Posts Tagged: 2020

News

Extremists on cops’ radar — even in ‘progressive’ California

Police officers in San Diego's Pacific Beach distgrict respond to a pro-Donald Trump demonstration after violent clashes with Trump's opponents break out. (Photo: Brandon J. Hale, via Shutterstock)

In 2020, the SPLC recorded a total of 72 California-based hate groups, which they cited as promoting anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, ant-Muslim, White Nationalist, and Neo-Nazi ideology, among others. In the past year, the SPLC has found, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered their traditional organizational strategies, prompting them to make increased outreach efforts through the use of social media platforms.

News

CA’s 2022 mid-term elections may bring surprises to Democrats

Ballot boxes in Foster City for the November 2020 general election. (Photo: MariaX, via Shutterstock)

The state’s House delegation – now at 53, but likely to drop by one seat after the new redistricting – stood at 46 Democrats and only seven Republicans after the 2018 elections. But last year, Republicans captured four seats from Democrats — which caught political observers by surprise. 

News

Beer battle brewing over distribution

A worker at a small brewery examines beer during the fermentation process. (Photo: MAD_Production, via Shutterstock)

An under-the-radar tussle is shaping up in California over how beer is being brought to drinkers across the state. The emerging beer battle pits small craft brewers against big distributors. On one side are the small brewers, who charge that the big distributors don’t want to bother with the relatively small volumes of craft brewers.

News

A Christmas wish-list for politicos

The state Christmas tree in front of the Capitol in Sacramento. Photo, taken with fish-eye lens: Robert Schlie, via Shutterstock)

The Christmas season tells us that there are only a few days remaining in 2020, California’s anno horribilis. It also means political types begin to harbor fantasies about what they would like Santa to bring them if they’re very, very good.  

Podcast

Capitol Weekly Podcast: A Post-Mortem of the 2020 Election

Last week Capitol Weekly and the McGeorge Capital Center for Law & Policy presented a Post-Mortem of the 2020 Election, a half-day online conference in which a score of experts and insiders discussed the results of the election and provided a look-ahead at what they mean for 2021 – and beyond. This event was held on Thursday, November 5. We broadcast audio from each of the presentations as individual episodes of the Capitol Weekly Podcast.

Analysis

Housing is core issue in SF’s Wiener-Fielder Senate race

Housing in a San Francisco neighborhood. (Photo: Bertl 123, via Shutterstock)

ANALYSIS: While most electoral contests in San Francisco are a fierce fight, incumbents up for reelection tend to have an easy run. A year ago, few thought that State Senator Scott Wiener would have difficulty defending his District 11 seat. When activist and first-time candidate Jackie Fielder came in second in the spring primary – 33% to Wiener’s 56% — people started to comment on the race.

News

CA120: Conspiracy theories may backfire — on both parties

A photo illustration of whisper campaigns and conspiracies. (Image: Valery Sidelnykov, via Shutterstock)

In our culture, conspiracy theories are running rampant, and elections seem to be particularly prone to the craziest among them. Republicans, led by the president, have claimed that vote-by-mail is unsafe, non-citizens are registered to vote and casting ballots. Ballot “harvesting” is causing rampant voter fraud, President Trump says, and the system is being rigged against him.  Even Attorney General Bill Barr claimed, incorrectly, that vote-by-mail eliminates the secret nature of voting in the US.

News

Proposition 14: There’s much, much more than meets the eye

Personnel at UCSF's facility in Fresno, which may benefit if Proposition 14 is approved. (Photo: UCSF)

Proposition 14, the fall ballot measure to save California’s stem cell agency from financial extinction, contains much, much more than the $5.5 billion that it is seeking from the state’s voters. Added to the agency’s charter would be research involving mental health, “therapy delivery,” personalized medicine and “aging as a pathology.“ That is not to mention a greater emphasis on supporting “vital research opportunities” that are not stem cell-related.

News

Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Tales from the pandemic

Graphic by Judd Hertzler. Photo by Tim Foster

The atmospherics surrounding the Top 100 list vary slightly from year to year, but they usually stem from such things as elections, retirements, hires, campaign staffing, bureaucratic shuffling, news stories and who’s doing what to whom. Normally, we set up interviews in coffee shops or, better yet, taverns, and pick the brains of people who know the Capitol.  Not this year.

News

CA120: DMV voter registrations hit slow lane

The DMV office in Los Gatos. (Photo: stellamc, via Shutterstock)

Digging into it, we can see that California has been experiencing at least one area with a lull in registration. Looking at the voter file and codes from the secretary of state on registration methods, we can see hundreds of thousands fewer DMV registrations than would be expected since the lock down began.

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