The political deal that led to reauthorization of California’s cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions has many pieces, but one of the strangest is Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1. To win support from Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes and presumably several other Republicans, Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats agreed to place the measure, authored […]
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Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Politics
Latest California innovation: A Republican case for cap and trade
In California, a deep blue state leading the charge to curb climate change, the question for many Republicans isn’t whether global warming is happening—it’s what kind of policies are best to address it.
Posted inPolitics
Purple Reign: Two legislators from opposite parties host town halls together
The right-leaning Democrat, Sen. Steve Glazer, and the left-leaning Republican, Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, represent overlapping suburban districts some 40 miles east of San Francisco. Once opponents who ran for the same seat (she won), the pair have forged an unusual bipartisan alliance driven by their centrist approach to politics.
Posted inPoverty
State stops refusing extra welfare to moms who have more children
Rocio Zavala is doing her best to keep her daughter from eating her coupons. It’s 11:30 on a Friday morning and Zavala, 30 years old and unemployed, is sitting at a foldout table in her living room, snipping, sorting, and stacking the freshly clipped squares of paper, while cooing at 3-year-old Deysy. The mother’s hands […]
Posted inEducation, Health, K-12 Education
Teen suicide clusters prompt mandate for California schools to confront taboo topic
In California and across the country, suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens—a grim reminder that many high school students’ primary barrier to adulthood is themselves. More young people take their own lives than the number killed by cancer, heart disease, birth defects, stroke, flu, pneumonia and chronic lung disease combined. And […]
Posted inEnvironment, Immigration, Politics, Poverty
Urgent appeal: California Democrats to invoke new anti-Trump weapon
As they suit up for battle against the Trump administration, Democrats who dominate California’s Legislature vow to unleash one of the superpowers of holding a supermajority: the ability to enact laws immediately.An underplayed consequence of the fact that they won two-thirds of the seats in both houses last month is that—if they stick together—California Democrats […]
Posted inPolitics
Aiming for supermajority, California Democrats play Trump card
The one shred of power Republicans hold in the California statehouse—enough seats to block Democratic lawmakers from a “supermajority”—is on the brink in this election. Already California is one of only seven states in which Democrats control the legislature and the governor’s office (as compared to 23 states where the GOP holds both). Here, Republicans […]
Posted inPolitics, Poverty
New GOP leader wants to give ‘a hand up’
A month after taking over as the California Assembly’s Republican leader, Chad Mayes brought his caucus to a shelter for homeless mothers. The lawmakers listened as women shared stories of drug abuse and recovery. They poked their heads into rooms crowded with bunk beds. They greeted children bouncing balls on the playground. “It’s important to […]
Posted inPolitics
How did Eric Linder win the left and the right?
Several times in the last year, Assemblyman Eric Linder (R-Corona) pushed the green “Yes” button on his desk when most of his Republican colleagues pressed “No.” He broke from his party to vote for labor-backed bills requiring more disclosure of health care rates, new layoff protections for civil servants and a system for workers to […]
Posted inPolitics
More than friends?
Compared with the partisan gridlock that gripped Sacramento just a few years ago, dynamics in the statehouse can seem almost cuddly these days. There are friendly handshakes after lawmakers cross party lines to vote for each others’ bills. Bipartisan banter is visible on social media, where legislators trade funny stories and post selfies with friends […]