With Memorial Day - one of the biggest camping holidays of the year - coming up next Monday, we thought we'd check in on the status of California's State Parks. We're joined this week by Gloria Sandoval, Deputy Director of Public Affairs for State Parks who tells us how to get into your favorite park - and offers tips on what to do if your first option is booked.

As pandemic restrictions lift, Californians are returning to Parks in record numbers. California State Parks saw 75 million visitors a year, pre-COVID - based on early numbers, 2021 may shatter that number.

Sandoval, and hosts John Howard and Tim Foster, share suggestions for unique State Park experiences, like camping on a beach, and the only town in California that is also a State Park!  Plus: Who had the Worst Week in California Politics?

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Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D) represents the 64th Assembly District, which includes communities that are among some of those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic: Carson, Compton, Gardena, South Los Angeles, Torrance and Watts. Gipson is the chair of the committee on Infectious Diseases, and introduced AB1038, a bill to create a $180 million California Health Equity Fund that would address health and social inequities that have been exacerbated by COVID-19. He joined us to talk about AB1038, and his other priorities, including AB490, the Angelo Quinto Act, which would ban the use of chokeholds by police.

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We are joined this episode by Lande Ajose, chair of the Governor’s Council for Postsecondary Education - a big job as California colleges prepare to reopen campuses to students post-pandemic. Ajose helped prepare the recently-released "Recovery With Equity" roadmap for California’s postsecondary systems to come back from the pandemic more financially resilient and positioned to more equitably serve California students. Also: the plight of the adjunct professor, the difficulties of getting accepted to college, and the importance of "College Knowledge" in a community. Plus: The #WorstWeekCA!

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When we invited freshman Assemblymember Alex Lee (D - San Jose) to come on the podcast we planned to discuss his ambitious policy proposals, like Universal Health Care, a Wealth Tax, and a ban on corporate donations to political candidates. What we didn't expect was that those discussions would all be in the past tense.

Lee had a rough week: his proposal for a Wealth Tax didn't make the deadline to get out of committee, and AB20, a bill that would have banned corporate donations to candidates, not only failed to get out of Thursday's meeting of the Elections Committee, but also earned Lee a public, on-camera dressing down from committee chair Marc Berman (D - Menlo Park), who called the bill "misleading," and chided Lee for failing to address what he characterized as gaping loopholes in the bill's language. And AB1400, the Universal Health Care bill, didn't even make it to this week, having been put on the shelf the week prior (presumably to the relief of Gov. Newsom, who won't have to take a position before the Recall.)

Asm. Lee seems to have taken his lumps in stride. He spoke with us about lessons learned during his first five months in office, and about his other legislative priorities, including AB1509, which would address the inequities in sentencing enhancements, and AB339, which would make permanent the COVID-era allowance for remote participation (i.e. call-in and Zoom) in public hearings.

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Veteran journalist and university professor Sigrid Bathen, who has written extensively about California's mental health policies, joins Tim Foster and John Howard on the Podcast to chat about what is rapidly becoming a hot political issue -- having mental health clinicians accompany police officers on some emergency calls, such as family disturbances. The "cops and clinicians" movement is capturing attention. She also touches on the "5150" involuntary hold, the dispute over "Laura's Law" and our mental hospitals.

And Tim and John ponder Who had the Worst Week in California Politics?

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We're joined today by Matt Rexroad, redistricting expert and the former mayor of Woodland and member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. Since leaving public office Matt has shut down his longtime firm, Meridian Pacific, and moved on to Redistricting Insights, whose motto is "fair lines produce good government." Rexroad knows something about fair lines, having been involved in California's first redistricting effort following the creation of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2008. Rexroad offers his thoughts on the upcoming congressional reapportionment, the abrupt resignation of Daniel Claypool, the Executive Director of the Redistricting Commission and the likelihood of success for the attempt to recall Governor Newsom.

And, we begin a new feature this week: Who had the Worst Week in California Politics? Tune in to find out!

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Former state senator Holly J. Mitchell was elected last year to a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing District 2 - the same district in which she was born and raised. Term limits have turned the traditional local-government-to-legislature pipeline on its head, as has the stratospheric growth of LA: as a Supervisor, Mitchell represents twice as many constituents as she once did in the senate.

The LA Board of Supes - known for years as the "five little kings" - are "kings" no more. With Mitchell's election, the Board is, for the first time, made up entirely of women. Two of the other Supervisors, Hilda Solis and Sheila Kuehl, are, like Mitchell, former state legislators.

The Supervisor joined us on this week's podcast to talk about her transition from the capitol to the county, her priorities as a local official, and the governor's drop-in at a 2nd District site to get his COVID vaccine at the beginning of the month. We also asked how her district - one of the hardest hit by COVID - has been dealing with the pandemic. And, finally, we asked the question on everyone's mind: Where in the heck is North Shoestring?

Closing tune is "Dreamer" by Black Violin

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We welcomed the longtime but soon-to-be-retired Metropolitan Water District of Southern California head honcho Jeff Kightlinger for a wide-ranging discussion that covered the status of the Delta Tunnel Project, climate change and the snow survey, the drought, working from home, jukeboxes, his punk rock roots and Dan Walters' connection to the Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra. WHEW.

Closing tune is "Reservoir" by Pup. https://puptheband.bandcamp.com

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Veteran political strategist Bill Wong has been a longtime leader in California's Asian Pacific Islander political community, and is a recognized expert on AAPI voters. While Wong should have been celebrating last week's appointment of Rob Bonta as California Attorney General - the first Filipino American to hold the office - he was instead dealing with the fallout of a nationwide spree of racially-motivated attacks, culminating in a mass shooting in Georgia that claimed the lives of six Asian women. He joined us this week to talk about the attacks, Bonta's appointment and the importance of the AAPI community in California politics.

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Democratic political strategist Garry South joins us to talk about the potential recall of Governor Gavin Newsom. South is uniquely positioned to weigh in on the subject: he headed Governor Gray Davis' 1998 and 2002 gubernatorial campaigns, and ran Gavin Newsom's first campaign for Governor back in 2009.

South notes that the current recall effort will qualify for the ballot only because of the unique circumstances of 2020: the usual four-month signature-gathering period was extended - doubled, in fact - due to the pandemic, allowing organizers to meet the requisite 1,495,709 signatures.

Also, since South correctly predicted that Alex Padilla would be Gov. Newsom's pick to replace Kamala Harris in the US Senate, we asked him who he thinks will be named Attorney General to replace Xavier Becerra. (Hint: it's not a certain big-city mayor.)

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