Shriver opens Alzheimer’s task force + Moving day for new annex + Transgender memorial

Happy Thursday, California! We’ve nearly made it to the weekend. I’m attending two Friendsgivings this year in lieu of traveling, so please send me your favorite Turkey Day recipes. I’ll share highlights at the end of the newsletter, starting today through next week.

ALZHEIMER’S TASK FORCE

from Sophia Bollag

On Wednesday, former California First Lady Maria Shriver wrapped up two days of meetings in Sacramento to kick off her Alzheimer’s Task Force.

“Everybody who is lucky enough to get older is going to get Alzheimer’s,” Shriver told The Sacramento Bee. “This is a disease that anybody with a brain should be focused on.”

During his State of the State address in February, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Shriver chair of the group, which is tasked with creating recommendations for how the state should combat the degenerative brain disease.

“The systems that are in place aren’t working because the numbers are so huge,” Shriver said, sitting in the office of her former, Chief of Staff Daniel Zingale, who now serves as Newsom’s chief strategist.

By 2030, there will be about 1.2 million people living with Alzheimer’s in California, according to state projections. California needs to plan ahead for its aging population, Shriver said.

Newsom has already allocated $3 million for Alzheimer’s research grants, particularly to study why the disease is more common among women and people of color. He’s also set aside $5 million over three years to help communities prepare to care for their aging populations.

He and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, both attended the meeting Shriver led Tuesday at the Capitol.

“The governor really stated for everybody in the room that this is a priority for him. It’s personal and it’s also political for him,” Shriver said. “It’s smart politically to get ahead of this tsunami that’s already happening.”

Her task force’s recommendations are due at the end of next year. Shriver said the state should launch a public education campaign, just as it has done for issues like heart health and seatbelts. She also wants to make it easier for people who have the disease or are caring for someone with it to access government assistance.

“We start our lives needing care, and we end our lives needing care,” she said. “The goal is to make California a leader in this space.”

1021 O STREET

It’s official. The “swing space” that will house more than 1,200 legislative and executive staff while a new Capitol annex is constructed will be at 1021 O Street.

In a newsletter update released on Wednesday, the Joint Rules Committee said the move in for the staff will begin in the fall of 2021. The building is estimated to be 472,000 square feet and will house members of the Legislature, Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.

“(The Department of General Services) is moving fast to complete the building on time,” the update reads. “The project is now 15 percent complete and the building underground work is complete. Progress will be very visible with incredible vertical construction.”

The building will include office spaces, committee hearing rooms and conference rooms. It’s also planned to align with the state’s goals for zero net energy and carbon.

The Legislature voted last year to upgrade the 67-year-old annex attached to the Capitol after a report found a litany of structural deficiencies ranging from a lack of disability access to asbestos issues to outdated technology.

The swing space is projected to cost more than $400 million, while the annex project is estimated to top $750 million.

TRANSGENDER INMATES

Yesterday marked Transgender Day of Remembrance, bringing an opportunity to memorialize the 22 transgender individuals who’ve been killed in the United States this year.

To honor the day, the Transgender Pride Flag was flown over the Capitol and state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, met with transgender women at San Quentin State Prison.

The connection — Wiener introduced a bill last year to require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to consider gender identity and perceived safety when incarcerating an individual.

The legislation, Senate Bill 132, turned into a two-year effort at the end of session so the coalition backing the bill could “conduct outreach to gain additional input from incarcerated transgender people and consider potential amendments.”

Wiener said that he’s been traveling to different facilities to hear more from inmates on what the final legislative product should look like. He’s talked with transgender and cis men and women to garner feedback before the bill is taken up again in January.

“There are different inmates with different experiences,” Wiener siad. “But there are some trans women who want to transfer to a women’s facility and some who don’t. The bill does not force them to transfer. But I also know that there are some trans women who are really brutalized.”

Wiener also said there are some final “details to iron out” with CDCR, but that he’s confident Newsom will sign the legislation.

VERDICT

The California Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver a written opinion on the legality of Senate Bill 27, a law passed earlier this year that would require a presidential candidate to release years of tax returns in order to appear on the March 2020 primary ballot.

Back it up — The court’s justices appeared on Nov. 6 to side with Republicans who are challenging the law, which they see as a rebuff to President Donald Trump, who has refused to release his returns.

It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. Former Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill in 2017, when he questioned whether the proposal was constitutional. He also said that any legal requirement to release tax returns could create a “slippery slope precedent.”

California GOP chairwoman, Jessica Patterson, called SB 27 an “arrogance and overreach of the California Legislature,” and said lawmakers failed to consider the state constitution.

The written opinion will be available at 10 a.m. here.

For your radar — The International Franchise Association is hosting a media briefing this afternoon to discuss the “negative implications” of Assembly Bill 5. The controversial labor bill passed this year and will require employers to consider independent contractors as employees and offer them benefits like workers’ compensation and paid time off.

“One major industry that will see these effects is the state’s franchise industry, which includes more than 75,800 franchise establishments employing 729,000 jobs,” the press release for the event reads. “The International Franchise Association, which represents these small business owners, is fighting hard for a franchise exemption to the bill, which, as currently written, ignores the realities of the franchise model.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

”I WANT NOTHING! I WANT NOTHING! I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO! TELL PRESIDENT ZELENSKY TO DO THE RIGHT THING!”

- Trump, via tweets on the impeachment inquiry sparked by his phone call with Ukraine’s president.

Best of The Bee:

• The LAO released a report on Wednesday projecting the state will bring in a $7 billion surplus in the 2020-2021 budget year, via Sophia Bollag

• Protesters chanted ‘tell the truth’ at Sondland hotel. Now he says Trump wanted ‘quid pro quo’, via Kate Irby

• A group of Chico State professors analyzed where Camp Fire survivors went after the disaster, finding that people flocked to 45 states but mostly stayed in California, via Michael Finch II

SAVE YOUR SWEET TOOTH

For my mom’s sweet potatoes. The pureed golden tots with marshmallows on top are fine, but take it up a notch by slicing the sweet ps in rounds and smothering them with a golden mix of brown sugar, butter (or coconut oil) and maple syrup. Generously sprinkle the dish with cinnamon and nutmeg and bake it up for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the sugar is caramelized and sticky.