Scott Wiener

About 90% of bills that Newsom blocked this year passed with the support of more than two-thirds of legislators — enough to override a governor’s veto. But the Legislature hasn’t attempted to do so since 1979.

A Bay Area transit funding bill is delayed so supporters can seek consensus on how the money will be raised and distributed. Many California transit agencies are trying to avoid financial disaster and increase accountability.

Former Assembly Republican leader Marie Waldron and San Francisco Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener may not have a lot in common, but they’ve formed an unlikely alliance over psychedelic drugs.

The new top Democrat in the state Senate announces his leadership team and new committee chairpersons. He rewarded some allies who helped him win the post, and filled five of seven leadership posts with women or legislators of color.

Newsom signed two bills requiring large companies to report their financial risks posed by climate change as well as their annual greenhouse gases. But he will work with the Legislature to relax the 2026 deadlines.

From CalMatters political reporter Ben Christopher: In 2017, California lawmakers passed one of the state’s most controversial and consequential housing laws, but they included an expiration date — 2025 — to see how things panned out. Sen. Scott Wiener, the San Francisco Democrat who authored the bill, is pleased with the results so far. Monday, […]

Programming note: The newsletter will take a break on Monday, Jan. 16 for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. We’ll be back in your inbox Tuesday, Jan. 17. California’s projected $22.5 billion deficit means budget cuts are almost inevitable — much to the chagrin of climate activists, public health advocates and others who have criticized […]

Hanging over the heads of California’s newly sworn-in state lawmakers — and likely to be top of mind when they return to Sacramento next month — are the state’s intertwined housing and homelessness crises. That was made clear Tuesday, when Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco introduced for the third time a bill […]

Friday’s attack on Paul Pelosi, husband to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, that sent the 82-year-old to the hospital with a skull fracture and other serious injuries has cast a harsh light on the intertwined, deeply ingrained problems facing California and the nation with just a little over a week until the Nov. 8 […]

Although a California bill would have allowed vaccines for teens without parental consent made it to the final days of the legislative session, it failed to pass. Some legislators saw the bill as an “overreach” that undermined parental decisions.