The Skinny: Another one down

This week brings another sad farewell to another in the lost tribe of California political reporters. Gannett’s Jake Henshaw, who has covered Sacramento since 1986, was laid off as the newspaper chain closed its bureau last Friday. Henshaw was the Capitol voice for a handful of papers run by the chain, including the San Bernardino Sun, the Salinas Californian, the Visalia Times-Delta and the Palm Springs Desert Sun. All of those papers are now without a Capitol reporter. Henshaw was one of the few reporters in the state to look at gaming issues, and was famous for writing multiple leads on stories for the myriad localities he served … The state Chamber of Commerce is already focused on Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, hitting her with a mail piece in the midst of the budget standoff. Huber has taken heat from her Democratic colleagues for not toeing the party line on issues like taxes, but now it’s coming from the other side. Looks like campaign season is coming…We did a little double-take when we got the invite to a panel sponsored by the New America Foundation on California’s political problems. The panel featured “The Honorable Kevin de Leon, Former California Assembly Speaker.” As far as we know, DeLeon doesn’t even have the job,yet. Though he was at the top of CW’s recent speakership odds-makers chart…

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