An illustration of high-speed broadband connections serving a city. (Image: kkssr, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The gaps between the connected and unconnected have never been clearer as California continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. The lack of access to online classes, employment opportunities and telehealth visits became more apparent when COVID-19 shut down our state.
A potential voter fills out a voter registration form. (Photo: Rawpixel, com, via Shutterstock)California has now reached an historic high of over 21 million registered voters. The current PDI voter file, after a full refresh of county files, puts total voter registration at 21,086,077. As a share of eligible voters, this puts the state at 83%, a higher rate of registration than we have seen since the presidential election of 1940.
The state Capitol in Sacramento, the seat of California government. (Photo: Always Wanderlust, via Shutterstock)Landmark legislation to improve California’s notoriously fractured mental-health system has been passed and sent to the governor in the waning days of a chaotic legislative session disrupted by the COVID pandemic. “This package of legislation is a game-changer,” said Maggie Merritt, executive director of the Steinberg Institute.
Brian and John KabateckAnother Kabatalks episode of Capitol Weekly’s pod, wherein two brothers working opposite sides of the political spectrum discuss issues of the day. John Kabateck is a lifelong Republican and longtime spokesperson for the National Federation of Independent Businesses in California. Brian Kabateck is a lifelong Democrat and the former head of the Consumer Attorneys of California.
An inmate sits on his cell bunk. (Photo: Peppinuzzo,via Shutterstock)Gov. Brown on Tuesday signed landmark legislation to eliminate money bail for many California defendants, replacing it instead with a system based on a person’s flight risk and other factors. “Today, California reforms its bail system so that rich and poor alike are treated fairly,” Brown said.
A freshman Republican in the California State Senate is pushing against the grain to change his party’s congressional position on immigration reform.
California’s landmark Environmental Quality Act — the brainchild of Republican lawmakers trying to woo a then-new voting bloc of “environmentalists” — turns 43 this year.
Critics, led by developers and business interests, say CEQA’s requirements are too cumbersome. It subjects all commercial and residential projects – regardless of environmental merit — to costly delays,