A California ballot box. (Photo illustration, Hafakot, via Shutterstock)The Public Policy Institute of California released a survey Wednesday night that, in addition to its examination of the U.S. Senate and presidential races, reported on the level of support for key ballot measures. The propositions require simple majorities to pass.
A street sign for voters. (Photo by Gustavo Frazao, via Shutterstock)Field Poll: Likely voters are giving strong initial support to two state ballot propositions, one to extend a recent income tax hike on high income residents (Proposition 55). and another to offer new parole opportunities for non-violent offenders (Propositon 57). While voters are also backing a third initiative to increase cigarette taxes (Proposition 56), it leads by a narrower margin.
(Vector illustration: NoDenmand, via Shutterstock)California’s primary election was filled with administrative glitches. And some of those problems actually may have disenfranchised voters who hoped to vote in a very dramatic presidential primary. Ironically, one of the largest post-election dramas surrounding the June vote in California was how these problems were being resolved.
The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)Calpensions: Twice in recent decades CalPERS fell below 100 percent of the funding needed for promised pensions, and twice CalPERS climbed back. But since a $100 billion investment loss in 2008, the CalPERS funding level has not recovered.
The execution chamber at San Quentin prison. (Photo: CDCR)Will November mark the death of the death penalty? This fall, Californians will be asked yet again whether they would like to abolish capital punishment. Voters last faced the issue in 2012, a presidential election year, and rejected the idea.
Oil rigs in a Kern County oil field. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)OPINION: What do comedian Stephen Colbert, the Washington Post editorial board and Gov. Jerry Brown have in common? They recognize the necessity of hydraulic fracturing. In an interview on The Late Show with Colbert last November to promote his award-winning movie, Spotlight, actor and anti-fracking activist Mark Ruffalo scoffed, “What the hell. Who thought of fracking?” Without missing a beat, Colbert replied, “People who need oil. They’re called Americans.”
San Quentin prison, as seen from San Francisco Bay. (Photo: San Quentin News, prison newspaper)ANALYSIS: What if, instead of building prisons in remote locations, we put them near cities, accessible to family members and to the resources — educational, vocational, therapeutic, recreational, cultural — that are scarce in most prison towns?
Gov. Jerry Brown at a Capitol briefing last year on his revised state budget. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/APOPINION: Californians can breathe a sigh of relief. When proponents of a 2016 ballot proposal to extend Proposition 30’s tax rates on wealthy Californians amended their measure this week, they did something that was both politically smart and fiscally sound: They eliminated a provision the governor a few days ago called the measure’s “fatal flaw”, that would have exempted this proposed new revenue from the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
Students in a classroom get instruction from a teacher. (Photo: Areipa.It, Shutterstock) Because the system is underfunded, the CalSTRS board has made no inflation adjustment in the death benefit since 2002. The board was told that it could have increased the death benefit by about 34.7 percent during the period.
Gov. Jerry Brown, flanked by the head of the Ponitifical Academy of Science, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, spoke recently at a Vatican conference on Modern Slavery and Climate Change. (AP Photo: Alessandra Tarantino)
When Gov. Jerry Brown traveled to the Vatican to attend Pope Francis’ conference on climate change, the Democratic governor allowed one of his most extended public glimpses into how Catholicism helped shape his career. Brown, who turned 77 in April, is nearly the same age as the Pope who turns 79 in December. Pope Francis is the first Jesuit Pope and Brown was a Jesuit seminarian until he dropped out of the Society of Jesus in 1960 to attend the University of California, Berkeley.