Political Stories Top stories Stymied in Legislature, school bond backers go their own way – Home builders, school construction companies and others, bypassing the Capitol, spent millions to gather signatures to qualify a $9 billion school bond for the ballot. Eleventh-hour Capitol negotiations to craft a smaller substitute bond in June went nowhere, securing Proposition […]

Political Stories Top stories  Nine weeks before election, here are the 12 California congressional races we’re watching — Thirty of California’s 49 House incumbents secured more than 60% of the vote in the June primary. All were Democrats, except for Republican Reps. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove, Ed Royce of Fullerton, and Devin Nunes of […]

Political Stories Top stories  George Skelton: The Legislature helped poor people and farmworkers but skipped the middle class — The California Legislature capped its two-year session by passing a load of liberal bills to help poor people, including farmworkers. That’s good, but what about middle-class folks? They were snubbed again. Ignoring the declining middle class […]

Political Stories Top stories  Sacramento Bee: Some pressing ballot issues that aren’t about the White House — Hijacked by a poser, the nation has gawked at Trump’s antics like Sunday drivers passing a big-rig explosion. That’s normal; it’s instinctive to notice unusual behavior. But this ballot also asks serious policy questions that Californians don’t want […]

Political Stories Top stories  California’s new climate change laws almost didn’t happen this year.  Here’s how lawmakers pulled it off —  For Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, global warming conjured images of stricken polar bears floating away on melting ice sheets, a problem with little relevance to a politician from California’s bone-dry Inland Empire. But while attending […]