A panoramic view of housing in an Anaheim neighborhood. (Photo: NAPA, via Shutterstock)OPINION: While we still do not know how all those impacts are going to affect us going forward, one thing we know won’t change is the need for housing in this state. While the housing market has slowed dramatically as Californians observe the state’s stay-at-home order, it will come to the fore again in our “new normal.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, chair of the House Intelligence Committee. (Image: Screen capture, ABC This Week)Throughout most of his political career, Adam Schiff has been low-key, laboring mostly in the background in the California Senate and then in Congress. Now, at age 59, he finds himself in the national spotlight as a major target of Donald Trump amid the hot glare of presidential impeachment.
U.S. Capitol at sunset. (Photo: Diego Grandi, via Shutterstock)This past weekend brought news about a “rapturous agreement among Republicans and Democrats” to support development of new therapies by financing biomedical research with billions of dollars. The New York Times article indicated that the rapture could have something to do with the fact that many key political leaders on Capitol Hill are “aging in place.”
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.
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.
State Senate Leader Kevin de León on Feb. 1, 2014, at the Golden Dragon Parade in Los Angeles(Photo: Betto Rodrigues, via Shutterstock)GRIZZLY BEAR PROJECT: After some hard feelings and bruised egos, De León accepted his defeat and ran for the Senate seat that he never really wanted. But in the Senate, de León has matured and grown as a legislator. Early on, he helped ease roadblocks between the Senate and the governor’s office. In the meantime, he reconstructed and expanded his personal relationships, and was elected by his colleagues last year as the new leader of the state Senate.
A dispensary's sign on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. (Photo: Laurie Avocado)An unlikely relationship is forming between medical marijuana advocates and local peace officers. Traditionally, they have been in conflict,, but they are coming together to resolve one logistical aspect of the unregulated cannabis industry in California that deals with patient confiscation rights and evidence holding.