Posts Tagged: Texas

News

Steve Poizner seeks old job, drops GOP label

Photo of candidate Steve Poizner from his official website

The first person to hold statewide office in California without aligning with a political party could be Steve Poizner. He is vying for the seat left open by Dave Jones, who is running for state attorney general. Poizner’s main opponents are Democrats Sen. Ricardo Lara and physician Asif Mahmood. The Department of Insurance has more than 1,300 employees and a $250 million budget. It oversees the state’s $300 billion insurance market, the largest in the country.

News

Despite Trump, renewable power pushing out coal

Windmills in the California desert. (Photo: Patrick Jennings)

FairWarning: Despite the Trump Administration’s ardent support of coal over renewable energy, the percentage of U.S. electricity from renewable sources continued its gradual rise in 2017. Wind, solar and hydroelectric energy accounted for 16 percent of power production during President Trump’s first year in office, up from 13 percent in 2016 and nearly double the level when Barack Obama became president in 2009, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council analys

News

Xavier Becerra: The Golden State Warrior?

State Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks to the Sacramento Press Club. (Photo: Michael Warren Mott)

State Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading California’s increasingly tense challenge to the policies of Donald Trump’s administration. It’s a role that gives him high visibility — and headaches. Becerra, in office just five months, is backed by the person who appointed him attorney general: Gov. Jerry Brown. That support is likely to translate into financial resources, too.

Analysis

2017: What’s in, what’s out in CA

The state Assembly in session. (Photo: Capitol Public Radio)

Okay, 2016 is now history, and many of us are saying “Good Riddance!” But 2017 has arrived, with its attendant challenges and changes, right? And to succeed, the smart Capitol denizen must become acquainted with 2017’s ins and outs — the land mines, the pitfalls and the Ways To Take Advantage.

News

A country boy’s odyssey: Nelsen takes over Sacramento State

Robert Nelsen, the new president of California State University, Sacramento. (Photo: Sacramento State)

As a boy growing up impoverished on a Montana ranch, Robert Nelsen did not expect to go to college. Years later, he is the eighth president of California State University, Sacramento. Nelsen, 63, former president of the University of Texas-Pan American, officially took over as the chief executive officer of the 30,000-student campus in July.

News

Census: Amid diversity, California Asians gain ground

Taking in a ball game in Los Angeles. (Photo: Supanee Hickman)

California’s Asian population is the largest of any state in the nation, and its increase during a 12-month period was the largest in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The state’s Asian population reached 6.3 million through last summer, the latest period for which data is available, reflecting a 162,000 increase over July 2013. California’s Asian population represents nearly a third of the nation’s 20.3 million.

Opinion

Imported gas key to curbing methane emissions

A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)

California is in the midst of multiple regulatory efforts to reduce methane emissions from natural gas and oil operations throughout the state. It’s a key opportunity to make a real dent in the state’s climate impact since methane, the primary component of natural gas, packs over 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released unburned.

News

One-year extension for tax-free Internet service law

An illustration of the Internet and world wide web. (Ramcreations, Shutterstock)

Californians concerned about an internet service tax can breathe easier — at least for a year. The federal law known as the Internet Tax Freedom Act, or IFTA, was extended Wednesday. It has been extended several times since it was passed in 1998.

Opinion

Workers, not billionaires, key to public pension parley

OPINION: Public employees have shown they are willing to do their part to help balance government budgets. We may not have liked the pension system overhaul Governor Brown signed in 2012, but once it became law our union leaders helped to implement the changes, which will amount to a reduction of more than $77 billion to public workers’ retirement and health care benefits.

News

Oil severance tax at center stage

Pumpjacks in a Kern County oil field, November 2013. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)

It has been killed repeatedly in the state Legislature or at the ballot box, but the backers of an oil severance tax hope 2014 is the year to get it done, to the tune of $2 billion annually. But history is not on their side. Above: Pumpjacks in Kern County, November 2013. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)

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