Blog
Capital & Main: After the Vote: Electorate Passed Prop. 56 Cigarette Tax by Huge Margin
California voters on Tuesday approved state Proposition 56 by an overwhelming 63-37 percent margin to create a new excise tax of $2 per pack on cigarettes and other tobacco products. The margin of victory was a shock: Similar ballot initiatives failed in 2012 and 2006, and tobacco companies spent $71 million to blitz the state with dramatic advertising urging a No vote.
Capital & Main: Ballot Bullies: Big Tobacco Goes All Out to Kill Proposition 56
The old-school image of a rock star was a guy smoking a cigarette, and Tris Imboden was that guy. As the drummer for the band Chicago for the past quarter-century, or on the road with Kenny Loggins or Chaka Khan, smokes were just part of what it meant to be a musician. What it meant to be cool.
Capital & Main: California Comeback: Healing a Crippled Community College System
Eduardo Vargas enrolled at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park during the fall of 2011 looking to help his financially troubled family, but then found he had to wrestle with a problem he had not foreseen: a crippled community college system.
Capital & Main: California Doubles Down on Its Green Economy, But Kicks Cap-and-Trade Down the Road
Dean Kuipers on why Sacramento punted on Cap-and-Trade.
Capital & Main: Green State, Golden State: Clean Energy Policy Creates Good Jobs
California’s deserts are blooming with windmills and solar farms and, according to a new University of California, Berkeley report, these large-scale projects are creating top quality jobs.