T-minus three days. That’s how much time Gov. Gavin Newsom has left to decide the fate of the remaining bills on his desk — and as the deadline draws nearer, the buildup for big-ticket and contentious proposals is getting more intense. The direct impact of Newsom’s decisions was particularly apparent Wednesday, when he signed a […]
Gavin Newsom
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Student COVID Vaccinations: California Becomes First State to Require Them for Kids in Schools
In another aggressive effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure schools remain open, Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced a vaccine mandate for students ages 12 and older, making California the first state in the nation to require students to be fully vaccinated for in-person instruction. The mandate would add the COVID-19 vaccine to […]
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Governor Signs Wood’s Wildfire Prevention Bill
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed North Coast Assemblymember Jim Wood’s bill creating a wildfire prevention entity in the Office of the State Fire Marshal into law. “It is clear that we cannot firefight our way out of this wildfire crisis,” Wood said in a press release. “California needs both a world-class firefighting force and a […]
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Full Speed Ahead on Overhauling California Recalls
With the wreckage of the failed recall attempt against Gov. Gavin Newsom still smoldering, California Democrats have reached a new consensus: They really don’t want to do that again. On the morning after voting ended and recall candidates conceded, the chairpersons of the election committees in the state Assembly and Senate said they’re kicking off […]
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The California Recall: The 2022 Campaign Starts Now
Gov. Gavin Newsom is poised to keep his job after months spent lambasting the recall as a Republican power grab; feverishly fundraising, wooing likely supporters and wrangling fractious progressive activists; sweating the odd, unexpectedly close poll; fusing policymaking and politicking; and calling upon big-name D.C. Democrats to come stump out west. And after all that, […]
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Decision Time: Three Ways the California Recall Election Could Go
For nearly 25 years, Gov. Gavin Newsom rose the ranks of California politics without ever losing an election, buoyed by connections to powerful San Francisco Democrats and a willingness to take risks — like sanctinoing same-sex marriage — that put him at the vanguard of his party. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. The governor’s attention-grabbing […]
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Polling error: How One Survey Changed the Newsom Recall Campaign
The panic started to set in for California Democrats in the last week of July. First, there was a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll on July 27, which showed that likely voters were just about evenly split on whether or not Gov. Gavin Newsom deserves to keep his job. A few days later […]
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California Recall Candidates Stretch the Truth on COVID, Climate Change and More
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. That holds true for politicians, including the candidates in California’s Sept. 14 recall election and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Campaigning during a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic and deadly, unprecedented wildfires, their approaches to the state’s problems can vary. But the facts behind some of those […]
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Bill to Protect Dudleya from Poaching on Newsom’s Desk
A California bill aimed at protecting dudleya, sometimes called “live-forevers,” from the international black market by imposing stiff fines for illegally taking the succulents from public and private lands is now sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The bill authored by Assembymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) and sponsored by the California Native Plant Society comes […]
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NCJ Preview: COVID-19, Street Art and a Recall
This week, we take a closer look at Humboldt County’s current COVID-19 surge, which is fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant and threatening local hospital capacity with reverberating impacts. We also discuss the festival transforming Eureka’s streets with colorful murals, and what voters need to know to fill out their ballots for the upcoming […]
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California First State to Require Teacher Vaccinations or COVID Tests
UPDATE: Gov. Gavin Newsom announces order requiring teachers to be vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19, making California the first state to do so. According to his office, the new policy goes into effect tomorrow and school are required to be in compliance by Oct. 15. “To give parents confidence that their children are safe […]