Politics

Being what it is, California has a mélange of complex public policy issues – some of them fully blown crises – that defy resolution year after year, decade after decade.

Democratic governors in 20 states are launching a network intended to strengthen abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision nixing a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy and instead shifting regulatory powers over the procedure to state governments.

As early as this week, a federal judge could once again rule to overturn California's longstanding ban on assault weapons. The ruling -- which would come from Judge Roger Benitez -- is believed to be imminent, according to Kostas Moros, a lawyer representing the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

California doesn’t really need 2,600 new laws, right? Nevertheless, state lawmakers proposed 500 new bills on Friday, the 2023 session’s introduction deadline, bringing the total to about 2,600. That’s the most in more than a decade, according to veteran Capitol lobbyist Chris Micheli.

They were led down a staircase into a garage beneath a downtown Atlanta courthouse, where officers with big guns were waiting. From there, they were ushered into vans with heavily tinted windows and driven to their cars under police escort.