California's voter-approved, $3 billion stem cell agency, which goes its own way out of the control of the governor or Legislature, is going public, sort of. The move, in effect today for the first time, apparently was inspired by State Treasurer John Chiang.
From David Jensen in Capitol Weekly: "With no fanfare, California’s $3 billion stem cell agency is making a significant step forward in openness and transparency regarding the dealings of its governing board, which operates outside of the control of the governor and Legislature."
"Tuesday’s meeting of the directors’ Science Subcommittee will be available live for the first time — for all practical purposes — on the Internet and as an audiocast, including access to presentations that are used at the meeting. The agency intends to allow public access for other directors’ subcommittee meetings as well."
"The move appears to be patterned after action by state Treasurer John Chiang, whose office holds many public meetings involving sometimes billions of dollars. Last summer he added an audiocast feature to treasurer’s meetings."
One thing about California politics: You can't say the trivial is ignored.
A lawmaker wants people to be able to take "selfies" in the voting booth -- something that is illegal, although many already do it.
From the LAT's Christine Mai-Duc: "Beyonce’s done it, Sean Hannity’s done it, and we all know Kim Kardashian has done it too. Now a Bay Area lawmaker wants all California voters to be able to do it too, without the threat of arrest."
"That is, take selfies in the voting booth."
"A new bill sponsored by Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) would legalize so-called “ballot selfies” and allow citizens to share photos of themselves voting on social media. “People are taking pictures of their dogs, they’re taking pictures of their dinner, so let’s take pictures of voting,” Levine said in an interview. “It’s time to make voting cool and ubiquitous, and ballot selfies are a powerful way to do that.”
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in the landmark Friedrichs vs. CTA case, which challenges the right of public unions to require "fare share" fees from their workers. Well, the verdict is in, at least from the reporters: The high court is leaning to the side of the anti-union forces.
From John Fensterwald in EdSource: "Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices were what news reports called hostile in their questioning of union lawyers Monday during arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case that could undercut the financial stability and the political clout of public employee unions in California and nearly two dozen states (see news stories here, here, and here)."
"Ten teachers in California who declined to join their local unions filed the lawsuit against the state and the 300,000-member CTA, charging that a state law requiring them to pay fees to cover bargaining costs coerces them to support a union whose positions they disagree with, violating their First Amendment speech rights."
"The plaintiffs want the court to overturn a four-decades-old court decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. That ruling said non-union employees don’t have to pay that portion of union dues that underwrites the union’s political activities, including the costs of backing candidates and lobbying governments on issues not related to working conditions and pay. But the court said that states could require all employees to pay “fair-share” or “agency” fees to cover costs related to negotiating working conditions and bread-and-butter pay matters, since the union represents members and non-members alike. In California, fair-share dues make up about 40 percent of a union member’s dues"
The SCTUS decision in Friedrichs could have a major impact on California's political landscape by potentially limiting funds to the unions' political activity.
From the Bee's Dan Walters: The decision won’t come down for months – too late for it to make a difference in union political activities this year."
"However, if the court rules as expected, it could make a big dent in the future political power of California’s public unions."
"The big unknown is how much unions’ membership would drop if their dues become voluntary, rather than mandatory. Unions that represent relatively highly paid workers such as teachers, cops, firefighters and engineers would probably weather the storm fairly well."
Meanwhile, the state's political watchdog released documents detailing improper conduct by a former health care regulator who left to work for Kaiser.
The LAT's Patrick McGreevy tells the tale: "During the six months she worked on the Kaiser audit in 2012, Gallagher “helped pick” the audit team, developed the scope of work, counseled the audit analysts, “advised on documents to be requested from Kaiser," and reviewed and edited the preliminary audit report, according to the state Fair Political Practices Commission."
"The FPPC said that after Gallagher left her state job and went to work for Kaiser, she helped the firm defend itself against the audit findings. She has agreed to pay a $3,000 administrative fine to the FPPC for violating a ban on state administrators taking pay to assist firms in the same audit proceedings in which they participated before leaving their state job.
"Gallagher said she complied with rules prohibiting her from appearing before her former state agency for one year, but FPPC officials said she violated a separate ban on assisting Kaiser in its dealings with the state agency. Gallagher did not respond to requests for comment Monday."
And finally, a note to our readers from our "Shameless Self-Promotion File." Data guru Paul Mitchell and Capitol Weekly are teaming up starting Jan. 18 on a new feature, "CA120," that regularly will provide a mix of numbers and text to examine contemporary issues in California. We'll target politics and government, as well as cultural and social issues.
"The heavy lifting here will be done by Mitchell, one of the state’s top data experts. He is vice president of Political Data Inc, and owner of Redistricting Partners. Mitchell has been an early contributor to Capitol Weekly, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news and information web site that specializes in state government and politics."
"Mitchell often serves as a source for media organizations around the country on voter engagement, redistricting and elections. Paul has served as an expert witness before the courts on complex issues, including racially polarized voting and state and federal voting rights laws. A competitive cyclist, he also did a project in 2015 tracking social media traffic during the Tour d’ France looking at daily trends for athletes, companies and cycling-related publications."
"Capitol Weekly Editor John Howard will provide editing and oversight, with the goal of using the data to describe the themes and context necessary to connect people to the intriguing world of databases and number crunching."
