The state Senate in Sacramento, where appointees of the governor face confirmation. (Photo: trekandshoot,via Shutterstock)OPINION: Women in this country have always had to be liked in order to survive. Prior to 1848, American women weren’t permitted to own property or work outside the home. Instead, they were forced to rely on men to determine their worth and much of that depended on whether or not they were found to be likeable.
A photo illustration depicting a medicine and regulation. (Image: one photo, via Shutterstock)OPINION: With Gov. Brown’s attention on landmark legislation to fight climate change, to address financing of wildfire damage and to give legal teeth to the #MeToo movement, a new law governing HMO mergers was bound to get drowned out. But everyone who was party to the California patients’ rights rebellion of the 1990s knows the governor’s signature on the new law is a very big deal.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2016. (Photo: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)Rep. Ted Lieu says he’s surprised by how much reaction he’s gotten nationally for his anti-Trump and other pointed tweets. The Southern California Democrat, whose district includes Beverly Hills and Malibu, said he’s been tweeting since long before the president took office. “I decided when I was a state legislator that I was going to tell the truth,” he said.
A Rinspeed Budii concept autonomous car. (Photo: Yauhen_D, Shutterstock)On Valentine’s Day in Silicon Valley, one of Google’s experimental, self-driving cars sideswiped a city bus at 2 miles an hour. The incident marked the first time an autonomous car contributed to an accident on a public road, but did nothing to diminish the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for driverless vehicles.
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