Posts Tagged: 2008
News
The U.S. Census Bureau’s voter survey of the November 2020 election shows that, once again, California saw increased participation in general and across nearly all demographics. A startling finding in the recently released data: In 2020, African American participation hit 64%, very close to 2008’s record 65.2%, when Barack Obama ran for president for the first time.
News
The price tag for refinancing California’s unique and ambitious stem cell research program could run to close to $7.8 billion, give or take a few hundred million dollars or more. So says the state’s legislative analyst in a financial analysis of a proposed ballot initiative that is likely to be on next November’s ballot.
Opinion
It’s no secret that California is a very expensive place to live. California homes are being sold at two-and-half times the national average and rents are twice as much. Perhaps, there is no greater example that the dream of home ownership is dead than a taxpayer-financed housing project in San Jose.
Opinion
OPINION: Another round of alarmist commentary is being spread by those who begrudge a secure retirement for those who teach in our classrooms or heroically labor on the front lines of wildfires. Amidst their negativity Californians may have missed a bit of positive news last month. The state’s two largest pension funds reported end-of-year investment returns that again exceeded their assumed average annual rate of return.
News
Of all the committees and offices available in the California Assembly, few give a better perspective on the daily operations of the house than that of Assembly Speaker pro Tem. Sally Lieber, who served as Speaker pro Tem from 2006 to 2008, describes it as a combination of the location and the limitation that the role places on the officeholder.
News
It’s like a poker game: If you want to play, you have to ante up. And this year, the ante for Nov. 8 was nearly $48 million. That’s how much the rival interests for an array of initiatives paid to get on the ballot. That’s not money spent on the merits of the initiatives. It’s the money spent simply to get the propositions before the public.
Opinion
OPINION: Californians can breathe a sigh of relief. When proponents of a 2016 ballot proposal to extend Proposition 30’s tax rates on wealthy Californians amended their measure this week, they did something that was both politically smart and fiscally sound: They eliminated a provision the governor a few days ago called the measure’s “fatal flaw”, that would have exempted this proposed new revenue from the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
News
Former state Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg intends to run for mayor of Sacramento and will make his formal announcement on Wednesday, according to people familiar with his plans. Steinberg, 56, a Sacramento Democrat, served as Senate leader from 2008 to 2014, when he left office because of term limits. He earlier served three terms in the state Assembly, leaving in 2005.
News
Calpensions: After the board was told last April that CalPERS could not track the incentive payments, known as “carried interest,” a wave of media criticism grew with stories in the New York Times late last month and Fortune magazine last week. A pension fraud investigator, Edward Siedle of Benchmark Financial Services, launched an Internet fund-raising campaign on Kickstarter to raise $750,000 for a “forensic investigation” of the California Public Employees Retirement System.
News
California’s greenhouse gases declined even as the state’s economy expanded, according to state and federal agencies tracking the numbers. State air-quality regulators reported that carbon emissions fell by 1.5 million metric tons in 2013, while the economy experienced 2 percent growth, greater than the national average.
A voter casts his ballot during the 2020 general election at a voting center in L.A.'s Pantages Theatre. (Photo: Ringo Chiu, via Shutterstock)
