Policy wonks are abuzz with debate about not whether, but how, the California Environmental Quality Act should be reformed. A full-scale effort is underway to paint this landmark environmental law as broken. Implications abound through selective sampling and anecdotes that CEQA does more harm than good. Our experience, and that of our constituents, tells a
When Assemblymember Tom Ammiano proposed a Bill of Rights for the homeless, the response was swift – and sharply divided.
Many observers called it extreme, one newspaper described it as “an embarrassment,” while others defended it vigorously, lauding it as a move long overdue. Among other things, the bill would protect homeless people from
California’s core environmental protection law, a 43-year-old statute frequently denounced by developers and business interests as a tangle of red tape, is on a Capitol hit list once again.
But the political dynamic this year is unusual: Those pushing hard for change are Democrats, including Gov. Brown, the Senate and Assembly leaders and a
J. Clark Kelso, California’s federally appointed prison health-care receiver, has turned over a controversial health-care contract with Health Net to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and State Auditor Elaine Howle.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are involved in a new state contract for prison health care, but there’s no telling now exactly much money California is spending under the agreement, which takes effect in just weeks. Even lawmakers are kept in the dark.