State Politics

Doris Matsui of Sacramento on Wednesday pledged to spend only $13.50 on food the next three days, joining nearly 30 of her fellow House Democrats in protest of cuts to the federal food stamp program.

Even in an era of term limits, Tom Calderon didn't serve long in the California Assembly.

Three days after the FBI searched a state senator's offices, another Democratic lawmaker said Friday he has received a federal subpoena and will testify before a Los Angeles grand jury in July.

The FBI recently has raided at least two California businesses with connections to former Assemblyman Tom Calderon and his brother, Sen. Ron Calderon, whose offices were searched by federal investigators this week.

California state government and school districts will pay roughly $103 million less in pension costs for the coming fiscal year, according to a new CalPERS estimate.

A day after FBI agents descended on two legislative offices in Sacramento, officials corrected themselves and said that the office of the Latino Legislative Caucus was not a target.

Ron Calderon landed a plum assignment back in 2005 when he took the chairmanship of the Assembly's Banking and Finance Committee, a position that would give him power over some of the Capitol's wealthiest interest groups.

For the first time in four years, California's Citizens Compensation Commission is scheduled to vote this month on whether to raise the pay of lawmakers and statewide elected officials.

FBI agents raided two state offices connected with Sen. Ron Calderon on Tuesday as part of an undisclosed investigation originating in Los Angeles.

California's years-long legal battle to resume capital punishment has again suffered a setback, this time by an appellate court's ruling Thursday that the state's regulations governing executions are invalid.

A bill to raise California's hourly minimum wage to $9.25 over the next three years won approval Thursday in the state Assembly.

A proposal to ban plastic shopping bags in California went the way of so many plastic bags – into the trash – on Thursday when it failed to pass in the state Senate.

California's years-long legal battle to resume capital punishment has once again suffered a setback, this time by an appellate court's ruling Thursday that the state's regulations governing executions are invalid.

The California Senate approved a package of bills Wednesday that would tighten the state's regulation of firearms by outlawing detachable and large-capacity magazines, keeping track of people who buy ammunition and widening the category of offenders prohibited from owning guns for 10 years.

Even as the Boy Scouts of America moves to allow gay youths to join its troops, the California Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would revoke the organization's nonprofit status because it does not permit the participation of openly gay adults.

Legislation to prohibit salaried state employees from taking a secondary hourly-wage position within their same department or agency stalled Friday in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Both houses of the Democratic-controlled Legislature worked to craft budgets Friday that are about $3.2 billion higher than the one proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee moved 221 bills proposing $700 million in spending off the suspense file and onto the floor Friday in preparation for a vote next week.

Measures aimed at creating new taxes on Californians were held by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, making it extremely unlikely that the taxes on cigarettes, soda, strip clubs, plastic bags or oil extraction will become law this year.

Sacramento lobbyists and others looking forward to attending a mixed-martial-arts fight in Las Vegas with Sen. Ricardo Lara on Saturday will have to find another way to enjoy the holiday weekend.

Even in heavily Democratic California, President Barack Obama's job approval rating has plummeted among voters, largely on his handling of the economy, according to a new Field Poll.

California lawmakers finally voted on a state budget Sunday – but it died a partisan death.

Beaches at Lake Natoma and Folsom Lake will go without lifeguards. Drivers could wait longer for licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
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The day after unveiling $8.2 billion in proposed tax increases mostly on high-income earners and corporations, legislative Democrats on Wednesday said they have done all they can to trim the state budget without harming education and health care.