
Poizner’s Independent Run Has a Red Tint
Insurance commissioner candidate Steve Poizner is shunning partisanship in his bid to become the first no-party-preference candidate to win statewide office in California. But to pay for his campaign, the former Republican has turned to people he knows best when it comes to raising money: Republicans.

Democrats Get Big Bucks From Small-dollar Donors
In any campaign, big money players get the most attention. But Democrats running in California’s seven most competitive congressional districts are vastly outraising Republicans in small-dollar donations, according to a review of campaign money compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

What’s Behind All Those Dmv Voter-Registration Snafus?
The DMV gave the public a series of piecemeal explanations as it acknowledged making more than 100,000 errors in recent months in registering Californians to vote. Software problems, it said in May. Human errors from toggling between computer windows, it said in September. Data entry mistakes that were corrected but never saved, it said this month.

Meet Ken Alex, Gov. Jerry Brown’s Climate Concierge
The officials gathered at the front of the room, arranging themselves on a dais, last fall at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.

Disaster Contractor Gives Big Money to California Dems
A Florida-based company accused of botching the clean-up after last year’s devastating fires in Santa Rosa has jumped into California politics, writing big checks to Gavin Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign and the California Democratic Party.

How Stroopwafels Helped Sacramento Legalize Food Bikes
Dutchman’s Stroopwafels may be the first business to cook on a bicycle in Sacramento, but local entrepreneurs have been finding creative ways to combine the area’s twin passions for cuisine and cycles for decades.

Also on the November Ballot? Lots and Lots of School Bonds
Californians in November will weigh billions of dollars’ worth of ballot measures for low-income housing, children’s hospitals and more. But one of the biggest asks will be mostly invisible to most voters—100 or more local proposals to sell bonds for school construction projects that, if passed, could total more than $12 billion in local borrowing in coming years.

The Herb Column: Battling for Onsite Consumption
Law creates barriers for entrepreneurs interested in the cannabis field
Uncertainty over where people can consume marijuana can create significant limitations for cannabis businesses.

Climate Change Is Going to Cost California, and the Bill Will Be Staggering
As California lawmakers struggled this week to address an apparent new normal of epic wildfires, there was an inescapable subtext: Climate change is going to be staggeringly expensive, and virtually every Californian is going to have to pay for it.

Gig Companies Beg for Relief from Pro-Labor Supreme Court Ruling
State and federal labor laws give employees a wide range of worker protections, from overtime pay and minimum wages to the right to unionize. But those rights don’t extend to independent contractors, whose ranks have grown dramatically in the gig economy.