The Assembly chamber in the state Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: Felix Lipov, Shutterstock)It’s hard to be a Republican in the California Legislature. Earlier this year when Sen. Janet Nguyen was removed from the Senate chamber, it was clear that Senate Republicans were upset for their colleague but also thrilled – thrilled – to be in the spotlight for a change.
A retiree checks out the newspaper in his back yard. (Photo: Budimir Jevtic, Shutterstock)Calpensions: A board working on a proposal to enroll most small business employees in a state-run retirement savings plan, unless they opt out, was told last week that small technology-focused financial firms could do the job. The founders of three firms that offer 401(k)s and other retirement plans to small businesses did not object to competition from the state.
Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, addresses colleagues on the Senate floor.(Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)To environmentalists in California, across the nation and around the world, she is a trailblazing leader. To the California Chamber of Commerce and many Republicans, she is the unrealistic author of job-killing, la-de-da legislation. To some, she is a futurist who predicts gas stations will disappear in 10 years. She is Fran Pavley, a pleasant, gray-haired Democratic state senator from Southern California who does not come across as a firebrand but can grow passionate about protecting the environment.
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.
Candidates in the 7th Senate District: Orinda Mayor Steve Glazer and Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, D-Concord. (Photo illustration, separate images combined: Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly)Welcome to the 7th Senate District, where money and hardball politics came together in the primary election. The runoff likely will not be much different. Even in a state now accustomed to seven-digit spending in legislative campaigns, the 7th District showdown in May is likely to set records. And powerful interests that weighed in during the primary – organized labor, business interests, the dentists, the doctors and the fire fighters, for example – are all but certain to pony up again.
OPINION: Senate Bill 3, authored by State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), would enact an unwarranted additional hike in the state’s minimum wage, similar to his measure earlier this year, SB 935, which was a California Chamber of Commerce “Job Killer”. California’s minimum wage was just raised $1 to $9 per hour on July 1 of this year, well above the current $7.25 per hour mandated under federal law.
Two days after Democrats secured 54 of 80 seats in last November’s election, Assembly GOP Leader Connie Conway was re-elected in a unanimous caucus vote and appeared to be secure in her position.
But whispers of her possible demise as leader surfaced last month as a result of the party’s loss of seats in