Posts Tagged: ballot measure

Podcast

The rent’s too damn high: A conversation with AHF’s Michael Weinstein

Michael Weistein

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Michael Weinstein, is the president of the LA-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a sprawling international nonprofit with the stated mission of providing its 1.5 million global clients with “cutting-edge medicine and advocacy regardless of ability to pay.” Weinstein is also the driving force behind several statewide ballot measures, including two previously failed attempts to implement statewide rent control. Undeterred, he is back again this year with a new rent control measure on the November ballot. This time he could also face a challenge of his own – a competing measure aimed at limiting his ability to use AHF funds for these other political campaigns. He’s here today to talk about all of this with us.

Podcast

Education Policy – Tony Thurmond, Superintendent of Public Instruction

Capitol Weekly's Conference on Education. Keynote by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. Photo by Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond made headlines in July when he was kicked out of a Chino Valley School Board meeting for speaking out against policies he said would hurt LGBTQ+ students. He tells us why he went, and about the challenges facing teachers and California schools today.

News

Some forms of ‘sports betting’ are allowed in California even after last year’s massive defeat at the ballot box

Digitized athletes, image by Marko Aliaksandr

Although two sports betting ballot measures went down in flames last year, some forms or derivatives of sports betting are not only legal in California, but at least one tribe with a casino is facilitating it. The key to understanding how this could be is to understand that “sports betting,” in the broadest sense, can take many different forms.

News

What’s next for #wesaidenough?

Faith Colburn, Sam Chavez and Ruth Ferguson of @SHiP. Not pictured, Catie Stewart. Photo by Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly

It has been over five years since more than 140 women in the California Capitol community signed a letter calling for an end to what they termed a “pervasive” atmosphere of sexual harassment and “dehumanizing behavior by men with power in our workplaces.”

Opinion

To protect our health, tell the truth about the fossil fuel industry

Via Shutterstock

To counter industry propaganda and build support for the urgent action required, California must launch a creative, coordinated, aggressive, well-funded media advocacy campaign that connects the dots between the fossil fuel industry and its catastrophic impacts on our health and our climate. 

News

Stem cell agency chooses new board chair amidst funding uncertainty

Come March 28, Vito Imbascani is scheduled to be sworn in as the new chairman of the $12 billion California stem cell agency – an 18-year-old state program to develop revolutionary treatments for such things as brain and blood cancers, heart disease, diabetes, sickle cell disease, spina bifida, incontinence, blindness, arthritis, HIV, stroke, epilepsy and much more.

News

Ballot battle underway to keep stem cell agency alive

DNA is injected into a stem cell. (Photo: Spectral-Design, via Shuttertock)

The California stem cell agency has just finished pumping $5.3 million into the fight to save the lives of Covid-19 victims. And — in a ballot-box bonus — its efforts are already surfacing in the ballot campaign to rescue the agency from its own demise. The agency is running out of money. It will begin closing its doors this fall without major financial support that it hopes will come from Proposition 14, a $5.5 billion bond measure on the November ballot.

Opinion

March 3: Voters will decide on $15 billion for schools

Students at their graduation ceremonies at UCLA. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Voters may be surprised to find Proposition 13 on their March 3 ballot because they recall the 1978 vote on another Proposition 13. But be assured: This year’s Prop. 13 has nothing to do with the well-known tax-cutting measure and everything to do with the future of the state. Proposition 13 is the strongest statewide school bond measure in California history, providing $15 billion to make educational facilities safe for students.

News

Stem cell agency faces leadership challenge

Human embryonic stem cells. (Photo: California Institute for Regenerative Medicine)

California’s 12-year-old stem cell research effort is expected to give away tens of millions of dollars in public this week, but its most important matters — issues that deal with its survival and future — likely will be discussed behind closed doors at a meeting Thursday of its governing board. On the table is the leadership of the $3 billion organization, which is scheduled to run out of cash in just three years.

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