California State Legislature

Disabled Fakery at L.A. City College Escalated to 60 Percent of "Handicapped" Placards

An intense investigation and sting by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation apparently struck fear into the hearts of hordes of students faking a disability to score free parking on meters near Los Angeles City College.A ticket for being a wank starts at $363 and will change the behavior of j ... More >>

Mark Stambler Hosts Cottage Food Educational Meeting

One of the biggest legislative surprises of the year was the California Assembly's passage of the California Homemade Food Act, which was officially signed in to law by Governor Brown in September. The act legalized the sale of homemade "non-potentially hazardous foods," which, according to the bill ... More >>

Proposition 39 Election Results: Big Win for Green Renovation of Public Buildings Paid for by $1 Billion Business Tax

Shortly after midnight, victorious Proposition 39 was approaching landslide status, with 59.2 percent Yes votes, and thousands of construction workers were a bit closer to getting some of their jobs back in California. The measure will raise $1 billion per year, half for the general fund and half f ... More >>

California Voter Guide for Nov. 6, 2012, Los Angeles Weekly

Confused about the measures and races on Tuesday's ballot? This California Voter Guide for November 6, 2012 contains a summary of all state measures and several key races. It does not take a position but does touch on controversies, polls and analysis. Proposition 30: Jerry Brown's Tax Hike Governo ... More >>

Assembly District 50: Gay Republican Brad Torgan Says He Won't Endorse Betsy Butler or Richard Bloom

In an email to the press titled "Brad Torgan Announces Endorsement Decision," gay Republican and one-time California Assembly District 50 candidate Brad Torgan alerts political journalists that he is, in fact, endorsing no one. So much for that. Torgan placed a somewhat surprising third in the extr ... More >>

Assembly District 58 Results: City of Bell Activist Cristina Garcia Beats Entrenched Has-Been Tom Calderon

Updated to reflect the final vote totals. What happened on June 5, 2012 in Assembly District 56 covering Bell Gardens, Downey, Pico Rivera and Cerritos, where government reformer Cristina Garcia beat Democratic darling Tom Calderon, of the Calderon dynasty, and will almost certainly win in Novembe ... More >>

California Assembly's Stadium-Violence Bill Has Been Completely Gutted, Won't Apply to Latest Dodger Beating

Last summer, in the painful aftermath of the Bryan Stow beating at Dodger Stadium, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) offered a beacon of hope for baseball fans who wanted their national pastime back: His Assembly Bill 2464, as it was originally proposed, would have created "sentencing enhancem ... More >>

Chew On This: Foie Gras Bubble Gum

There are many creative ways to protest the upcoming California ban on foie gras. You can gather together to support legislation that would prevent the ban, as many area chefs have done. You can eat as much foie as possible, regardless of what your cardiologist might say. Or you can tweet out your f ... More >>

New California Bill Would Let 'Car Enthusiasts' Buy Out-of-Print License Plates for $50

A hipster's dream ride, realized by the California State Legislature! Assemblyman Mike Gatto -- who appropriately represents L.A., car capital of California -- has proposed a rather petty bill to revive those fugly classic old license plates from the '50s, '60s and '70s. "Car enthusiasts" could ch ... More >>

L.A. County Plastic Bag Ban: Where Does Your 10-Cent Fee for Paper End Up?

Despite the efforts of plastic-bag manufacturer Hilex-Poly, a state Superior Court judge ruled last week that L.A. County's new plastic-bag ban is indeed constitutional. But the plaintiff isn't giving up so easily. "We always knew this wasn't going to get resolved at the lower court level," says le ... More >>

DREAM Act (Part II) Passes State Legislature, Ready to Be Signed by California Governor

Associated PressAssemblyman Gil Cedillo celebrated the passage of Part I of the DREAM Act just last month.​Taxpayer dollars to fund the college careers of illegal immigrants? Yes, please!, said both the California State Senate and Assembly this week, giving their blessing to the DREAM Act's c ... More >>

California Citizens Redistricting Map Shakeup: Why Disgusted Voters Took Control of Senate, Assembly and Congressional Electoral Borders

While the U.S mourned 9-11 the California State Legislature went behind closed doors to rig their elections.​By Hillel Aron and Jill Stewart Here's why California citizens today produced new, non-sleazy, non-trickster-y redistricting maps that starkly rejigger how communities are represented ... More >>

U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott Threatened With Death: SoCal Man Charles Turner Habermann Arrested

U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott.​Updates with a minor correction (as a result of erroneous info from federal authorities in Seattle) after the jump. Following the massacre in Tucson over the weekend that apparently targeted U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Southern California man was arrested for all ... More >>

Charles Manson Cell Phone Prison Call On Tape; Big Killers, Mexican Mafia And 8,675 Criminals Use Smuggled Cells In California Prisons

Charles Manson on the line.​Charles Manson had a smuggled cell phone in prison. CBS has truly creepy audio of Manson singing in a sicko call to the outside world. The Weekly explained the ugly game by legislators Mark Leno and Tom Ammiano, who head public safety committees in Sacramento -- and ... More >>

The Weirdest Lottery of All

14 people will win the chance to un-gerrymander California

The Worst Legislator in California

San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes takes Sacramento bill-peddling to a new low

California's 2010 Embrace of Green Tech

In killing Proposition 23, residents choose to pay more for energy, use less

Prop. 26 Election Results: Environmentalists Foiled, Big Oil Gloating As Prop. 23's Evil Twin Sneaks Up, Takes The Lead

indybayProp. 26 protesters should have used a megaphone​Update, 12 a.m.: The Sacramento Bee has called a victory for Prop. 26. More details after the jump. While environmentalists were hitting California voters over the head with their big-oil-bashing 'No' on Prop. 23 campaign this election s ... More >>

Prop. 25 Election Results: Breezy Simple-Majority State Budgeting Looks Like A Possibility For Gridlocked CA Politicians

California State Legislators at a budget meeting​Update, 1 a.m.: The Los Angeles Times calls it a win for Prop. 25, with 54.8 percent of voters saying 'Yes' and 45.2 percent saying 'No.' Only 40 percent of California precincts have yet to submit their data. Prop. 25 has been steadily leaning ... More >>

California Prop. 26, The Morning After: How Did Big Oil Get Away With This?

Bloomberg BusinessweekChevron 1, Big Green 0​California enviro-activists never saw it coming. News outlets called the defeat of Prop. 23 early last night, giving Big Green honchos plenty to clank their champagne flutes about. (The Weekly reports on the clash of the Green and Big Oil titans ov ... More >>

Prop. 26 Is Emission-Happy Prop. 23's Sneaky, Environmentally Unfriendly Stepsister

indybayA lonely Prop. 26 protestor​While environmentalists get their panties in a twist over Prop. 23, a slicker plan to dodge environmental regulations is making its way past protesters. By changing the definition of "fee" to "tax," Prop. 26 would require a 2/3 majority of the California Sta ... More >>

Proposition 20 and 27: How Gerrymandering Robs California Voters Of Nearly All Real Choices For U.S. Congress In November

By Hillel Aron If you're not pissed at the incumbent politician, you're rare as a Goth.​A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll puts the approval rating of the California State Legislature at 10 percent. Veteran politicos haven't seen the disgust toward Sacramento dip so low. Ca ... More >>

Propositions 20 And 27: California Newspapers Unanimously Back 20 (Except One) And Unanimously Pillory The Egregious 27

By Hillel Aron The California Legislature's crack gerrymandering team​The editorial boards of California newspapers agree: Proposition 27, which would overturn a voter-approved 2008 reform that prevents Sacramento legislators from gerrymandering voting districts to keep their jobs, is an ugly ... More >>

Duane Roberts, Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Against Carly Fiorina And Barbara Boxer, Assails KPCC For Censoring Him From Debate

Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Duane Roberts lashed out at public radio station Shut up, important people are speaking​KPCC 89.3 FM this morning for barring Roberts from debating Carly Fiorina and Barbara Boxer -- yet another incident in which Los Angeles and California media systematicall ... More >>

Dr. Keith Richman near death: respected San Fernando Valley Jewish Republican formed rare bipartisan effort to force reform in Sacramento

Los Angeles Daily NewsKeith Richman ​ UPDATED: Keith Richman died Friday night at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to an extensive obituary by Kevin Modesti in the Los Angeles Daily News. This post is updated throughout. Dr. Keith Richman, a fascinating mix of Jewish doctor, Repub ... More >>

Son of Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez Sentenced to 16 years in Prison [Update]

​Esteban Nunez, the son of former California Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez, and his Sacramento buddy Ryan Jett were sentenced today to 16 years in prison in the fatal stabbing death of San Diego college student in the fall of 2008. Last month, Nunez, 21, and his friend 24-year-old Jett pleade ... More >>

Villaraigosa's Five-Year Free Ticket Spree

The Los Angeles mayor's usurping of anticorruption rules could spread to pols across California

CSU student fee hike is a big one: 5 percent slams California kids in November 2010

Abel Maldonado attacked the adults​If you attend CSUN, Cal State Los Angeles or Cal State Long Beach get ready, because costs for students and their families are taking a major leap, and graduate students are getting slammed even harder. Big college fee hikes were approved just minutes ago. R ... More >>

List of 100 Most Powerful People in California: How an obscure scientist beat Haim Saban

The great scribes at Capitol Weekly who report on the deeply unpopular California State Legislature and only slightly less disliked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have issued the first 50 names in their widely read Capitol Weekly Top 100 List of influential Californians. It may shock and delight and ... More >>

Schwarzenegger's Pick For Lt. Gov. A Fail (For Now)

Sen. Abel Maldonado.​Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pick for Lt. Governor, moderate Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado, was rejected Thursday by the California Assembly. His nomination had passed muster earlier with the state senate, but Maldonado could only garner 36 and then 37 of 41 needed ... More >>

The Price of Shooting Stars

Field Poll: Californians, whether Dem or GOP, really, really hate their politicians

Californians finally agree strongly on something: 72 percent of Democrats, 86 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of "decline to state" voters (people who generally can't stand the two-party system), all disapprove of the California State Legislature.That's what the new Field Poll says, the lowest ... More >>

Arnold vetoes initiative ban: Sleazy effort by California legislature to hamstring signature-gathering

One of the sleaziest bills vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over the weekend was a law written by the California State Legislature to quietly but decisively wipe out the citizen ballot-initiative movement in California.Under the false guise of "reform", the bill was a blatant effort by legis ... More >>

Lily Burk's Funeral in Los Angeles, a Calm Before the Storm

For a lot of people, the vibrantly sunny Los Angeles weekend was a time to focus on the life and death of 17-year-old Lily Burk, who was honored at a ceremony at Barnsdall Art Park. It's not often you see 500 people gathered to note the passing of a teenager who has yet to make her mark on the worl ... More >>

Free Pass From (Teacher) Jail

President Monica Garcia and a cowed LAUSD board punt on firing bad teachers

Funny Math on Downtown L.A. Civic Park

Taxpayers may be out $27 million if "Grand Avenue" project breaks ground

L.A. Weekly Founder Jay Levin on the Vision That Started It All

The journalist's dream

Proposition 11: The Most Misunderstood

The League of Women Voters, Common Cause and AARP seek change in Sacramento

The Election That Wasn't

With Tuesday's expected turnout at historic lows, electors are being treated like superdelegates, and missing out on the juicy infighting.

Key Moments in the Struggle for Gay Marriage in the U.S.

Holy unions to Supreme Court battles

Voter Guide: the Pros and Cons of the Initiatives, February 5 Ballot

Making sense of the issues

Voters' Guide

Making sense of the ballot measures

Pavley's Dogs

Who’s the greenest one of all in the 41st Assembly race?

Light On the Roof

The reincarnation of Arnold’s solar initiative

A Taliban-Type Law

Polly Klaas’ grandpa on the evils of three strikes

What Were They Thinking?

Burning Man

Getting in Touch with One's Inner Churl

DON'T CRY FOR ME, MEXICO

Magic Marker Dragoon

Activists Turned Elected Officials