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In 2019, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled what the city calls “The Green New Deal.” This ambitious sustainability plan stipulates many policy and infrastructural changes to prepare the four-million-person city for climate change. To name a few, the Deal includes: transitioning the power grid to 100% renewable energy by 2045; modifying 100% of buildings to be net zero carbon by 2050; increasing zero emission vehicles, and electrifying all Metro and LADOT buses, to reach zero carbon transportation by 2050.
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As a budget analyst in the California Department of Finance in 2005-2008, Joe Stephenshaw never imagined that he would one day come back to lead the division. This month, Stephenshaw, 47, was sworn into the post, becoming the first African-American to hold the position.
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The sad thing about the pandemic is that we’re actually getting used to it. This is the third Top 100 list in the era of COVID-19 and – amazingly – our 14th overall. (There’s just no getting rid of us.)
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In late June, as protesters in Los Angeles took to the streets in opposition to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, journalists covering the demonstrations found themselves at the center of another issue of concern: the treatment of the press by police officers during protests.
Podcast
Capitol Weekly Podcast: Each year Capitol Weekly publishes The Top 100 – our rundown of the 100 people in California who are NOT in elected office, but who have had the biggest impact on California public policy and politics. We published the 2022 edition on August 9, and on this episode Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster discuss some of the names on this year’s list, some of the folks on past lists and the process that produces The Top 100.
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80. Nick Rowley
We’ve mentioned the revision of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) a number of times so far: Others involved in that deal may have better numbers on this list, but without attorney Nick Rowley there would have been no deal. Rowley authored and partly funded the Fairness for Injured Patients Act
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Driving a fuel-cell car means hunting for stations, dealing with shortages and managing an unfamiliar nozzle that sometimes freezes to the car — but Sen. Josh Newman loves it.
“I’m the self-appointed chair of the ‘Hydrogen Car Caucus,’” said the senator from Orange County, whose personal car is a 2021 Toyota Mirai. Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine and Asssemblymember Bill Quirk, D-Hayward also drive, and advocate for, hydrogen vehicles.
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Correction: On Aug. 10 in the Top 100 list, Capitol Weekly erroneously reported in item No. 16 that Robbie Hunter, the retired head of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, had performed consulting chores for the Western States Petroleum Association. In fact, he has not. The error in the Top 100 list has been corrected and we posted this separate correction, as well.
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100. Tal Kopan and Joe Garofoli
Tal Kopan was the Washington, D.C. correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, (she’s now at the Boston Globe) and Joe Garofoli is the paper’s senior political writer. Together, they did good this year – real good. On April 14, their story on questions about U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s mental
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27. David Pruitt
A relative newbie on the Top 100, having first been added to the list in 2022, Pruitt solidified his position as a figure of significant influence this year by remaking what is arguably the California Democratic Party’s most valuable annual fundraiser: the Speaker’s Cup. We’re told it was Pruitt’s idea to ditch
Scant water at Granite Island and River Valley along the North Fork of the American River east of Sacramento. (Photo: Lisa Parsons, via Shutterstock)
