Directions to the local polling site in San Francisco. (Photo: Kevin McGovern, via Shutterstock)Much of the coverage of the recent midterm election has been about the surprise outcome – one in which the Republicans have taken a small majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Democrats retained control of the U.S. Senate. However, this was the story that polling was telling us — if we were willing to listen.
Sunrise at Yosemite National Park. (Photo: Stephen Moehle, via Shutterstock)OPINION: From my home in Ventura County, I can see the rugged hills and green oak trees of the Los Padres National Forest. I grew up in this area and have spent countless days exploring my wild backyard. As a kid, these lands were a constant in my life and I thought they would always remain unchanged. But as an adult, I know these places are threatened by development and climate change.
A pair of pumpjacks at work in Kern County. (Photo: Christopher Halloran, via Shutterstock)OPINION: As Gov. Newsom addressed California residents in the annual State of the State, he seemed to skirt some big issues plaguing the state, but he didn’t miss the opportunity to double down on his recent and harmful energy policies restricting California energy production.
A close-up of a retro microphone, a type sometimes used at public events. (Photo: vectorfusionart, via Shutterstock)It isn’t something that politicians and other public figures worry about very much, although perhaps they should. It’s embarrassing, of course, but most of all, it’s revealing. We’re talking about the dreaded ‘hot mic’ menace.
Gunsmith working on an 300 Blackout AR rifle upper receiver in a vise at a gun shop in CaliforniaOPINION: As gun sales and gun deaths have continued to surge since the onset of the pandemic, California’s underinvestment in violence intervention programs has become a glaring policy failure. Even after January 2021 proved to be California’s single deadliest month for gun homicides since 2007, the governor and state legislators have still not agreed to make funding the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) grant program a priority.
A damaged highway in a rural area of California. (Photo: Tupungato, via Shutterstock)What might President Biden’s colossal proposal to address the nation’s crumbling infrastructure mean to California? Admittedly, the $2 trillion fix is a long way from becoming reality. It’s still in the House, and Senate passage as the bill is written is a big “if.”
An artist's rendering of California's bullet train. (Image: High-Speed Rail Authority)State rail officials are taking the glass-half-full view. Rather than lamenting the fact High Speed Rail is absent from the president’s infrastructure plan, they’re pointing to supportive statements from Biden and his team, and insisting there’s time before Congress irons out a final deal to claim a share for California’s fast train.
Los Angeles, after a storm has passed through. (Photo: kjarrett, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Californians will literally breathe easier when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office in January. While the results of other races were mixed, the stark contrast between President Trump’s “Make Our Air Dirty Again” record and Biden’s promising green agenda made control of the presidency the decisive factor in our environmental outlook for the next four years.
A Sacramento political rally for presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, who has since dropped from the race. (Photo: Chris Allan, via Shutterstock)For the past year, we’ve been conducting tracking polling of the dozens of candidates for the Democratic nomination. A consistent thread in those surveys was change: The front runners shifted from former Vice President Joe Biden to Massachusetts Sen.Elizabeth Warren to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Yet, everything has changed in the last 36 hours, and we are now set for one of the most tumultuous California election nights in recent history.
An iillustration of California's official voter information for the March 3 ballot. (Photo: Wild as Light, via Shutterstock)The March 3 primary is right around the corner, but nearly 2 million California voters have already cast ballots. As these voters return their ballots, many are receiving an email to participate in a Capitol Weekly survey asking about their experience, who they voted for and why. This survey, conducted since the beginning of the early voting period, has reached more than 7,500 voters, nearly 6,000 who participated in the Democratic presidential primary.