News
The University of California has identified its 10 best research stories of 2021, and right at the top is an article deeply involving the state’s $12 billion stem cell agency. The catch is that the stem cell agency was not even mentioned. That despite the fact that 13 persons with significant links to the University of California, including a UC regent, sit on the board that oversees the agency.
News
Is California’s drought coming to an end? Experts say no, not yet, despite the recent historic levels of rain and snow throughout the state. And while 2021 was the driest in California in a century, 2022 is giving people hope that the seemingly interminable drought may finally be over, at least for now.
Podcast
California’s proposed new Budget is about to drop. We decided to get ahead of the game and invited Chris Hoene, Executive Director of the California Budget and Policy Center, to talk about what to expect. Chris spoke with us about what he hopes to see in the new Budget, how it was shaped, the surplus, and the Gann Limit.
News
When Californians go to the polls later this year, they will confront contentious health care choices. Voters will weigh whether to overturn a state law that bans flavored tobacco products and will likely consider increasing the cap on medical malpractice awards. They may also vote on proposals that effectively legalize psychedelic mushrooms and regulating dialysis clinics.
News
Timing can speak volumes. Consider this: As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus increases the infection rate, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut COVID-19 quarantine and isolation times from 10 to five days on Dec. 27.
News
Lorena Gonzalez, the San Diego-area Assemblywoman who successfully pushed landmark legislation to reclassify many California independent contractors as employees, is leaving the Capitol to run the California Labor Federation. Gonzalez, 50, will become the group’s executive officer when the current leader, long-time chief Art Pulaski, retires this summer after serving 25 years as the top executive.
Podcast
Are we seeing the effects of Climate Change in real time? Is California – finally – exiting the drought? And, should we be building more water storage to hold on to all this rain? Professor Jay Lund, of the Center for Watershed Sciences, our first guest of 2022, answers these questions and many more.
News
ANALYSIS: One of the long-running points of contention when California courts examine what’s known as “legislative intent” is the judiciary’s general disdain for statements made by the authors of legislation. Those clear-language statements accompanying bills, common in the Capitol, seek to offer guidance and state the purpose and intention of an author’s legislation.
News
This summer, California created a department dedicated to stopping its strained electric grid from causing more catastrophic wildfires, and come the new year the fledgling bureaucracy will add a questionably mapped labyrinth of underground cables and pipes to its list of concerns.
News
Minimum-wage workers in the Golden State will get an hourly pay raise in the new year. Under California law, the state minimum wage rises to $15 per hour for employers with 26 or more workers and to $14 hourly for employers with 25 or less employees on Jan. 1, 2022.
Sather Gate at the University of California at Berkeley. (Photo: David A. Litman, via Shutterstock)
