PROFILE
FROM Laurel Rosenhall
Implementing California's new death penalty law Californians voted to speed up executions for prisoners on death row. Prop 66 was narrowly approved by a little more than 51 percent of voters. What happens next?
Big money flows into California ballot initiatives Ballot initiatives are determined by California voters, but there is a huge amount of money being spent behind the scenes. Big Pharma, Big Tobacco and the plastic bag industry have spent millions of dollars this year on campaign ads seeking to influence votes. KCRW's Warren Olney follows the biggest spenders and what they support.
Prop 64: The legalization of recreational marijuana use One of the hottest measures on the ballot this November is Proposition 64 , the one legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. California legalized marijuana for medical use in 1996. But are voters ready to take the next step? We look at both sides of the very high profile issue.
Sorting out California's plastic bag propositions Two years ago, California became first in the nation to place a statewide ban on free plastic bags at grocery stores. But that law is on hold as voters consider two competing propositions. Prop 67 would uphold the statewide plastic bag ban. Prop 65 would redirect the 10 cent bag fee away from the stores and into an environmental fund. Both measures are sponsored by plastic bag manufacturers.
Big Pharma has spent more than $85 million to defeat Prop 61 Election spending is cruising toward record highs in California, and no one’s making it rain harder than Big Pharma. Pharmaceutical companies have spent more than $85 million to defeat Proposition 61. Prop 61 would peg the price the state pays for drugs to the same price the VA healthcare system pays. The initiative is sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, based in Los Angeles.
The California multi-millionaires spending big this election California billionaire Tom Steyer says he’s against big money in politics, but he himself has given nearly $40 million to liberal Super PACS this year, making him the spendiest single donor to Super PACs in the country – but not the only one. California has more billionaires than any other state and they’re pouring millions into this election.
Do Californians Have the Right to Die? In California, assisted suicide is a felony crime. So, when 29-year-old Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she moved to Oregon where it's legal. Before she died, she made her case public with videos that went viral, advocating that the so-called "the right to die" be made legal in California. That has reinvigorated a movement and produced the End of Life bill in the State Senate.
Janet Napolitano Faces Opposition Ahead of UC Regents Vote Should the University of California have a political president? That question's being raised today as the Board of Regents prepares for tomorrow's vote on Janet Napolitano as the next president of the ten-campus system. Laurel Rosenhall reports on education and politics for the Sacramento Bee .
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Why is Trump so behind on filling staff jobs, establishing concrete policies? Yesterday Donald Trump signed a “decision memo” to revamp the air traffic control system. But there was little legislative detail in the plan. There’s not much to other splashy announcements from the White House, including tax cuts and the arms deal with Saudi Arabia. And hundreds of positions are unfilled in federal agencies.
George Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo (Part I) Lincoln in the Bardo dramatizes a grieving President Lincoln as he visits the grave of his beloved son Willie, who died at age eleven. In the novel, the buried dead believe they're not dead -- "they're sick and refer to their coffins as "sick boxes."
Accusations of lying fly between James Comey and White House During his testimony Thursday, former FBI Director James Comey accused President Trump and other White House officials of lying when they said the FBI was in disarray and its staff had lost confidence in him. President Trump’s lawyer said Comey was wrong -- that the president never asked for his loyalty, and never asked him to back off the investigation into former NSA director Michael Flynn.