Posts Tagged: house

News

High Court upholds redistricting panel

Congressional districts in the Inland Empire, approved by California's redistricting commission in 2011. (Map: Ballotpedia)

That whooshing sound you hear is the sigh of relief from California political reformers. The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected an attempt by the Arizona Legislature to dismantle that state’s voter-approved, independent commission that draws the political boundaries for legislative and congressional districts. Arizona lawmakers had argued that the commission – which California used as a model for its own redistricting commission — was unconstitutional because it cut them out of the map-drawing process.

News

Cable merger could have big impact on California

A sports complex with the Time Warner Cable logo. (Photo: Katherine Welles, Shutterstock)

Change may be coming to millions of California cable TV and broadband users. A looming $78.7 billion merger between Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications would have a major impact on California’s cable TV and broadband markets, with the new entity, called New Charter, serving nearly four of every 10 customers in the state.

News

Class convened: A primer on the role of the California Legislature

The state Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: AMadScientist, via Wikimedia)

Legislators may serve a maximum of twelve years in the Legislature. Someone could serve six, two-year terms in the Assembly, or three, four-year terms in the Senate, or some combination of terms in both houses. This system replaced a more chaotic term limits system of six years in the Assembly and eight years in the Senate, which resulted in Assembly members constantly seeking to “jump” from the Assembly to the Senate in what fairly can be described as a non-stop series of elections and musical chairs.

News

Redistricting panel prepares U.S. Supreme Court filing

California’s voter-approved commission that draws the boundaries for legislative and congressional districts is going to the U.S. Supreme Court to support a similar commission in Arizona, which is locked in a power struggle with that state’s Legislature.

News

Deadline nears to decide internet service taxes

By next week, consumers could see their internet service subject to taxation. Currently, internet service providers do not charge state or local sales tax, thanks to a piece of federal legislation called the Internet Tax Freedom Act. But that law, authored 16 years ago by former California Congressman Chris Cox and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, will expire on Dec. 11 unless Congress acts to extend it or make it permanent.

News

Kevin McCarthy: Political skills trump policy

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, shortly after being named House Majority Leader. (Photo: Associated Press)

Kevin McCarthy, the newly minted House Majority Leader, rose speedily through the GOP ranks during his time as a California legislator – and used political instincts he honed in Sacramento to achieve power in Congress. During his time in the state Assembly, McCarthy was known as a deal-maker. He became Assembly minority leader only two months after Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took office in 2003, and worked closely with him to unite the party by engineering difficult votes on controversial issues.

News

Cap-and-trade funds fuel bullet train

A computer-generated image of the proposed California bullet train. (Photo: High Speed Rail Authority)

Hundreds of millions of dollars from California’s auctions of carbon emission credits are being tapped to help finance the $68 billion bullet train project. In subsequent years, a fourth of the auction money will go to the train. The budget requires the governor’s signature to take effect.

News

Legislature: Elections signal drop in number of women

Assemblymember Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, the incoming Speaker of the state Assembly. March 2014. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

ELECTION 2014: The number of women in the California Legislature is on the decline, a trend that — for now — is hitting Democrats, the majority party, more than Republicans. Nine women legislators from both major parties will be leaving the Capitol after this year’s general election.

News

Pérez, Steinberg: A tense relationship — but productive

State Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: David Monniaux)

ANALYSIS: Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez of Los Angeles are both Democrats, but the two are hardly friends. The events of the last week captured the uneasy, though often productive, working relationship between the two leaders.

Opinion

At the Movies

The Heat Directed by Paul Feig

One of the holy grails of the film industry is to produce a film that both halves of a couple might choose on date night, regardless of gender. There has been such a long running division between certain kinds of films that they prompt equally long running punchlines and

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