Proposition

Marijuana was a hot topic at a Thursday night forum covering the propositions on the Nov. 2 state ballot. While members of the League of Women Votes  went over all nine initiatives, ranging from billion-dollar tax loopholes to climate change, many of the two dozen attendees at  City Council chambers wanted to know more about Proposition 19. The measure would make marijuana use and cultivation legal in California, giving cities and counties...

A federal judge in San Francisco decided Thursday that an upcoming hearing on Proposition 8 would not be videotaped because of objections by backers of the ban on same-sex marriage.  The Monday hearing has been scheduled to determine whether videotapes of last year's historic federal Proposition 8 trial should be released to the public.  L.A. NOW

A federal judge in San Francisco, hearing arguments on whether to make public videotapes of last year's trial on Proposition 8, said Monday he generally favored the trend of bringing cameras into the courtroom but also was concerned about obeying “the rules.” Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Ware said he would issue a written opinion on whether to remove a seal on the video of the same-sex marriage trial that ended in a ruling declaring the...

The  legal battle over Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that reinstated a ban on same-sex marriage, will go before the California Supreme Court on Sept. 6, when the justices will hear arguments on whether initiative proponents are entitled to defend measures they sponsored. The state high court scheduled the hearing for 10 a.m. at its San Francisco courtroom. The justices will then have 90 days to decide whether state law gives proponents of ballot measures like Proposition 8 legal standing to defend them in court when state officials refuse to do so.  L.A. NOW

Terry Bailey This is the third of three parts in which the Glendale/Burbank League of Women Voters explains its positions on ballot measures to be decided by voters March 7. The Glendale/Burbank League of Women Voters is always nonpartisan. It does not support or oppose candidates or political parties. However, we are political because we support and oppose legislation, lobby legislators and take stands on ballot measures after study. Proposition 25 The Glendale/Burbank League of Women Voters opposes Proposition 25, 'Campaign Finance Reform.

A group of Glendale Community College professors Thursday discussed the details of measures that will appear on this November's special election ballot. The professors discussed seven of the eight initiatives that will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot, two of which propose pharmaceutical discounts. The other ballot initiatives propose changes to the state budgeting and redistricting process, teacher tenure, using public employees' union dues for political donations and the parent notification provision.

GLENDALE — As shoppers began turning out at the recently opened Americana at Brand, the mixed-use megaplex billed as the city’s chief catalyst for downtown redevelopment will stand as an example of the kind of project that might have been impossible to build under a new state law up for voter approval on June 3. The upcoming primary election contains only two ballot initiatives, both of which are viewed as competing eminent domain reforms...

Mark R. Madler An open primary measure on the Nov. 2 ballot has been described as either needed political reform or a way to narrow the options of voters throughout the state. Voters are asked to weigh in on whether they want to be able to choose any candidate in a primary election for state constitutional officers, members of the Legislature and members of Congress, regardless of political affiliation. The top two candidates receiving the most votes would be placed on the general election ballot.

Still fuming over orders to stand in the background of a gubernatorial news conference while brush fires raged around the county, Burbank and Glendale fire departments came out in opposition Thursday to a ballot proposition they claim would stifle their political involvement. If approved by voters in the special Nov. 8 election, Proposition 75 would require unions representing public employees to get permission from members before spending dues for political purposes.

Where is the big outcry from Realtors warning the public about Proposition 56? Are most of them too young to remember what it was like to own property in California in the mid-1970s? If so, let me tell you: Back then, there were no rules regarding property-tax increases. First, L.A. County would draw up its budget, then they would take the number of properties in L.A. and bill us proportional to the assessed valuation of each property to meet their needs for the year.

With absolute certainty, I am prepared a month before the election to predict the outcome in California: President Obama will carry the nation's largest state and Democrats will maintain dominance in both houses of the state Legislature. Of course everybody but the most ardent and optimistic partisan knows that since our general elections are more confirmations of the status quo than choices about which direction to take for our future. Sure, an unusually popular Republican could still win a state office now and again, even the governorship; but it's going to take a political earthquake to shake things up. Your vote still matters, though, and so do your values when it comes to the 11 ballot propositions that could raise taxes, bar unions from using payroll-deducted funds for politics, ban the death penalty, limit the three-strikes law to serious third offenses and so much more - or less, depending on your point of view.

Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway is urging donors in the Sacramento suburbs to push the author of Proposition 8 out of a heated Assembly race and rally around the GOPincumbent. In a letter to donors this week, Conway said Andy Pugno, author of the ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in California, was breaking his pledge not to campaign against the top GOP voter-getter in the June primary, Assemblywoman Beth Gaines (R-Rocklin), and mounting an "expensive and counter-productive campaign" against the incumbent.

More than three years after California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriage, an appeals court on Tuesday is set to decide whether Proposition 8 violates the federal Constitution. During oral arguments more than a year ago, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to be leaning toward ruling against Proposition 8 but expressed concern about procedural matters. Rallies are planned across California after the judges hand down their decision.

In the wake of a landmark U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision Tuesday overturning Proposition 8, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich released a statement admonishing what he called "activist judges with a political correctness agenda" bent on disenfranchising California voters. Antonovich, whose district includes Burbank, Glendale and La Crescenta, came down on the conservative side of a range of political reactions to the appellate panel's 2-1 decision which found that the Prop.

A federal appeals court appeared unlikely Thursday to throw out a ruling against Proposition 8 , the 2008 California measure that banned gay marriage, on the grounds the judge was in an undisclosed, long term same-sex relationship. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has been examining Proposition 8 for more than a year, also seemed reluctant to make public the videotapes of the historic, 12-day trial on Proposition 8's constitutionality. The panel met for two hours Thursday to hear peripheral issues in the fight over same-sex marriage: whether last year's ruling against Proposition 8 should be nullified because the judge was in a committed gay relationship and whether the videotapes of the trial should be unsealed.

The California Supreme Court appeared inclined Tuesday to give sponsors of ballot initiatives the right to defend them in court, a key issue in the federal dispute over Proposition 8. During an hour of arguments, several state high court justices suggested the initiative system would be rendered meaningless if there was no one to defend ballot measures from court challenges. This would be a victory for proponents of Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, because it allows them to appeal last year's ruling overturning the ballot measure.  L.A. NOW

A federal judge in San Francisco, hearing arguments on whether to make public videotapes of last year's trial on Proposition 8, said Monday he generally favored the trend of bringing cameras into the courtroom but also was concerned about obeying “the rules.” Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Ware said he would issue a written opinion on whether to remove a seal on the video of the same-sex marriage trial that ended in a ruling declaring the...

A federal judge in San Francisco decided Thursday that an upcoming hearing on Proposition 8 would not be videotaped because of objections by backers of the ban on same-sex marriage.  The Monday hearing has been scheduled to determine whether videotapes of last year's historic federal Proposition 8 trial should be released to the public.  L.A. NOW

The  legal battle over Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that reinstated a ban on same-sex marriage, will go before the California Supreme Court on Sept. 6, when the justices will hear arguments on whether initiative proponents are entitled to defend measures they sponsored. The state high court scheduled the hearing for 10 a.m. at its San Francisco courtroom. The justices will then have 90 days to decide whether state law gives proponents of ballot measures like Proposition 8 legal standing to defend them in court when state officials refuse to do so.  L.A. NOW

Verdugo Hills Golf Course, threatened for years by residential development, could be saved if funds from a Los Angeles clean-water bond are used to construct a stormwater treatment facility on the site, officials said. Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who is proposing the idea, told a group of about 60 people during a meeting of the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council's land-use committee earlier this week that if signed off on by his colleagues, about $20 million in Proposition O funds would be allocated to the project.