State law caps the amount donors can give to a legislator’s campaign — but these special interests can spend as much as they like mounting their own campaigns to praise or trash candidates. And the money interest groups are pouring into these “independent expenditure committees” has reached dizzying heights. So far more than $31 million […]
Laurel Rosenhall
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Good Policy or Ballot Blackmail? Union Keeps Taking Fight with Health Industry to Voters
For the second time in as many elections, California voters are caught in the middle of a fight between private dialysis companies and a union with a history of taking its battles to the ballot. The question: Is the union effectively using its power to boost health care and its membership, or is it resorting […]
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Legislature Passes $1.1 Billion COVID-19 Funding Bill, Leaves Capitol
In an urgent attempt to prepare California for a surge of critically ill coronavirus patients, state lawmakers Monday allocated up to $1 billion for an unprecedented ramp-up of hospital capacity, and then, in an extraordinary move, went home for a month — or perhaps longer — effectively shutting down business at the state Capitol as […]
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California Lawmakers Negotiating Law Aimed at Reducing Police Shootings
Jamilia Land walked out of a meeting in the state Capitol feeling optimistic that 2019 may be the year California changes the law to try to reduce the number of people killed by police. It’s personal for her. Land is a family friend of Stephon Clark, the unarmed man Sacramento police shot dead last year […]
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What’s behind all those DMV voter-registration snafus? ‘Motor voter’ may have launched with makeshift computer system
Editor’s note: Today is the last day to register to vote in California in order to participate in next month’s midterm elections. For more information or to register online, visit here. The DMV gave the public a series of piecemeal explanations as it acknowledged making more than 100,000 errors in recent months in registering Californians […]
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Enabling or a Lifeline?
To some, the concept of government sanctioned injection centers is akin to simply giving addicts a free pass to shoot up. To others, it’s a proven safety net used around the world to combat a growing opioid crisis already taking lives at an alarming rate. A controversial bill that would allow six California counties — […]