Photo: GongTo, via Shutterstock.A new battlefront has emerged in the nation’s struggle over gun control: a proposed firearm violence research center at the University of California. In a move being closely watched by advocates on both sides, California lawmakers are pushing for the state to study gun violence, taking over a job the federal government dropped 20 years ago.
The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)A tentative CalPERS proposal would limit the board president and committee chairs to four consecutive one-year terms, a policy that could end the long-running presidency of Rob Feckner in 2017. He has presided over times good and bad at the nation’s largest state public pension system.
ProPublica reviewed more than 450 complaint investigations undertaken by the agency between 2009 and 2014 from roughly 50 Level 14 group homes, the residential facilities for California’s most acutely disturbed children. More than half the investigations produced “inconclusive” findings, meaning that no determination of facts was reached in cases that involved sexual abuse, physical assaults, drug use or inadequate care at the facilities.
An oil derrick at work in Kern County, 2013. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)OPINION: Faced with the decision of whether or not hydraulic fracturing (fracking) should be approved in New York, the state’s Commissioner of Health Dr. Howard Zucker publicly asked, “Would I let my family live in a community with fracking? The answer is no. I therefore cannot recommend anyone else’s family to live in such a community either.” In California, some 5.4 million people (14 percent of the state’s population) live within a mile of at least one of the state’s total of 84,000 oil and gas wells, according to the NRDC.
“The LAO says the state is flush with cash and multibillion-dollar reserves loom in coming years. How should we spend the money?”
“Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg plans to run for the Senate next year, taking Alex Padilla’s seat, and wants to succeed Steinberg as pro tem. Does Hertzberg have a shot? And wasn’t De Leon being groomed as the next pro tem?”
I think most assume that the new Pro Temp will come from this class
“Clearly, Gov. Brown is adamant about rewriting the California Environmental Quality Act. But why? What’s he got against CEQA? Other than developers, who is he scoring points with?”
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It’s the economy, stupid!
He is scoring points with those people that feel environmental regulation has become unreasonable in some areas. His experience as Mayor of
“A perky Jerry Brown delivered his State of the State Address today. He targeted the education bureaucracy, extolled the virtues of teachers and said overhauling environmental regulation is necessary. Your thoughts?
More notable is that a California governor intentionally quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes, Genesis, FDR, Montaigne, William Butler Yeats, paraphrased Aristotle and described the diet
“Will the Democrats’ super-majorities really make a difference in the Capitol?”
The super-majorities have the greatest impact on shifting the legislation-blocking role away from Republicans and toward the Moderate Democrats. Or put another way, the new Dem supermajority and emboldened Dem governor can now do absolutely anything that Moderates Lou Correa and Michael Rubio will vote