.
News
California recently approved three sweeping environmental laws: SB 54, SB 343, and AB 1201. Hopefully, this game-changing legislation will shape national policy about recycling, composting, plastic pollution, and human health. We have many people to thank for the recent measures to reduce plastic pollution and increase plastic recycling, but we citizens rarely know who. Heidi Sanborn is one of those people.
News
About 48,000 academic union workers at the University of California are in the second week of a strike at UC’s 10 campuses, from San Diego north to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They walked off their jobs on Nov. 14 amid complaints of unfair labor practices, an action that closed some classrooms and research labs.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Billionaire developer Rick Caruso emerged from the Los Angeles mayor’s race primary as the only serious contender to the frontrunner, Congresswoman Karen Bass. We’re joined today by Doug Herman of The Strategy Group. Doug was inside the Bass campaign and helped build an effective strategy to compete successfully against a brutal eleven-to-one spending disparity.
News
California has another election coming up this fall, but it is not your usual political campaign free-for-all. Instead, it involves the leadership of the $12 billion state stem cell agency, which is trying mightily to develop “miraculous” treatments and cures for diseases that afflict — according to its backers — half of the families in California.
News
As Sala Burton lay dying in a hospital bed in 1987, she picked her successor to represent San Francisco in the U.S. House of Representatives. “I saw her gritting her teeth, you know, in pain,” her brother-in law, John Burton, recalled in an Open California oral history. “And she says… I want you, talking to us, to support Nancy for my seat.”
News
In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, California’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped by almost 9%, and the state’s smoggy skies briefly cleared. This was particularly true during the pandemic’s first months, when schools closed, offices went remote, and statewide shelter-in-place orders kept millions of Californians at home. That spring, clogged freeways went vacant. Fewer semis rattled down roads.
Podcast
On Thursday, November 10, Capitol Weekly presented the 7th edition of our Election Post-Mortem. Held just two days after the election, our panelists offered an exciting, unique and informative review of the November 8 election, providing analysis, opinions and insight. What happened? Why? What happens next?
News
Under our outlook, the Legislature would face a budget problem of $25 billion in 2023‑24. (A budget problem—also called a deficit—occurs when resources for the upcoming fiscal year are insufficient to cover the costs of currently authorized services.) The budget problem is mainly attributable to lower revenue estimates, which are lower than budget act projections from 2021‑22 through 2023‑24 by $41 billion.
News
The impacts of California’s interminable drought are well-known. But one aspect has drawn little relatively attention — its relationship with environmental laws. Last year was the second-driest water year on record, with all 58 California counties placed under a drought emergency proclamation, according to California’s official drought website.
Students and academic workers walk a picket line at UC Davis. (Photo: David Kn
