The Public Policy Institute of California released a poll Wednesday showing that likely voters are opposed to spending $68 billion on high-speed rail by a margin of 54 to 43 percent. And who could blame them? They voted in 2008 to endorse a $42.6 billion plan that would require $9.95 billion in state bonds and the rest from the federal government and private funding.
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The man authorities say threatened to assassinate state Sen. Leland Yee is a well-connected Silicon Valley engineer with a penchant for firearms and a distrust of the government. And though Yee is no stranger to threats, this one reached a new level of sophistication, the senator said Thursday.
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It is easy to spark a lively debate in California with just six syllables: Proposition 13. Arguments over the voter-approved 1978 tax reform initiative have reverberated through the state capital for decades. Politicians — even the many who opposed it — have generally avoided the measure like unfavorable publicity.
But the political winds are shifting. Talk of Prop. 13 reform is all the rage, with several San Francisco state legislators taking up the cause.
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In this last of a four-part series examining the legislative accomplishments of our local elected officials, we turn to state Sen. Leland Yee.
Like his San Francisco colleagues in the statehouse, Yee was elected to state office after serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 2002, Yee joined the state Assembly and was elected to the Senate in 2006, where he has served ever since. Yee is termed-out in 2014.
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Democrats in California might possibly have pulled off a feat not accomplished in our state since 1933, which was the last time that one party captured a simultaneous supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature. The potential for a supermajority in the state Capitol now puts a spotlight on the party and what it can accomplish toward fixing our state’s structural problems.
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San Francisco’s state lawmakers are firmly Democratic, and there is hardly any doubt that voters will continue to select Democrats as their representatives in Sacramento when heading to the polls.
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The Friday deadline for the state Legislature to pass a pension-reform measure is fast approaching, and the aptly named “special” committee on public pensions has allotted a whole two hearings on the matter next week.
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In the weeks leading up to the June election, a campaign ad in support of the ballot’s tobacco tax measure blasted a doctor who spoke against the tax, telling voters to “Get a Second Opinion.”
And that’s just what one man is doing.
The $1 tobacco tax, Proposition 29, failed by the narrowest of margins — 24,076 out of 5,161,506 votes cast. Now San Francisco doctor John Maa is demanding a statewide recount, the first in California history.
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California lawmakers are putting the finishing touches on a law that would prohibit public agencies from disabling cellphone service without probable cause and a court order. This bill is a much-needed free speech protection that was born out of a dark day at BART.
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The California state Senate gave a nod of approval to the state's high-speed rail plan on Friday in a make-or-break vote for funding to start construction on a project whose overall cost has been pegged at $68 billion.The project, expected to take decades to complete, was championed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, who says a bullet train network will boost job creation and provide an alternative to car and plane travel in the country's most populous state.
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