Posts Tagged: Roger Niello
News
On Wednesday, May 14, Capitol Weekly hosted “California’s Insurance Crisis,” its first in-person gathering of the year and second conference of 2025. Held at the University of California Student and Policy Center, the event featured three panels and a keynote address from the California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. Discussions ranged from the overall state of the insurance industry to the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires and the path forward.
News
Perception is often reality in politics and, fairly or not, a series of viral videos showing criminals brazenly shoplifting from California stores has some people thinking the Golden State has become lawless. So with law enforcement and retail interests eyeing another ballot measure to reform Proposition 47, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative Democrats have opted to take on the state’s perception problem themselves, and they’re inviting Republicans along for the ride.
Rising Stars
Maxie Holmberg-Douglas has had a passion for public speaking and storytelling from the age of 11, when she competed to be the local rodeo queen of her small town. Now at just 27 she is drawing high praise as the Director of Communications for the California Senate Republican Caucus.
News
In this highly polarized world, a young Republican legislative director believes it is still possible to rise above political differences.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: On this episode of Capitol Weekly, Rich Ehisen and Dan Morain welcome Sens. Susan Talamantes-Eggman and Roger Niello, two of the three primary sponsors on SB 43, a bill that would add new criteria to the definition of what constitutes someone being considered “gravely disabled,” the standard by which a person can be involuntarily held for treatment.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a proposal for a $3 billion bond measure aimed at the 2024 ballot, to fund housing for people with severe mental illness. At the same time, Newsom asked the legislature to revise 2004’s Proposition 63. Author and journalist Dan Morain joined us to talk about the two proposals, the half century of policy and politics that got us to where we are today, and shared his own personal story of a family member unable to live on his own after a devastating accident.
News
A growing chorus of critics say well-intentioned but archaic laws – designed to protect individual rights, with stiff restrictions on what constitutes “grave disability” – prevent desperate families from getting severely mentally ill relatives into treatment, leaving them to suffer and die on the street.
News
When Roger Niello left the California Assembly in 2010, he figured his time in elected office had run its course. After all, the year before he had committed the most unforgivable of sins for a Republican of the day: He was among six of his fellow GOP colleagues who voted for a budget that included tax hikes, drawing the wrath of his party’s most vocal anti-tax contingent.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. Photo by Ellie Appleby, Capitol Weekly. 
