Image via Istock. used with permissonCalifornia prison spending for 2023-24 in the proposed $297 billion state budget is up to $14.5 billion – even as the prisoner population drops.
Dan Morain and Richard Polanco; image from the Oral History.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Richard Polanco is the subject of a new video Oral History conducted by Journalist and author Dan Morain, who covered Polanco’s career for the Los Angeles Times. Morain joined Capitol Weekly’s Rich Ehisen and Tim Foster to talk about Polanco’s career and legacy as the man who is credited as the architect of Latino power in the capitol.
Liane Randolph of CARB. Liane Randolph helms the state’s lead agency for climate change programs, putting her center stage on one of the hottest issues of the day. It puts her in a delicate position. “With climate change, you want to move fast,” she said. “But if you want to do it in a way where people have a say and where it is affordable, you need to be more patient and deliberative.”
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. Photo from his Facebook page, cropped and modified for Capitol Weekly.Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon released the full list of Assembly committee assignments via Twitter yesterday.
New Capitol Weekly editor Rich Ehisen and retiring editor John Howard in the Capitol Weekly studio.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: This week marks a huge change at Capitol Weekly, and the end of an era in Sacramento: editor John Howard is retiring. This week John handed the baton the Rich, and the two editors sat down with Tim Foster to talk about their careers, their plans for the future.
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 29,2022: U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to the media following a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House. Photo by Shirley Preston, Shutterstock.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: High drama prevails in Washington DC this week, where GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has narrowly lost thirteen votes for the Speakership, beating a record that went back to before the Civil War. We’re joined today by Carl Cannon, the Washington Editor of RealClearPolitics and former White House correspondent for the National Journal. Carl knows DC and California politics inside and out and gives us his view of what to expect and what to watch as this historic Speakership battle unfolds.
Love her or hate her, former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer was one of the most influential and impactful politicians in California history. As such, when we sat down with her to conduct an oral history interview, we knew we needed someone as iconic as her to ask the questions. So we were thrilled to have the estimable Carla Marinucci of Politico do the honors.
Photo from ShutterstockCAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Podcast hosts John Howard and Tim Foster talk about the biggest California political news stories of the past year – the secret tapes of several Los Angeles City Council members, housing and homelessness, the November elections and more. Plus, they tell you who had the Worst Week in California Politics.
A California rice field at sunset. (Photo: Sirisak Baokaew, via Shutterstock)This September, 300,000 of California’s 550,000 acres of rice fields lay barren—over half the state’s rice crop. Instead of miles of soft green grasses swaying amid shimmering water, the state’s rice fields were cracked bare dirt, some crowded with weeds. “It is now just a wasteland,” a third-generation rice farmer told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Royce Hall at UCLA, one of four original buildings at the university's Westwood campus. (Photo: Ken Wolter, via Shutterstock) The longest walkout in the history of U.S. higher education is over, but a critical question remains: Will the new contracts do enough to improve the living and working conditions that drove the academic workers to launch the 40-day strike?