A hazy day in the Los Angeles Basin, New Year's Day, 2015. (Photo:Trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Gov. Jerry Brown has called Donald Trump’s election the proverbial “heart attack” to get California off of the equivalent of cigarettes — climate-destroying fossil fuels. But for Brown to be the foil to Trump’s anti-environmental policies, it’s going to take a lot more than launching California’s own climate-tracking satellite.
A black-and-white view of smoggy Century City, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. (Photo: trekandshoot)President Trump, his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Republican leaders in Congress have all declared plans to allow the oil and coal industries to extract, transport and burn dirty fuels with little restraint, to quash the free expression of science within the federal government, and to neuter the agencies that are supposed to safeguard our air and atmosphere.
The Tower Bridge in Sacramanto west of the state Capitol. (Photo: Tupungato, via Shutterstock)OPINION: “Amen to that, brother,” Governor Jerry Brown exhorted in his state of the state speech in support of President Donald Trump’s call for spending $1 trillion on infrastructure improvements. It was the only sense of cooperation the governor offered to the new president and some of his expected policies.
State Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Shuttesrstock)The prospect of ACA repeal has triggered a mixture of speculation, caution and dread among California policymakers. One way or another, California intends to take care of those among its people dependent on government for their health care, but how the state will pick up the pieces if Obamacare disappears is the question.
The State Capitol in Sacramento, looking toward the West Steps on N Street. (Photo: Timothy Boomer)As the California Legislature commences its 2017 Session, the following is a quick look back at historical numbers for bill introductions and gubernatorial bill actions. Over the last half a dozen years, as a general rule, the Legislature has introduced about 2,100 bills per year, about 1,000 of those measures get to the Governor’s Desk, and he signs roughly 850 of those bills.
A mid-1930s truck on a Kern County highway. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, Shutterstock)OPINION: They blew it. Fifteen months ago, Governor Brown called the Legislature into special session to find new ways to pay for the state’s aging transportation system.
AN electric car takes juice at the L.A. Auto Show. (Photo: Juan Camilo Barnal)A hasty attempt to boost electric vehicle sales in California – an idea the governor likes – died in the final days of the legislative session amid intense lobbying and fast-approaching deadlines.
Sutter Brown at the state Capitol. (Illustration: Judd Hertzler/Capitol Weekly. Photo: Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)“Lists like the one you are about to read are a lot like most hairpieces: They’re probably a bad idea, but they do get a lot of people talking,” we wrote in 2009. Eight lists later, we’re still having fun – okay, not as much as before – but we think this list has value and is becoming something of an institution. At least, that’s what people tell us.
An elderly man in his wheel chair, taking a a breath of fresh air. (Phboto: Kazoka, via Shutterstock_)Many seniors and people with disabilities who need services through Medi-Cal and Medicare struggle every day to navigate complex health and long-term care decisions. Dealing with a serious illness is difficult enough without having your doctors, specialists, long term care providers, and other health care providers disconnected with no overall attention to the holistic needs of the individual.
A high-resolution image of human egg cells. (Jezper, via Shutterstock)If you are interested in the buying and selling of human eggs, you might want to take in a California legislative hearing tomorrow in Sacramento. Up for action in the state Senate Health Committee is a measure that would permit paying women who provide the eggs if they do so for the purposes of research.