Politics

Comment on this storyCommentSAN DIEGO — California voters would decide whether to fund a major expansion of housing and treatment for residents suffering from mental illness and addiction, under the latest proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom to address the state’s homelessness crisis.Newsom announced Sunday that he will ask allies in the Democratic-controlled Legislature for a measure on the 2024 ballot to authorize funding to build residential facilities where over 10,000 people a year could live and be treated. The plan is the latest by the governor who took office in 2019 vowing to own the issue of homelessness in a state where an estimated 171,000 were unhoused last year.“This is the next step in our transformation of how California addresses mental illness, substance use disorder and hom...

The Insurance and Real Estate Committee hit a roadblock Tuesday when Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, spent several hours questioning Committee Co-Chair Rep. Kerry Wood, D-Rocky Hill, over House Bill 6710, which would allow trade associations to offer large group health plans to their members. The bill would make available a new, potentially more affordable insurance option for small businesses and nonprofits, and it has bipartisan support. But the legislation has met with strong opposition from patient advocates concerned that such plans could destabilize the insurance market and may discriminate against people with illness or injuries. Lesser ultimately wrapped up his questions after he said he spoke offline to Gov. Ned Lamont’s staff, who offered to “mediate” over conc...

Announcement from Features Executive Editor Ben Williams, Deputy Features Editor Mitch Rubin, and Assignment Editor Steve Kolowich:We are excited to announce that Jesús Rodríguez will be joining The Washington Post as a political reporter in Style.Jesús comes to us from Politico Magazine, where he wrote features about politics and law as a staff writer, including on Democrats’ legal strategy against election denialism, the country’s only mobile vasectomy clinic in post-Roe Missouri and George Santos’s life in Congress. Previously, he was a contributing editor there.Jesús, who is originally from Maracaibo, Venezuela, has a bachelor’s degree in international politics and a law degree from Georgetown University. He resides in Washington.His first day will be March 20. Please join us in wel...