Posts Tagged: commitment

News

California’s stem cell program — big money, but lackluster oversight

A Liquid Nitrogen bank containing suspended stem cells. (Photo: Elena Pavlovich)

California’s multibillion-dollar, cell and gene therapy program has a special spot in the pantheon of the hundreds of government departments in the Golden State. It is immune from the normal oversight of the governor and state lawmakers. Its cash — now set at $5.5 billion over the next decade — flows freely and directly to the stem cell agency with no inconvenient meddling by elected officials.

Recent News

CEQA at heart of Supreme Court decision on UC Berkeley

Students pass through Sather Gate, which leads from Sproul Plaza to the center of the UC Berkeley. (Photo: David A Litman, via Shutterstock)

California’s premier environmental protection law was at the core of a fierce dispute between UC Berkeley and its surrounding neighborhoods — and the neighborhoods won. On Thursday, the state Supreme Court decided in their favor, saying that the university’s plan to build more student housing ran afoul of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which requires projects to undergo extensive environmental and legal review before proceeding.

Opinion

California needs a comprehensive plan for air quality

Morning pollution over Longt Beach. (Photo: Katharine Moore, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: We all have witnessed the devastation of climate change. As I write this, our California neighbors in Napa, Sonoma and up north are losing homes and businesses to wildfire. Every year, wildfire season is more severe than the year before. But the ravages of wildfire are not the only harmful result of climate change that is impacting us.

Opinion

PG&E bankruptcy will test California’s climate goals

A view of Los Angeles and its smog. (Photo: IM_Photo, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: It is important that state leaders stay firm on their resolve that PG&E is restructured in a way that both hardens our electrical grid and keeps our commitments to California’s climate and clean energy goals. Right now is no time to walk back on our climate change commitments.

News

An LGBT ‘caucus’ for Capitol staff

A gathering of gay rights activists at the state Capitol. (Photo: Karin Hildebrand Lau)

Bish Paul descended into Empress Tavern’s basement downtown and was greeted with a surprise. Over 50 capitol staffers mingled beneath the brick arches a block from the state Capitol. LGBT aides and allies drank and chatted, discussing Sacramento’s LGBT community and shared Capitol connections.

Opinion

State’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard doesn’t cut net emissions

A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)

OPINION: This has been a crucial time in international climate negotiations. In December, in Paris, negotiators signed an agreement on the next round of targets and actions to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and will effectively close down in 2020. Negotiators established a new and meaningful agreement for multinational action through individual country “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” (INDCs).

News

Jerry Brown’s trifecta: Politics, Catholicism and advocacy

Gov. Jerry Brown, flanked by the head of the Ponitifical Academy of Science, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, spoke recently at a Vatican conference on Modern Slavery and Climate Change. (AP Photo: Alessandra Tarantino)

When Gov. Jerry Brown traveled to the Vatican to attend Pope Francis’ conference on climate change, the Democratic governor allowed one of his most extended public glimpses into how Catholicism helped shape his career. Brown, who turned 77 in April, is nearly the same age as the Pope who turns 79 in December. Pope Francis is the first Jesuit Pope and Brown was a Jesuit seminarian until he dropped out of the Society of Jesus in 1960 to attend the University of California, Berkeley.

Opinion

UC, CSU: Eligible students deserve a chance

Students at a graduation ceremony at Santa Monica City College. (Photo: American Spirit, via Shutterstock)

California’s universities receive more and more applications every year. Last year there were a record 193,873 applicants to the University of California and 290,473 to the California State University system. Each applicant applied, on average, to two or three campuses. But just as this demand is growing, more and more eligible students are being turned away from California’s universities.

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