Rich Ehisen

Email OPINION – Its long-held “green” reputation notwithstanding, California was not destined to be the catalyst for the sustainable energy boom at the beginning of the 21 st century, despite Gov. Jerry Brown’s embrace of renewable resources and energy efficiency in the latter half of the 1970s and early 1980s.

Email New Year’s resolutions are a staple for many folks, a way to establish goals for themselves they believe will make their lives better. With that in mind, we posed this question to our panel of Capitol observers:

Email As Governor Newsom prepares his 2025 budget release this week, California’s Neurodegenerative disease groups representing hundreds of thousands of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Huntington’s patients, are hopeful that he includes funding to continue the state’s research registries since they run out of money this fiscal year.

Email The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), similar to the federal Congressional Budget Office (CBO), serves as the fiscal policy advisor to the Legislature. It has done so for more than 75 years and the LAO is known for its fiscal and programmatic expertise and nonpartisan analyses of the state budget in California. The office serves as the “eyes and ears” for the Legislature to ensure that the executive branch is implementing legislative policy in a cost efficient and effective manner.

As Assembly Majority Leader, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry guides her party’s legislative strategy, coordinates with committee chairs and helps ensure the efficient progression of bills. As chair of the bipartisan Legislative Women’s Caucus, she helps promote policies and budget priorities that improve the well-being of women, children and families.

Email The stories of child abuse are heartbreaking and devastating. Responses to those stories are often something along the lines of, “How could this have happened?”

Ballot curing has added an entire new layer to the already complex and stressful campaign and elections process, for both candidates and staffers. It will also now be a fact of life anytime a race is close.

Email OPINION – California is right to be proud of its decades of environmental leadership. The state’s commitment to carbon management is unequalled in the U.S. While addressing climate change requires unprecedented effort from societies all around the world, Californians are admirably committed to making sure our state is at the forefront of tackling this generational challenge.

Email OPINION – California State Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, recently introduced a bill aimed at reining in pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the middlemen largely responsible for the dysfunction plaguing our nation’s prescription drug market.

Email OPINION – California’s refusal to fairly compensate prison labor is an affront to our most basic principles of human dignity – one that now has direct consequences on hundreds of incarcerated firefighters.