California Legislature

Some cautionary economic signals are gaining strength in California just a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers adopted a record-breaking $308 billion budget. The Golden State is more likely than not to collect less from personal income, sales and corporation taxes than the $210 billion assumed in the 2022-23 budget, according to a […]

Welcome to the final countdown. Today, state lawmakers will reconvene in Sacramento after a month-long summer recess — during which some traveled abroad on trips funded by special interest groups that lobby them on various issues — for the final, frenzied month of the legislative session. Legislators face an Aug. 31 deadline to determine the […]

In California elections, it only takes a handful of signatures and votes for legislative write-in candidates to get on the November ballot. Eleven made it this year, though some won very little support.

It is now accepted that prescribed fire is needed to conserve and restore biodiversity, prevent catastrophic fires, stabilize carbon and promote public health and safety. To address the pace and scale of prescribed fire that is needed, we must invest in careers in prescribed fire.

What do Ireland, Israel, Maine and Canada have in common? They’re among the locations to which California lawmakers have embarked on special interest-funded trips during their month-long summer recess, which comes to an end Monday when they return to Sacramento for the frenzied final month of the legislative session. The latest junket began Sunday, when […]

As Gov. Gavin Newsom takes action on a slew of gun control bills, truckers are accusing him of failing to respond to a controversial state labor law they’ve been protesting for weeks, halting almost all operations at the Port of Oakland’s shipping terminals and snarling an already severely backlogged supply chain. First up: the gun […]

California is acting later than many states in regulating neonicotinoids, but its rules would be among the nation’s most extensive. They would change how growers kill pests on nuts, citrus and other fruit crops.

For years, consumer advocates and some legislators have been battling to rein in escalating health care costs. Now the state has created a new agency to limit future growth in health care costs — and it will have the power to enforce that mandate.

Sacramento is preparing for a showdown over how far the state should go in regulating social media companies that many blame for contributing to a national youth mental health crisis.  At the center of the controversy is a first-in-the-nation bill co-authored by Republican Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham of San Luis Obispo and Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks […]

Californians who don’t file taxes — because they don’t earn enough to owe any — won’t receive the new round of state payments. That includes some seniors and disabled people, as well as some of the lowest-income adults.