Dan Morain and Richard Polanco; image from the Oral History.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Richard Polanco is the subject of a new video Oral History conducted by Journalist and author Dan Morain, who covered Polanco’s career for the Los Angeles Times. Morain joined Capitol Weekly’s Rich Ehisen and Tim Foster to talk about Polanco’s career and legacy as the man who is credited as the architect of Latino power in the capitol.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. Photo from his Facebook page, cropped and modified for Capitol Weekly.Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon released the full list of Assembly committee assignments via Twitter yesterday.
Tom Morello performing on the west steps of the capitol, September 21, 2022. Photo by Tim FosterCAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Tom Morello, the fiery, activist leader of the rock band Rage Against the Machine, brought his guitar to Sacramento last week to lend support to the United Farm Workers and their effort to pass AB 2183, what UFW spokesman Marc Grossman calls “The Farm Worker Voting Rights Act.”
Joe Stephenshaw, left, the new director of the Department of Finance, takes the oath of office from Gov. Gavin Newsom.(Photo: H.D. Palmer, via Twitter.)As a budget analyst in the California Department of Finance in 2005-2008, Joe Stephenshaw never imagined that he would one day come back to lead the division. This month, Stephenshaw, 47, was sworn into the post, becoming the first African-American to hold the position.
Keys on a computer representing the state of California. (Image: Per Bengtsson, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Over the past two years, California’s grocer community has overcome supply chain complications, unprecedented demand, and workforce challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now contending with record inflation, the last thing grocers and their customers need are unintended consequences from the state’s new online privacy regulations, which pose a threat to how consumers access savings opportunities and e-commerce shopping tools like curbside pick-up and delivery.
A homeless man sits on a bench just steps from the state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: christianthiel.net, via Shutterstock)Three days after a deadly mass shooting downtown, the Sacramento City Council voted 7-2 to place a homeless measure on the November ballot. If voters approve the Emergency Homeless Shelter and Enforcement Act of 2022, could it be a statewide template?
Californnia Gov. Gavin Newsom, chatting with a homeless man in Fresno, has proposed a sweeping overhaul of California's mental health care system. (Photo: Governor's office)Newsom’s plan would create an entirely new system of civil court supervision, connecting individuals with intensive treatment and, equally important, housing. By his estimate, it would help 7,000-to-12,000 severely mentally ill people each year, many with chronic physical conditions that are worsened by life on the streets, clearly unable to care for themselves. It would not replace existing programs.
Illustration of DearCAStaffers account, now defunct, on Instagram. (Image: Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly)In its brief, giddy existence, the anonymous Instagram account “DearCaStaffers” attracted thousands of followers and shared scores of secrets about lawmakers and their staff, before suddenly going dark. Beginning last week, each day brought hundreds of new followers, many of whom wrote anonymous posts about bad bosses and abusive work environments.
Room 1190 on the ground floor of the Capitol annex, looking towards the rear from the stage. (Photo: KQED.org)OPINION:Cage matches between the media and elected officials have become an expected part of the current, vitriolic political ecosystem. But I recall a time when California government worked smoothly with the “fourth estate” to drive good policy, inform residents and have some pizazz while doing so.
This episode we welcome California Assemblymember Ash Kalra to talk about the biggest bill of 2022 so far: AB 1400, the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act. The bill (and a companion Constitutional amendment, ACA 11) would create a single-payer healthcare system administrated by the state. Kalra spoke with Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster about his hopes for the bill, how it differs from its predecessor SB 562, and why he believes that California needs a single-payer system.