Posts Tagged: Congress

Podcast

Capitol Weekly Podcast: Redistricting Commission’s representation problem

Detail of an antique California Bear Flag handerkerchief with detailed Grizzly Bear. Photo by the Bear Flag Museum

California’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission is generally regarded as a model of its kind, achieving balance and representation through a carefully constructed mix of quotas, political gamesmanship and random selection. How then, did the first round of new commissioners selected on July 2 (eight of a total of 14) fail to include a single Latino, the state’s largest ethnic group?

News

Newsom: More than half in CA face coronavirus infection

Illustration of the coronavirus impact on California. (Image: bekulnis, via Shutterstock)

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday estimated that more than half of California’s 40 million people will be infected by the coronavirus during the next two months. “We project that roughly 56 percent of our population … will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period,” Newsom wrote in a letter to President Donald Trump.

News

in California’s elections, progressives try to elbow in

Emanuel Gonzales, a progressive candidate, campaigns in the 32nd Congressional District. (Photo: Gonzales campaign)

There are a growing number of candidates who describe themselves as progressives. They have varied backgrounds but have one thing in common — their chances of actually winning are very, very small. Across California, more and more people are opting to run for higher office, seizing onto the theories of change spearheaded by progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Opinion

‘Stranger Things,’ the ACA and a federal appeals court

A photo illustration of the Affordable Care Act. (Image: Jon Schulte, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Anyone binge watching “Stranger Things,” will be struck by the similarities with the real-world drama playing out before the federal appeals court in New Orleans. The question before the three-judge panel is whether the Affordable Care Act should be struck down in its entirety. In Stranger Things, the deadly threat comes from an upside-down parallel universe in which things aren’t what they seem, the rules of logic don’t apply, and nothing makes sense.

Opinion

Feds’ proposed rules would erode tribal culture, history

A bridge over tribal waters representing the transition from the past to the future. (Photo: Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake)

OPINION: Federally recognized tribes are sovereign governments – many of which have undoubtedly contributed vast, significant cultural contributions to the diverse tapestry of American social, economic and political life. Despite this recognition and contributions to society, tribes like mine unfortunately must fight hard to be remembered, respected and included in policy discussions at all levels of government.

News

California, other states in border wall fight

The border barrier between the U.S. and Mexico in Nogales, Arizona. (Photo: Manuela Durson)

As the Congressional battle heats up over President Trump’s efforts to build a border wall, a number of states — including California — already have joined the fight in court. California and 15 other states have challenged the president’s emergency declaration to spend billions of dollars for the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border

Opinion

For Latino health, funding the LWCF is critical

Visitors at Dolores Park in San Francsico on Memorial Day, 2018. (Photo: FTiare, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Access to care is not the only problem the Latino Coalition is fighting to remedy. Another acute health inequity facing Latinos: woefully inadequate numbers of accessible outdoor activities and parks. With the already high rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease facing the community, opportunities for exercise and outdoor endeavors become all the more important.

Big Daddy

Big Daddy: Season of the Witch

FEATURE: With Sacramento hunkered down for Jerry Brown’s final bill signing, the political mind drifts to Washington where it is always the Season of the Witch. The politics of the time casts its pall across all three branches, with partisan control over the levers of government hanging in the balance.

News

Siskiyou-area tribe’s reinstatement questioned

A Native American flag totem in rural Siskiyou County. (Photo: Zack Frank, via Shutterstock)

A move to restore federal tribal recognition to a long defunct Siskiyou County Indian rancheria has received a major blow. Research done by a college professor indicates no Indian ever lived on the 441-acre Ruffey Rancheria outside Etna.

News

Federal bill to reinstate Siskiyou-area tribe draws fire

Black Butte near Mt. Shasta in Siskiyou County. Photo: Pung, via Shutterstock)

A controversial bill to reinstate federal tribal recognition to a long defunct Siskiyou County American Indian rancheria is stalled in the House of Representatives amid questions about the group’s authenticity and motivations. House Resolution 3535, sponsored by Congress Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, would reinstate federal recognition to Ruffey Rancheria, a home for “landless Indians” in Etna approved in 1907 and terminated by Congress some 50 years later.

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