Chris Micheli photo by Scott DuncanOne of the main avenues for California legislators to clarify their bills or, most often, to express their intent behind their legislation, is to submit a formal letter to the Assembly Chief Clerk for Assembly Bills or the Senate Secretary for Senate Bills.
A dining room at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, which closed last year. (Photo: CDCR)With California’s prison inmate population flatlining, authorities are pondering the closure of three institutions. But many questions remain. The 2022-2023 state budget notes that there is a possibility of three prison closures during 2024 and 2025, based at least in part in the reduction of California’s prison population to about 94,000 in prisons and camps
Secretary of State Alex Padilla at a 2019 news conference in the state Capitol. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)Alex Padilla, California’s chief elections officer and a former state legislator, was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The appointment is historic: Padilla, 47, becomes California’s first Latino U.S. senator, representing a state in which about 38 percent of the population is Latino.
David Bernardt testifies at a Senate hearing on March 28. (Photo: Roll Call, via Associated Press) The inspector general of the U.S. Interior Department has opened an investigation into Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s past work on behalf of California’s huge Westlands Water District and other organizations. Nancy DiPaolo, spokeswoman for the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of the Interior, told Capitol Weekly her office had received 12 letters asking for an investigation of Bernhardt’s role in some California fish and game issues, including protection of the delta smelt.
The Milky Way viewed through the trees in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.(Photo: David Hoffmann)When it comes to national monuments, California is hoping it won’t suffer a fate similar to Utah’s. President Trump recently signed orders to reduce the size of two Utah national monuments. But will there be others?
A Rinspeed Budii concept autonomous car. (Photo: Yauhen_D, Shutterstock)On Valentine’s Day in Silicon Valley, one of Google’s experimental, self-driving cars sideswiped a city bus at 2 miles an hour. The incident marked the first time an autonomous car contributed to an accident on a public road, but did nothing to diminish the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for driverless vehicles.
Lake Tahoe at sunset. (Photo: Dorothy Mills-GreggDeep in Gov. Brown’s 2016-17 budget was a big surprise for Lake Tahoe – the lake was cut out of its expected share of a $475 million environmental pie.
Ventura County voters go to the polls in a California general election. (Photo: Spirit of America) We’re never actually out of election season. Not even in off-election years like this one. Gov. Jerry Brown has set the dates for special elections in three Senate districts to fill vacancies left by officeholders who won congressional seats in 2014.
Jerry Brown works the crowd in Williams at his final campaign rally for state office. (Photo: Samantha Gallegos, Capitol Weekly)Jerry Brown’s quest for state office began more than 45 years ago in Los Angeles and ended Saturday afternoon in the small town square of Williams, the pleasant farm-belt community where Brown’s ancestors settled in the 19th century.
California Gov. Jerry Brown at a public event. His wife, Anne Gust Brown, is in the background. (Photo: Randy Miramontez)A little-known panel of Gov. Brown’s top administration officials is poised to play a critical role in his fourth and final term as governor. The newly funded Strategic Growth Council, or SGC, is a cabinet-level body with a portfolio that cuts across virtually all aspects of California government.