Consider yourself an expert on California news? Let’s see if you’ve been paying attention this week to the big political and policy stories in the Golden State.
The administration wants to roll back strict Obama-era standards for auto emissions and gas mileage. It also challenges California’s right to set its own rules.
California now has more payday lenders than it does McDonald’s. While some states have restricted their operations, California’s Legislature keeps burying bills that aim to crack down on predatory lending.
The Trump administration proposed to revamp—and loosen—fuel mileage standards, challenging California’s authority to regulate air pollution within its borders, and enraging California officials.
Ten California Congress members sent a letter to the Trump administration warning that the escalating trade war is damaging farm exports. Some could pay a price if they can’t persuade Trump to come to farmers’ aid.
After touring the Carr fire devastation in Redding, Assembly Republican leader Brian Dahle added urgency to his call to thin forests to prevent fires. He has an ally in Assemblyman Jim Wood, a Democrat whose district was devastated by fire last year.
A suit can proceed challenging California schools over a failure to teach African-American and Latino kids to read. Eleven of the 26 lowest performing school districts in America are in California, the suit says.
Gov. Jerry Brown talks about reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, calling it “the Lord’s work.” But he and the Legislature have failed to do it, while granting narrow exemptions from its provisions to particular projects, especially sports venues.
A new lawsuit alleges that state officials have failed to intervene in low-performing schools, leaving children unable to read. Meanwhile, new high school graduation data tell us that while graduation rates are low in big city districts, rural districts with large numbers of Latino kids are showing high rates.
California’s 114 community colleges play a vital role in post-high school education but often don’t get the respect they deserve. Now big changes are coming, some fostered by outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown, others by the colleges themselves.
Big moves are being made on water policy in the final months of Jerry Brown’s second governorship, including twin tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a new water allocation policy and money for new water storage reservoirs.
Although California can’t do much to block the Trump administration’s controversial immigration policies, opponents in the “Resistance State” keep finding ways to chip away at their foundations. The latest: pushing the state and its Democratic leaders to cancel business deals with, investments in, and campaign donations from private companies with immigration contracts.
A political action committee wants ferrets legalized as pets in California. Ferret PAC’s Patrick Wright hopes Gavin Newsom notices his group’s $125 donation.
Gavin Newsom ended June with $11.1 million in his campaign account, compared with John Cox’s $1.46 million, a total puffed up by $500,000 of Cox’s own wealth delivered on the last day of June.
Buffy Wicks was an early employee of Barack Obama’s first presidential run and an integral part of the White House effort to generate support for Obamacare.
Barack Obama endorsed 81 Democrats across the country today—ten in California. Some were obvious choices. Others—both of omission and commission—not so much.
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin exhorted conservative donors at a Koch Network gathering earlier this week to donate to Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, and called Democrat Gavin Newsom a “dirtbag,” a “joke” and an “embarrassment to public service.”
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Weekly CALmatters 08/04/2018
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