The San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles in L.A. and San Bernardino counties. (Photo: Noah Sauve, via Shutterstock)OPINION: My childhood memories are colored by the grey concrete that was everywhere in my community. Growing up east of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley, we didn’t have many parks or green spaces nearby. But there was one exception – the San Gabriel Mountains.
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.
Photo illustration, political cash on the move: IQoncept, via ShutterstockWhen California introduced its Cal-Access campaign finance website, “There was nothing like it in the country,” said Rob Lapsley, who was under-Secretary of State in 2000, the year the campaign disclosure tool made its debut. Fast forward 15 years: What was once cutting edge is now obsolete. “The current system is broken, literally.”