This week's podcast features three political issues in doubt: health care reform, an initiative to modify California's term limits law, and a ballot measure asking voters to weigh in on the Iraq war. Each made news this week. Health care … Continue reading »

The chance of a special session of the Legislature must be real enough to change Governor Schwarzenegger's busy travel schedule. This afternoon, the governor officially scrapped planned autumn trips to Great Britain and India. Schwarzenegger was supposed to attend a … Continue reading »

Two developments this morning on the health care front… Democrats will not put Governor Schwarzenegger's health care proposal up for a vote in the Assembly, and another business group joins the call for a sales tax increase to pay for … Continue reading »

It may be only a sidestory at this point to the health care reform debate, but it's increasingly becoming an interesting one. This morning, another business coalition jumped on the idea of a hike in California's sales tax to help … Continue reading »

The narrative making its way through the Capitol this week is that the debate over health care reform, now down to the final days on the legislative calendar, has parallels to another last-minute deal struck in Sacramento. The question is… … Continue reading »

The financing of a new central health care facility for inmates at San Quentin State Prison is in limbo, after legislation to pay for the plan failed this afternoon to pass the state Senate. At issue is a new $146 … Continue reading »

The state budget is a done deal, the governor says it's a responsible budget, everyone clapped as the document was signed, yada yada. Let's cut to the chase and talk about the vetoes, shall we? $1.5 billion worth of vetoes … Continue reading »

A California budget postmortem is the focus of an early edition of this week's Capital Notes Podcast. Actually, we're calling it a happy hour postmortem. No, we didn't record it in a bar… or on the patio of Chops. It … Continue reading »

The new state budget was the focus of KQED's daily public affairs program Forum this morning, hosted by Michael Krasny. Senate President pro Tem Don Perata and Senate GOP Leader Dick Ackerman were the featured guests, with further discussion from … Continue reading »

The fact that only there are only 16 days left on the 2007 legislative calendar has a lot of Capitol watchers wondering whether the year's big policy issue — health care reform — can actually be pulled off in time. … Continue reading »