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Gov. Jerry Brown during an interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch near Williams on Dec. 28, 2017. Gov. Jerry Brown during an interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch near Williams on Dec. 28, 2017.
California Democrats are toying with a brash scheme to skirt a new federal cap on state and local tax deductions: Instead of paying taxes to the Golden State, Californians would be allowed to donate the money to the state's coffers - and deduct the entire sum from their federal taxes. The hastily drafted proposal - to be unveiled as soon as Wednesday, when lawmakers return from a monthslong recess - strikes back at one of the least popular elements of the GOP's tax overhaul, one that hit California and other high-tax, high-cost states the hardest.
If the 2018 U.S. Senate race in California proceeds as expected, voters will ultimately have their pick of incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein or state Senate Leader Kevin de Len. With that set of choices, voters will have the misfortune of having to choose between an incumbent whose re-election bid most think will be a "bad thing" for California, according to a Berkeley IGS poll, and an opponent whose name 43 percent don't recognize and of those who do only a minority like him, according to a Sextant Strategies & Research/Capitol Weekly poll of 1,554 likely voters.
Strong irony is in the air as California heads into the hot political year of 2018, with an initiative to end the state's "top two" primary election system in play just as top two, also known as the "jungle primary," may be about to accomplish its central purpose. That aim was to allow voters in the minority party to influence elections and elect more moderate members of the larger party when their own party either has no candidate in a race or fields a sure loser.
In this Dec. 20, 2017, file photo, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., left, standing with Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., right, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms plan to argue that the legislation favors the wealthy and breaks President Donald Trump and Republicans' promises to the middle class.
With 2018 just days away, we pretty much know who will be running for which major California offices next year except for the intentions of billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, who's making all the moves, but remains coy about what, if anything, he'll do. The biggest uncertainty is that we don't know what initiative measures will also make it to the ballot, but it's likely to be a potpourri of special interest gambits, ideological symbolism and serious governance proposals.
As Yogi Berra once put in theory there's no difference between practice and theory; in practice there is. At the Sacramento Bee Dan Walters looks at the bottom line on universal health care for California: A Senate Appropriations Committee analysis pegs costs of universal coverage at $400 billion a year, but suggests that half could be covered by redirection of existing federal, state and local government health care spending.
All higher education institutions in California, with the sole exception of the California Community College system, will beginning with the 2018-19 academic year have to provide their students an annual summary of their total borrowing to pursue their education and an estimate of their future monthly payments. Majority Leader Ian Calderon, the author of the new law , describes its purpose as ensuring that college students have up-to-date information about their cumulative student loan debt when they are making borrowing decisions.
Congressional Republicans on Tuesday rushed toward a deal on a massive tax package that would reduce the top tax rate for wealthy Americans to 37 percent and slash the corporate rate to a level slightly higher than what businesses and conservatives wanted. In a flurry of last-minute changes that could profoundly affect the pocketbooks of millions of Americans, House and Senate negotiators agreed to expand a deduction for state and local taxes to allow individuals to deduct income taxes as well as property taxes.
Republicans are determined to deliver the first revamp of the nation's tax code in three decades and prove they can govern after their failure to dismantle Barack Obama's health care law this past summer. Voters who will decide which party holds the majority in next year's midterms elections are watching.
Despite all the partisan rancor about everything from economic policy to social norms to foreign relations, California shoppers are surprisingly upbeat on the economy one year after a presidential political shocker. Let's just say President Donald Trump wasn't the first choice of an overwhelming slice of California voters in November 2016.
The decision in Kwan v. Sanmedica International , 854 F.3d 1088 in April, has occasioned a lot of discussion about the apparent demise of the establishment claim "standard" in California.
Nancy Pelosi said Representative John Conyers "will do the right thing" -- without elaborating on what that is -- amid calls for the Michigan lawmaker to step down from his committee position amid allegations of sexual misconduct. "He will do the right thing in terms of what he knows about his situation, that he's entitled to due process," Pelosi, the House Democratic Leader, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.
Authorities say Manson, cult leader and mastermind behind 1969 deaths of a... . FILE- This Aug. 14, 2017 photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Charles Manson.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, joined "Face the Nation" Sunday to discuss the fallout from the flood of sexual assault and harassment allegations across the U.S., and sexual harassment in Congress.
That sound you hear is the playing of the world's tiniest violin for Republican Governors who didn't have enough sense to walk away from the party once Donald Trump secured the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, and who now fear the consequences: For nearly a decade, meetings of the Republican Governors Association were buoyant, even giddy, affairs, as the party - lifted by enormous political donations and a backlash against the Obama administration - achieved overwhelming control of state governments.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leading the GOP tax cut effort that will have a devastating impact on Californians' health care. That's saying something.
A year after his election, President Trump remains wildly unpopular in California, and the state's voters are split over whether members of Congress should work with him when possible, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll has found. The percentage of voters seeking cooperation overall - 47% - dropped somewhat when it came to Trump's immigration policies, which the state's Democratic officeholders have fought with legislation and lawsuits.
Work is underway in California wine country to clear debris from areas ravaged by wildfires that tore through the area a month ago. The flames destroyed more than 8,000 homes in the region north of San Francisco.
When, for example, he unveiled a revised state budget last May, he included what has become boilerplate, warning that "by the time the budget is enacted in June, the economy will have finished its eighth year of expansion - only two years shorter than the longest recovery since World War II. A recession at some point is inevitable."