An illustration of stem cells used in research. (Photo: Billion Photos, via Shutterstock)California’s $3 billion stem cell research agency, which is facing its financial demise in a few short years, has formed a team of its directors to tackle transition planning and examine possible alternatives, including ones that would extend its life. The first meeting of the group of directors is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 18.
A photo illustration of human DNA. (Photo: Shutterstock)Plans to ask California voters in 2018 to approve a $5 billion bond issue to finance the California stem cell agency have been shelved, a director of the agency said Thursday. Jeff Sheehy, a San Francisco county supervisor, said that the key backer of the proposal had informed him that no bond measure would be offered to voters before 2020, presumably at the presidential general election.
C. Randal Mills, the 45-year-old CEO of California’s $3 billion stem cell research program, is a man who loves his milestones. A private pilot, he charts his course in the air from one specific point to the next. Three years ago, Mills brought that same sort of navigation to the state stem cell agency.
Political consultant Gale Kaufman at her Sacramento office. (Photo: Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly)Gale Kaufman was campaigning in California before Arnold Schwarzenegger was Conan the Barbarian. Kaufman, a bare-knuckled Democratic strategist, is as little known to the public as she is famous among political pros. When talk in the political world turns to “Gale,” everyone knows it’s a reference to Kaufman.
A California ballot box. (Photo illustration, Hafakot, via Shutterstock)It’s like a poker game: If you want to play, you have to ante up. And this year, the ante for Nov. 8 was nearly $48 million. That’s how much the rival interests for an array of initiatives paid to get on the ballot. That’s not money spent on the merits of the initiatives. It’s the money spent simply to get the propositions before the public.
A handful of prescription medication. (Photo: vepar5, Shutterstock)Californians face one of the highest-stakes ballots ever on Nov. 8, including fierce and expensive campaigns involving sex, guns, and drugs. Especially drugs.
A physician flanked by the California flag. (Illustration: Niyazz, via Shutterstock).Medi-Cal is on the November ballot, hiding in plain sight in three propositions. These ballot measures could yield about $7.6 billion for the state’s health care program for low-income families, the disabled and children.
The clock tower at the San Francisco Ferry Building. (Photo: jejim, via Shutterstock)California voters likely won’t get a chance after all to decide whether to end daylight savings time. Assemblymember Kansen Chu, D-San Jose, has been pushing to end the annual clock adjustment in response to requests from constituents. He has heard complaints from parents of young children who have trouble putting their kids to bed as well as seniors who are thrown off schedule for a week or more when the time changes. Chu added that companies out of state may find it easier to do business with California if the state keeps on the same time year round.
An inmate gestures through the bars of his prison cell. (Photo: Sakhorn, Shutterstock)Gov. Jerry Brown has a lot riding on the November ballot. Voters will decide on his Proposition 57, which Brown says would let nonviolent inmates become eligible for parole sooner, create “good behavior” credits for state prisoners and let judges decide whether to try a juvenile as an adult. With California’s prisons crowded and facing a court-imposed population cap, and thousands of inmates housed outside the state, Brown says his measure makes sense.
Vintage Illustration of Mr. ZIP, modified by Tim Foster/Capitol WeeklyIncreasingly, California voters use the mailbox, not the ballot box. But in three of California’s 58 counties — Plumas, Alpine and Sierra — there was no other choice but mail-in voting. And they like it that way.