state politics

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; In the cut-throat property services industry, building contracts turn over quickly.&nbsp; A janitor like Maria Trujillo might find out at the end of her shift in the hospital where she works that the contractor that employs her has been replaced—something that’s happened to her three times in six years.</p>

<p><strong>Connie Conway </strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Independence Day came early this year for hard-working California taxpayers.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; On July 1, higher taxes that began two years ago expired and the average California family will see a $1,000 dollars in tax savings.</p>

<p><strong>New America Media</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now that the California Citizens Redistricting Commission has approved new political boundaries for the state, civil rights groups are weighing what impact the maps will have on communities of color.</p>

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Although President Obama continues to meet with top House and Senate Republicans in an effort to reach a budget agreement before the August 2nd deadline for raising the debt limit, it is unclear how far-reaching the final deal will be.</p>

<p><strong>New America Media</strong></p>
<p><strong>LOS ANGELES</strong>—Alarmed at the way the new California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CCRC) has done its work so far and worried that the resulting electoral maps could have dire consequences for communities of color over the next 10 years, civil rights groups have taken matters into their own hands.</p>

<p><strong>New America Media</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The first batch of political maps by California’s new Citizens Redistricting Commission is having exactly the effect that government reformers intended—shaking up the political status quo by ignoring incumbents and promising to make many statewide elections more competitive.</p>

<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; In California, the state government currently spends more than $34 billion a year paying private contractors to do jobs that civil servants can perform for half the cost. Another $900 million of taxpayer funds is wasted annually propping up the state’s failed enterprise zone program. Common sense dictates that any proposal to balance the state budget begin here.</p>

<p><strong>New America Media</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A powerful new governmental body has quietly begun a task that will have far-reaching consequences for the rights of minority voters throughout California for years to come.</p>