The Assembly chamber at the state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Felix Lipov, via Shutterstock)California courts are occasionally faced with scrutinizing the lawmakers’ decisions to label some bills as urgency statutes and others as special statutes. It may sound unexciting, but the reality is this: The courts’ rulings can affect millions of Californians.
Scott Lay (Photo: John Howard)In the months after California voters removed Gray Davis from office, I would roll out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and log on to find a document waiting for me. It was from Scott Lay. The document was the rough draft of that morning’s edition of The Roundup, a daily email digest of California political news and information that went to nearly 10,000 subscribers.
An officer exits his vehicle prior to conducting a search in Ventura. (Photo: Glenn Highcove, via Shutterstock)ANALYSIS: In late July, the Office of the Attorney General released Homicide in California 2020, its annual report on the state’s murders. Media outlets in California and elsewhere quickly covered the report. The story, targeting a “31 percent increase in murders, the most in 13 years,” was reported by a variety of news organizations.
An illustration of an array of prescription medications. (Photo: Adul10, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Due to cost-cutting policies, health insurers often become a barrier to access for medicines that providers prescribe to patients. One such practice is referred to as step therapy. Step therapy forces patients to try several medications before approving the medication originally prescribed by the doctor.
Assemblymember Rob Bonta, an Alameda County Democrat, picked by Gov. Gavin Newsom as the next state attorney general. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)Rob Bonta, the first Filipino-American to serve in the California Legislature, was appointed state attorney general on Wednesday, filling the vacancy created by Xavier Becerra, who left to join President Joe Biden’s administration.
California's state Capitol in Sacramento, viewed from the 10th Street side. (Photo: Kit Leong, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Have you heard of the Capitol Annex Project? Probably not, though with a price tag of more than $1 billion (coming from taxpayers’ wallets), you should have. It’s no surprise the general public isn’t aware since this plan to uproot the Capitol grounds has been mired in secrecy since its inception.
A worker at a small brewery examines beer during the fermentation process. (Photo: MAD_Production, via Shutterstock)An under-the-radar tussle is shaping up in California over how beer is being brought to drinkers across the state. The emerging beer battle pits small craft brewers against big distributors. On one side are the small brewers, who charge that the big distributors don’t want to bother with the relatively small volumes of craft brewers.
Sacramento Imam Mohammad “Yasir” Khan. (Photo: Council on American Islamic Relations)When Sacramento Imam Mohammad “Yasir” Khan leads the opening invocation for the California Assembly on Jan. 11, he will do so as the first appointed Muslim chaplain in state legislative history.
Recycle bins behind a supermarket in Scotts Valley, Calif. (Photo: Michael Barajas, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Every year during the end-of-session debates in the Legislature, bills that had previously stalled suddenly get new life. Sometimes, it’s the result of a grand bargain struck to advance long-held policy objectives. Other times, it’s the result of public pressure created by an emerging crisis.
A suspect in custody, handcuffed by police. (Photo: Boyfare, via Shutterstock)Police response to mental-health calls often ends – again and again – in chaotic, noisy hospital emergency rooms, where staff is stretched thin, and a heart attack is likely to take precedence over someone in the throes of a mental-health crisis. “Traditionally, people would be dropped off at the ER, and the only option was to transfer them to a psychiatric facility,” says Dr. Scott Zeller, a nationally known emergency psychiatrist and former president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.