Political Stories Top stories Bid to raise California cigarette tax by $2 a pack submits signatures — A well-financed campaign backed by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, medical groups and organized labor said Monday that it collected more than 1 million signatures for a ballot measure to raise California’s cigarette tax by $2 a pack. AP article; San Francisco […]

Political Stories Top stories California November ballot will have as many as 18 measures — California voters this fall will likely wade through the longest list of state propositions since Bill Clinton was president, a sizable batch of proposed laws that is likely to spark a record amount of campaign spending. LA Times article Lots of transportation measures are headed to November […]

Political Stories Top stories Dan Walters: Jerry Brown sees budget trouble for California, wants to hold line — Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his revised budget on Friday the 13th, which implies that he’s not superstitious. However, amid signs of a cooling economy – and therefore flattening revenue – Brown’s run of fiscal luck may be ending, and he […]

Political Stories Top stories  Jerry Brown’s budget predicts slowdown in California revenue — Days after the state’s biggest revenue month fell significantly short of his office’s expectations, Gov. Jerry Brown released a $169.3 billion revised spending plan Friday that assumes nearly $2 billion less revenue through June 2017, with the governor warning that people need to […]

Political Stories Top stories California irrigation-drainage disputes targeted in new bill – California’s tireless water warriors have something fresh to fight over, with the introduction of a bill to resolve an irrigation drainage dispute that affects three modest-sized San Joaquin Valley water districts, as well as the much bigger Westlands Water District. The bill by Rep. […]

Political Stories Top stories  Union coalition campaigns to extend income tax increases – A group of unions, hospitals and doctors said Wednesday it will turn in more than enough signatures to qualify a ballot initiative asking Californians to extend for another 12 years a tax increase on the wealthy that was pitched to voters four years […]

Political Stories Top stories  California tax revenues fall below estimates as budget talks get under way — California’s economy is still growing – but at a slower pace than it has been. And that’s having a similar effect on state budget revenues, leaving Gov. Jerry Brown with less money to work with when he releases his […]

Political Stories Top stories All-gender bathroom bill passes California Assembly – Breaking with Republican-led states and cities that have moved to restrict bathroom use, the California Assembly on Monday passed legislation requiring all single-stall bathrooms to be open to people of any gender. Sacramento Bee article; LA Times article Dan Walters: California lawmakers’ secrecy fight should apply to themselves […]

Political Stories Top stories  If you registered to vote at the DMV, check again – If you’ve visited the DMV in the last few weeks, you may have noticed that you can now complete your voter registration at the same time you renew your driver’s license — without having to fill out a separate form. But it’s a […]

Political Stories Top stories CD 21 question: Who will take on Valadao? — Three men are running for the 21st Congressional District seat this year. But the real question for voters in June will be which Democrat to choose to challenge Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, the two-term conservative who has twice won the Democratic district easily. […]