Sacramento lobby firm Capitol Advocacy celebrates 20 years this month - founder John Latimer sat down with the Capitol Weekly Podcast to talk about the nuts and bolts of the of lobbying business, the impact - or not - of term limits, and what's changed since he launched the firm two decades ago.

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With the new administration, the capitol has seen an influx of fresh staffers, many of whom are new to the Sacramento area. Where, they ask, does one go to eat, drink and be merry in this burg? If this describes you - no worries, Becky Grunewald has you covered. The longtime Sacto food critic offered a short list of favorites in a recent Capitol Weekly article (http://capitolweekly.net/newbies-eat-drink-sacramento/), which, like most lists, immediately came under fire from readers on social media. She sat down with the Capitol Weekly Podcast to talk about her choices and offer some other options for those willing to venture off the grid.

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Bob Wieckowski is more than just the Senator from California's 10th Senate District - he's also a bankruptcy lawyer, giving him unique insight into utility giant PG&E's recent bankruptcy declaration. John Howard and Tim Foster visited the Senator in his office to chat about the difference between federal and state bankruptcy laws, what happens to the companies with existing or pending contracts with PG&E and the status of fire victims' insurance claims. All that, plus the story behind all those framed photos of blues musicians on the walls of his office.

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Pacific Gas and Electric filed for bankruptcy protection on January 29, citing billions of dollars in potential liabilities from the utility giant's likely role in sparking a series of devastating California wildfires. San Francisco Chronicle reporter JD Morris has been covering the case and joins John Howard and Tim Foster to discuss the ramifications of bankruptcy including the possibility that the venerable California company may be broken up.

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Longtime California environmentalist Paul Mason sits down with Capitol Weekly's John Howard and Tim Foster for a wide-ranging discussion covering wildfires, the status of California's forests, Julia Butterfly Hill, John's 1980 Volkswagen Scirocco and the shifting focus of the state's environmental movement in the face of global climate change crisis. Also: a shameless plug for Capitol Weekly's internship program!

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Columnist and reporter Dan Walters has been covering the career of Governor Jerry Brown since 1975, first in the pages of the Sacramento Union, then the Sacramento Bee, and currently for CALmatters. A frequent critic of the quixotic governor, Oakland Mayor and near-perennial presidential candidate, Walters has had a unique vantage point on Brown's many ups and downs - tracking his peripatetic career up close and in real time for over four decades. As Brown prepares to leave what is likely his final public office, Walters sat down with the Capitol Weekly Podcast to talk about Jerry Brown's legacy.

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Here it is, December 11 and the final count of ballots cast in California's November 6 election was certified less than a week ago. And, as Jim Brulte and Kevin McCarthy have sadly noted, many GOP Election Night "wins" fell to Democrats as the final votes were tallied. Why? How? Nooner publisher and all-around politics expert Scott Lay joins us to talk about California's vote-counting process and just why it takes SOOOOO long.

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In the wake of declining registration numbers and a devastating election in November, California Republicans are searching for a path back to relevance in the Golden State. Many Latino Republicans have voiced strong opposition to the GOP's current direction, decrying the Nationalist-leaning "Trump Wing" of the Party that has embraced loaded racial rhetoric and calls for a wall between California and Mexico. Latino GOP consultants Luis Alvarado and Mike Madrid sat down with the Capitol Weekly Podcast to discuss the state of the California Republican Party from their different vantage points: Madrid sees a Party in deep decline, having abandoned Conservative ideals in favor of white identity politics; Alvarado offers a glass-half-full view, defending the campaign of failed Gubernatorial candidate John Cox and looking for the bread and butter issues that will drive voters back to the GOP. Sparks fly as Alvarado and Madrid hash out their ideas about saving the Party that each has devoted his professional life to.

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Former Assemblyman Dennis Mangers was elected to represent Orange County's AD73 in 1976 - swept to power in the Democratic wave that followed Watergate. The district reverted to form four years later when Mangers lost his seat to Republican Nolan Frizzelle. The district voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 - the first Dem presidential candidate to capture Orange County since FDR - and this month elected Democrat Harley Rouda to replace Dana Rohrabacher in congress. We sat down with Mangers to chat about the changes that have turned Orange County blue (or maybe purple) and about life after elected office. These days Mangers is an adviser to Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg and is busy supporting the Dennis Mangers Fund for Young Performing Artists.

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Assemblymember Ian Calderon's "Straw Law," AB1884, seeks to lessen the number of single-use plastic straws that end up in the ocean and other waterways. The bill, which has passed both Senate and Assembly and is now awaiting concurrence before heading to the governor's desk, would require sit-down restaurants in California to forgo automatically placing a straw in every drink, and instead only provide straws when requested by a customer. Environment California's State Director Dan Jacobson joins the podcast this week to talk about AB1884 and other pending environmental legislation, including SB100, which would mandate that all energy used in California come from renewable resources by 2045.

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