Posts Tagged: wolk

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High-stakes battle in the 3rd SD

Downtown Davis, population center of the 3rd Senate District. (Photo: Miles530, via Wikipedia)

In California’s 3rd Senate District, two colors stand out: blue and green. Blue for water, green for money. The water, because SD3’s southern portion includes a piece of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The money, because in addition to conventional campaign donations, large sums from outside independent expenditure committees are fueling the race.

News

California eyes UC research role into gun violence

Photo: GongTo, via Shutterstock.

A new battlefront has emerged in the nation’s struggle over gun control: a proposed firearm violence research center at the University of California. In a move being closely watched by advocates on both sides, California lawmakers are pushing for the state to study gun violence, taking over a job the federal government dropped 20 years ago.

News

Dems battle one another in AD4

A Californian casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5 via Shutterstock)

Democrats are traversing the 4th Assembly District, seeking support in the sprawling district that stretches from the Bay Area to Sacramento and even further north into the Sacramento Valley and North Coast mountains. The big money from Sacramento hasn’t dropped in yet and might not, depending on whether special interests feel they have a candidate they really want.

News

Right-to-die bill heads Brown’s way

Sen. Lois Wolk, center, the original author of the right-to-die bill, embraces Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, who authored the special session version sent to the governor on Friday. (Photo: Jeff Walters, Assembly Democratic Caucus.)

Legislation to allow dying people to end their lives with lethal, physician-supplied drugs was approved by the state Senate on Friday and sent to Gov. Brown, who once studied for the priesthood and who has not disclosed his position on the bill.

News

Assisted death bill derailed in Assembly

On the eve of a dramatic Capitol hearing, the backers of legislation to allow dying people to end their lives with physician-supplied drugs abruptly sidetracked the bill Tuesday at least until next year so they could try and to round up more votes. Just hours before the committee hearing, which was to include public testimony from dying people in support of the bill, the decision was made to not bring the measure up. The last-ditch maneuver means SB 128 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, could be pushed back until 2016.

News

Fight for Yamada seat: A tale of two counties

Tracks in the Napa wine country at St. Helena. Photo: Hank Shiffman.

Thanks to newly redrawn district boundaries, Napa County has a chance to put its first lawmaker in the state capitol in more than a generation. The race to replace termed-out 4th District Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis, promises to be hotly contested, featuring family connections, Democrats going head-to-head and a scramble for campaign funds.

News

Counties, state clash over ‘PILT’

Pfeiffer Beach at the mouth of the Big Sur River in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. View looking upriver from the beach, with Cupressus macrocarpa trees. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Decades ago, California began taking over the management of thousands of acres of rural wildlands in dozens of counties across the state. But over the years a problem arose: With the state in control, some counties were cut out of the money that they otherwise would have collected from property taxes. The state had promised to compensate the counties for the lost revenue by making payments in lieu of taxes.

News

Brown grapples with drought impacts

Gov. Brown said today that California, facing an unprecedented drought, needs to “make investments in safe drinking water” and that “recycling, expanded storage and serious groundwater management must all be part of the mix.” The governor did not endorse the $11.14 billion water infrastructure bond on the November ballot, but he did call for investment in water projects similar to those included in the bond. That bond currently is under review in the Legislature with rival proposals to reduce it to $6.5 billion or less.

News

Water bond facing rewrites

An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The ink was barely dry on the governor’s budget before new legislation emerged in the Legislature to rewrite a multibillion-dollar water bond on the November ballot. Sen. Lois Wolk introduced SB 848 on Jan. 9, which would ask voters for permission to borrow some $6.475 billion for an array of water projects. Two days earlier, Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, offered amendments to his $6.5 billion water bond, AB 1331. (Above: Aerial view of the Delta. Photo: worldislandinfo.com),

News

Locals, labor square off over superstores

An effort is under way in the Capitol to require local governments to perform comprehensive economic impact studies of so-called “superstores” before approving the projects.

The thorny issue pits big-box, general-service, non-union retailers such as Wal-Mart against small businesses and organized labor, who believe the huge stores unfairly compete and spark downward economic spirals. It

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