Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. Photo by Scott DuncanAdvocates for greater gender parity in California politics believe that women could reach 50 percent – or beyond – before the end of the decade. On Election Day 2022, women took 11 seats previously held by men, three in the Senate and eight in the Assembly, bringing the total number of women in the Legislature to 50, or 42 percent of the membership.
A cannabis plant growing in northern California. (Photo: King Dragon, via Shutterstock)The headlines were attention-grabbing; some were scary: “What will your mother say when she finds your corpse?” “The weed with roots in hell.” “Assassin of Youth.” They were, of course, all about marijuana. Movie producers discovered they could sell more tickets if their advertisements promised audiences lots of dissolute youth.
Commercial marijuana being dried at a California facility. (Photo: Shutterstock)With cannabis taxes to rise on Jan. 1 and a legitimate business landscape plagued by a thriving black market, California’s marijuana industry faces uncertainty. The tax hike — like others before it — stems from a state law requiring the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to recalculate the cultivation tax rates once a year because of inflation.
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)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.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders walking in the Independence Day parade with supporters in Ames, Iowa. (Photo by Gage Skidmore, FlickrCalifornia’s likely voters increasingly support Sen. Bernie Sanders in the March 3 Democratic presidential primary, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden following closely, according to Capitol Weekly’s January tracking poll. Sanders, who is capturing strong support from Latinos, has taken the lead in our survey for the first time since we began polling the Democratic field in September.
Kickoff campaign rally for presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Oakland in January. (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald, via Shutterstock)With the second release of the Capitol Weekly 2020 Tracking Poll we can dive into some details of the survey. Each month we will strive to find something in the data that speaks to a major topic targeted by policy wonks, pundits and political strategists, and we’ll look at the data from California respondents.
Pacific Ocean waves lap against beach front properties in Malibu. (Photo: Elliott Cowand Jr., via Shutterstock)While wildfires have gotten much of the attention in California as consequences of climate change, it’s really rising sea levels that will likely wreak the most damage. With more than 25 million people living near the coast, some $150 billion worth of property is at risk.
Rush-hour traffic in downtown Los Angeles. (Photo: TierneyMJ, via Shutterstock)Top law enforcement officials in California and New York are leading 10 other states in an attempt to retain tougher penalties for automakers that violate fuel economy standards. They filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the federal government’s decision to block a scheduled increase in the penalties for those who fail to meet fuel economy standards.
A portion of a plant that produces gas through the breakdown of organic waste. (Photo: Bertold Werkman, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Let’s play a game: what would you do with 25 million tons of organic waste annually? Here are a few tidbits to spark your imagination: Organic waste includes food and green waste, landscaping and pruning waste, lumber, fiber, sewage and sludges.
A 2018 political rally at San Francisco City Hall. (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald, via Shutterstock)Voter participation dramatically increased in California in the 2018 midterm elections, part of a nationwide trend. About 51.9% of California’s 25.1 million eligible voters hit the polls in the 2018 general election, up from 36.6% in 2014, the previous midterm election, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.