After years of battling over state budget deficits and spending cuts, California lawmakers are now arguing over how the state should deal with an unexpected surplus. [NewYorkTimes] The Legislature’s independent financial analyst estimates the surplus at about $4.4 billion while... (Continue reading)
University of California medical workers began a two-day strike early Tuesday morning at hospitals across the state to protest proposed reductions to their pension plans. [KPCC] The UC employees union, a chapter of the American Federation of State, County and... (Continue reading)
Proponents of mandated drug testing for California physicians plan to seek signatures this summer to qualify an initiative for the 2014 ballot. (San Jose Mercury News) The proposal is backed by Bob Pack, a former AOL and NetZero executive whose... (Continue reading)
A California doctor who sold a bogus cancer cure to dozens of victims across the country as part of a “treatment” program that prosecutors said was “despicable, cruel and heinous” and hastened the death of some patients was sentenced Friday... (Continue reading)
Prison inmates’ lawyers have filed court papers requesting federal judges to find Gov. Jerry Brown and his tool corrections official in contempt of court for the way the pair has handled prison overcrowding in California. (San Jose Mercury News) According... (Continue reading)
Reaction has been swift and largely negative to a federal proposition to lower blood alcohol standards for drunken driving enforcement. (San Jose Mercury News) Members of the National Transportation Safety Board voted unanimously this week to propose a limit of... (Continue reading)
California Governor Jerry Brown will propose today spending $1 billion to implement education standards that 45 states, including California, have adopted. [Sacramento Bee] The Common Core State Standards will align California’s math and science K-12 curricula with those of 44... (Continue reading)
Telling reporters in Sacramento that his motivations are not political, Abel Maldonado announced Monday he will be leading the charge on a proposed ballot initiative to repeal Gov. Brown’s prison realignment. [Sacramento Bee] The former lieutenant governor and San Luis... (Continue reading)
Pointing to ongoing operational deficiencies on the part of Pacific Gas & Electric, California lawmakers are focusing angry attention on the utility’s regulatory agency, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), according to a report in the Sacramento Bee. PG&E owns and... (Continue reading)
Cities and counties in California can use zoning restrictions to scotch medical marijuana dispensaries, the state’s supreme court ruled Monday. (Los Angeles Times) The decision reaffirms prohibitions now in place in about 200 California cities, officials of which have sought... (Continue reading)