Breaking News

‘Climate credit’ begins march through CA

Beginning this month, millions of Californians will see something new on their electricity bills: a “climate credit.” The line-item credit will range between $30 and $40. It will function as most Californians’ first direct experience with AB32, the Global Warming

Pro Tem Cup: CA Senate Dems cancel event, keep cash

John April 2, 2014

In light of recent criminal cases involving three of their members, Senate Democrats have canceled a large annual fundraising event scheduled for this weekend. But the event organizers won’t be returning the campaign cash to the special interest groups that spent

April Fool’s Day campaign aims to clear voter confusion

John April 2, 2014

Here’s a fact that’s no April Fool’s Day joke. A political party, which traces its history to the segregationist platform of Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace and his 1968 presidential bid, is the fastest growing political party in California. The state that is home to

Judge green lights Silicon Valley class action suit

James Poulos April 1, 2014

It’s official: Many of California’s biggest tech firms are going to trial. Faced with a class action brought by over 64,000 combined employees, Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar asked U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to grant a summary

New fears push more California e-cig bans

James Poulos March 31, 2014

Southern California’s thriving e-cigarette industry faces a big new problem: nationwide, their products are becoming a hot new focal point of public health worries. In the latest report casting “vapes” in a negative light, the New York Times called the nicotine

New min wage law clears CA Senate committee

James Poulos March 31, 2014

Two minimum wage hikes in two years for California? Just a year after Gov. Jerry Brown signed one minimum wage hike into law, the California Senate’s Labor and Industrial Relations Committee last week greenlit an even faster and more sweeping boost.

Only Sen. Anderson demands Senate expel 3 disgraced members

John March 31, 2014

A lone Republican lawmaker is calling on the California State Senate to expel three of its Democratic members that are facing criminal charges. State Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, the lone dissenter in Friday’s vote to suspend with pay three members of the state

10 quotes from indictment against Sen. Leland Yee

John March 28, 2014

This week State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, was arraigned in federal court on charges of working with Chinatown gangsters and brokering arms deals with a Muslim rebel group based in the Philippines. Although a leading proponent of gun control, the investigation involved accusations of arms dealing, murder-for-hire money laundering and

CA high-speed rail strikes out at hearing

Joseph Perkins March 28, 2014

The state Senate’s Transportation and Housing Committee held a hearing Thursday on California’s quixotic high-speed rail project. Even Gov. Jerry Brown, who still hopes the bullet train will be the enduring legacy of his third stint as governor, might

Rebels in Leland Yee case make peace with Philippine government

John March 27, 2014

A separatist Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, and the alleged supplier of weapons to State Senator Leland Yee, has signed a peace accord with the government of the Philippines Thursday, just one day after the San Francisco Democrat was arrested