Posts Tagged: process

News

CA120: Buckle up, California — redistricting looms

Drawing the political boundaries. (Illustration: Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly)

We are just getting used to the current districts, but once again redistricting is about to rear its decennial head. To provide a preview of what is to come in California, we have created an interactive map of the state’s congressional districts using current census projections and voter registration data. This tool allows you better understand the mid-decade projections and project to what could be the factors in the 2021 redistricting.

News

Regulations at heart of governance

Photo illustration of a definition of legal terms, including "regulation." ((Photo: Ivelin Radkov)

The 2017 legislative session is in full swing, but let’s turn our attention for a moment from laws to regulations. We have heard from legislators and others who would like to see California’s administrative agencies consider getting rid of expired and outdated regulations, or amending existing regulations that have become problematic for those being regulated. Regulations are the rules that define how laws are put into effect, and they are crucial to governance.

Opinion

Needed: Good-time credits for lifers

Sunlight streams through the bars of a prison cell. (Photo: nobeastsofierce, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Proposition 57’s 50 percent good time credit should be applied retroactively to all incarcerated people, including lifers who committed violent crimes. Contrary to popular fears, releasing reformed lifers may be the best thing we can do to reduce violent crime.

Opinion

Cutting carbon emissions: Avoid command-and-control

The Los Angeles skyline late at night. (Photo: Songquang Deng, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Intense pressure will be applied by some legislators, regulators, and stakeholders who favor a heavy-handed command and control approach instead of market-based measures to clean the air and reduce GHGs. Look no further than the March 3 South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) governing board meeting for a real-life example.

Opinion

The pitfalls of overregulation

A power plant in Manhattan Beach, shortly after its 2012 opening. (Photo: Luc Mena)

OPINION: Recognizing the need to reduce the burdens of overregulation to spur our nation’s economy, Congress put on the top of their legislative agenda the REINS Act, which would require the House and Senate to approve any major regulation before it can go into effect. California — no stranger to abundant regulations and the increasing consolidation of power in state agencies promulgating an ever-growing list of major regulations — must also rein in overregulation the way Congress is trying to do to revitalize job creation throughout our state.

News

Under the radar: engrossing and enrolling

(Photo illustration: Erce, via Shutterstock)

After the two houses of the Legislature pass a bill, but before that bill reaches the governor’s desk, the legislation goes through a very important process called “engrossing and enrolling.” Engrossing also occurs after each amendment to a bill. This is a critical procedure and it takes place outside the view of the public or curious journalists.

News

CA120: Myth of the ‘independents’

A voters hows his badge of independence. (Photo: Joe Belanger, via Shutterstock)

Donald Trump is not just the Republican presidential nominee in California. If you got your ballot in the mail, you might have noticed one little oddity: Under Donald Trump’s name you’ll find not only his Republican Party, but also the little known American Independent Party (AIP).

News

State Bar facing fiscal crisis

A gavel in a California courtroom. (Photo: bikeriderlondon, via Shutterstock)

The agency that protects Californians from unethical lawyers faces an uncertain future because of complaints about its ability to do its job. For the first time ever, the state Assembly and Senate this year were unable to agree on a bill to set the annual dues that lawyers pay to the State Bar of California because of disagreements over the extent of changes needed at the troubled agency.

News

Dissident actuaries target pension debt

CalPERS' governing board during a 2013 meeting. (Photo: CalPERS board)

Two actuarial associations did not publish a controversial paper by their joint task force, reflecting a split in the profession over whether public pension debt should be measured with risk-free bonds or the earnings forecast for stock-laden investment funds.

News

In November, questions of life and death

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.

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