Digital Democracy

California cities funnel $1 billion in online sales taxes back to wealthy corporations, but the state Senate killed a bill that would change the rules for those arrangements. The vote came down to whether senators represent a city with a major retailer in a tax-sharing agreement in their districts.

Only one legislator in the California Assembly voted against a controversial shoplifting bill while dozens of progressive lawmakers declined to vote.

Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin may be the Legislature’s top tech industry expert and its occasional champion. Now, she’s taking on tech over artificial intelligence.

The Democrat-controlled Assembly has passed a bill, similar to laws enacted in conservative states, that would require porn sites to verify visitors are adults.

Pending legislation would lift requirements for California’s doctors to report all domestic abuse cases to police. The Assembly’s three physicians had different opinions.

Los Angeles County recently declared the anniversary of the Fall of Saigon “Jane Fonda Day,” outraging California’s Vietnamese-American lawmakers. They’re glad the county is reconsidering the controversial decision.

From prohibiting non-disclosure agreements in bill negotiations to protecting utility ratepayers, bills keep dying this year despite lawmakers refusing to say “no” when it came time to vote. Is it time for the rules to change?

Environmentalists warn that a California Democrat’s bill “drives a bulldozer” through the state’s new law that protects imperiled Joshua trees from commercial development. But the lawmaker says his impoverished desert region desperately needs the economic boost.

Some of the most influential and wealthy groups in California politics are squaring off over legislation that would give California’s attorney general oversight of private equity firms and hedge funds acquiring major health care institutions.

A state senator says there’s a “hidden homicide” epidemic of killers making domestic violence murders look like suicides or accidents. Her bill would give families a right to seek an independent review of death investigations.