Toss-up

Oct 2, 2024

All of the best and worst moments of the Vance-Walz debate, as they happened

LAT's LORRAINE ALI, MARK Z BARABAK,m ANITA CHABRIAM, DOYLE MCMANUS: "JD Vance and Tim Walz met Tuesday night in the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2024 campaign.

 

Historically, the face-off between running mates hasn’t mattered in terms of the outcome in November. Nevertheless, vice presidential debates have yielded some of the most memorable political moments in recent history."

 

Walz came to debate, Vance was just lying around

The Chronicle's JACK OHMAN: "To hear Sen. J.D. Vance tell it in the CBS News Vice Presidential debate, you’d think that his running mate wasn’t a convicted felon, a coup plotter, and a congenital liar.

 

 

5 takeaways from the Vance-Walz vice presidential debate

LAT's NOAH BIERMAN: "Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota faced off Tuesday night in what is expected to be the only debate between the two vice presidential nominees and, most likely, the last debate of the presidential election.

Voting has already begun in 20 states in a contest that polls show is essentially a toss-up. Their debate, which lasted nearly two hours, was far more civil than last month’s clash between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump."

 

J.D. Vance talked a good game in VP debate, but his silence on key issues spoke volumes

The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "There’s no doubt that many viewers thought Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance sounded better at Tuesday’s one and only vice presidential debate than Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was often bumbling and rambling.

 

The whole “Minnesota Nice” guy/dad/coach persona didn’t translate well on the debate stage. Vance’s Ivy League law school training and Silicon Valley VC world presentation skills worked better in a TV format where polished two-minute answers sparkle brighter than grit. He spoke smoothly and confidently and even occasionally tossed a kind word to his Democratic opponent."

 

Capitol Briefs: Bills, damned bills and statistics, gubernatorial edition

Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "It’s all over now but the shouting – Gov. Gavin Newsom has acted on all the massive number of bills sent his law by lawmakers this session. From AI to zero emissions, by now everyone knows the fate of their pet bills(s), and has weighed in accordingly.

 

Following up on his earlier review of legislative statistics, Chris Micheli, renowned lobbyist and Capitol Weekly’s own resident legislative guru has turned his attention to the governor’s office. Some highlights include:"

 

Senate leader agrees to take up Newsom’s gas price plan after it passes Assembly

CALMatters's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "The California Senate leader, who struck up a surprising public spat with Gov. Gavin Newsom over his special session on gasoline price spikes, finally agreed tonight to call his members back to Sacramento after the Assembly advanced the governor’s proposal.

 

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, announced that the Senate would convene next week to consider the measure on fuel inventory, with plans to pass it by next Friday."

 

As the legislature reaches towards gender parity, the number of female lobbyists is also growing

Capitol Weekly's BRIAN JOSEPH: "With the legislature on the verge of gender parity and the Capitol’s own #MeToo reckoning just a few years ago, Sacramento is rapidly becoming less of an old boys’ club.

 

Another area where women are making gains: among the ranks of the lobbying corps, where they’re largely driving the rise in the number of lobbyists working the Capitol."

 

She lost her job after talking with state auditors. She just won $8.7 million in whistleblower case

CALMatters's NIGEL DUARA: "Tamara Evans found something fishy in the expenses filed by a San Diego contractor for the state’s police certification commission.

 

Classes were reported as full to her employer, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, even if they weren’t. Meeting room space was billed, but no rooms were actually rented. Sometimes, the number of people teaching a course was less than the number of instructors on the invoice."

 

California’s insurance crisis is so bad that home sellers are letting buyers back out of deals

The Chronicle's CHRISTIAN LEONARD, MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "As California’s insurance crisis worsens, many home sellers are now allowing buyers to back out of a deal if they aren’t satisfied with their coverage options.

 

The California Association of Realtors, the major industry group in California with about 200,000 members, recently added an insurance contingency to its template for home sales involving its agents. The update to the template, which sellers can tweak, protects buyers who are unable to find affordable home insurance by allowing them to take back their offer or renegotiate, even after their offer has been accepted."

 

California’s insurance crisis is worsening the housing crisis (OP-ED)

DAN DUNMOYER in Capitol Weekly: "California’s homeowners insurance crisis is making it more difficult to build and buy affordable homes — and in some cases impossible. By restricting the supply of housing, particularly condominiums and multi-family housing, lack of insurance availability is driving up consumer housing costs and limiting the lowest priced homeownership option for consumers.

 

Home builders were reassured when Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced his “Sustainable Insurance Strategy.” Lara deserves credit for trying to address bureaucratic delays in insurance rate reviews that contribute to the problem. Making the regulatory process more efficient will help restore a competitive insurance market. So will his plan to allow insurance companies to incorporate forward-looking catastrophic modeling and the cost of reinsurance into their rates."

 

A minimum wage increase for California health care workers is finally kicking in

CALMatters's ANA B. IBARRA: "California health workers this month will finally get a long-promised minimum wage increase.

 

It’ll kick in this month, according to a letter state health officals sent to the Legislature today, describing a process that should trigger the pay boost."

 

Sacramento Democratic Party pressures members to rescind school board endorsement. Here’s why

Sacramento Bee's JENNAH PENDLETON: "The Democratic Party of Sacramento County requested that several local Democrat officeholders rescind their endorsements of a Sacramento City Unified School District board candidate who has made controversial statements about Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and Latino immigrants on her Facebook page.

 

Rolanda Wilkins, who is running for Sacramento City Unified’s Trustee Area 1 seat, has already faced public scrutiny for Facebook vlogs and comments in which she criticized the vice president and called for violence against Black politicians. The first-time candidate has already lost the endorsement of Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang, who said at the time that she “made the decision with a heavy heart.”"

 

How school closures provide an opportunity to create better high schools

EdSource's JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Falling enrollments and gloomy economics point to the inevitable: Many school districts in California will close schools over the next decade. So far, they have been mainly elementary and middle schools, but high schools, spared until now, won’t escape, a newly released study by a national research and consulting organization concluded.

 

Rather than view closures solely as retrenchment and loss, the authors view “this period of fiscal transition” as an opportunity for districts to redesign high schools that are more engaging for students."

 

California nut farms have seen staggering losses due to smoke from megafires

The Chronicle's TARA DUGGAN: "Some Central Valley nut farms lost over half of their crops after orchards were exposed to heavy amounts of smoke during California megafires in 2020 and 2021, a new study has found.

 

The study, published by UC Davis Wednesday, showed that yields dropped by an average of 32% at 56 California almond farms during those large fire seasons, with a range of 20% to 60%. In a look at almost 500 pistachio, walnut and almond orchards, the study found that prolonged smoke exposure had an impact on the trees’ overall health because it reduced photosynthesis, and with it their ability to produce stores of sugars and starches they rely on to survive winter and times of stress."

 

Valley fever is a growing risk in Central California; few visitors ever get a warning

LAT's SUSANNE RUST: "When Nora Bruhn bought admission to the Lightning in a Bottle arts and music festival on the shores of Kern County’s Buena Vista Lake earlier this spring, her ticket never mentioned she might end up with a fungus growing in her lungs.

 

After weeks of night sweats, “heaviness and a heat” in her left lung, a cough that wouldn’t quit and a painful rash on her legs, her physician brother said she might have valley fever, a potentially deadly disease caused by a dust-loving fungus that lives in the soils of the San Joaquin Valley."

 

California heat wave broke temperature records in these places

LAT's ANTHONY EDWARDS, JACK LEE, GREG PORTER: "Numerous daily temperature records fell across the Bay Area as an autumn heat wave turned up a notch Tuesday.

 

The Bay Area hot spot was Sonoma County Airport, hitting 106 degrees."

 

Walz came to debate, Vance was just lying around

 

Is California killing fast-food jobs with new $20 hourly minimum wage? What new research says

Sacramento Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "Fast-food employers predicted big price hikes as a result of the implementation of a $20-an-hour minimum wage on April 1, but new research found the average price of a small burger rose by just 15 cents within six weeks of the April 1 pay raise.

 

Economist Michael Reich of the University of California, Berkeley, said he relished the chance to explore the impact of this new hourly wage floor because it is so much higher than any previous minimum wage and affected hundreds of thousands of workers. The minimum wage applied only to large franchises such as McDonald’s, Burger King and the like or to Starbucks, Jamba Juice and other chain coffeehouses and juice bars."