A gathering of gay rights activists at the state Capitol. (Photo: Karin Hildebrand Lau)Bish Paul descended into Empress Tavern’s basement downtown and was greeted with a surprise. Over 50 capitol staffers mingled beneath the brick arches a block from the state Capitol. LGBT aides and allies drank and chatted, discussing Sacramento’s LGBT community and shared Capitol connections.
A housing tract in San Jose, Calif. (Photo: PBK-PG, via Shutterstock)OPINION: When California residents in the Bay Area making over $100,000 per year are considered “low income” and thereby eligible for government subsidies for housing, something is seriously wrong. The issue of affordability is hitting critical mass in regions throughout the state.
A fire truck races to an emergency in downtown Los Angeles, 2016. (Photo Alexandre Moraes, via Shutterstock)FairWarning: November’s presidential contest was bizarre in many ways, but there is one peculiarity that pundits haven’t pounced on: The states with the worst rates of traffic deaths in the country went solidly for Donald Trump while Hillary Clinton swept states with the lowest fatality rates. California was 10th from the bottom in its traffic fatality rate — about 8.11 deaths per 100,000 people. The highest was Wyoming, with 24.74 fatalities per 100,000.
A motorcyclist and his bike, ready to roll. (Photo: oneinchpunch, via Shutterstock)FairWarning: The apparent 10 percent increase in motorcycle fatalities, based on an analysis by the Governors Highway Safety Association, coincided with a projected rise of about 8 percent in traffic deaths overall in 2015. Preliminary figures from the National Safety Council put the traffic deaths total at 38,300, also the highest level since 2008. In California, in contrast to the national trend, motorcycle crash fatalities actually declined by 7 percent.
A shopper totes his plastic bag across an intersection. (Photo: Connel, via Shutterstock)California’s statewide law banning plastic bags may have been suspended pending the voters’ decision in the November referendum, but cities and counties are moving ahead with their own local bans. The local laws would be exempt from the proposed statewide repeal. A “no” vote means the ban will be thrown out, a “yes” vote means the law will be left in place.
Debbie Ziegler, mother of Brittany Maynard, speaks to the media in Sacramento after the passage in September of legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. Gov. Brown signed the bill Monday.(Photo: AP/Carl Costas)Gov. Jerry Brown, in one of the most emotional moments of his long political career, signed into law a bill allowing people near death to end their lives with lethal drugs supplied by a physician. “The crux of the matter is whether the state of California should continue to make it a crime for a dying person to end his life, no matter how great his pain or suffering,” Brown wrote in his official signing message.
State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, discusses health care issues. (Photo: Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)Experts in California health care agree: The present system is unsustainable. It needs more money and flexibility. But that’s where agreement ends. There are conflicting ideas about where the money should come from and where it should go.
As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)OPINION: The oil company partisans and their legislative allies apparently failed to read past the first five pages of the bill. Buried in the back pages of SB 350 is a full codification of the 2030 and 2050 climate targets that the industry thought it defeated, along with a powerful new set of directives to state energy agencies to meet those targets.
A physician on the night shift examining a CT scan. (Photo: Beerkoff, via Shutterstock)It’s all about coming up with a plan to hang onto the $1.1 billion in matching funds the feds ship to California each year to help finance MediCal, the immense program that provides health care to about 12.5 million of California’s poorest patients. MediCal is larger than ever now because of the Affordable Care Act, which added more than four million Californians to the millions already receiving MediCal coverage
Pharmaceuticals and money -- elements in the debate over a cost-disclosure bill. (Photo: O.S. Fisher, Shutterstock)An attempt to force drug makers to disclose their costs and profits for drugs that sell wholesale for more than $10,000 annually was derailed in the Legislature, facing strong opposition from an industry targeting similar measures in other states. The forces battling over the bill include some of the most powerful in California.