SacTown Talks

Daniel Wallach legal sports gaming experts. He presented earlier in the year to both the California Assembly and the Senate arguing about the legality of sport gaming in CA. He got his start in gaming with New Jersey sport betting cases in 2011 and became the go to expert on that case and then moved more fully into gaming law. He and Jarhett discuss the current history of sports betting across the...

Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian AD-46 joins SacTown Talks. He says working from home was reminiscent of a campaign but in a more comfortable environment and that working in the legislature in 2008-09 was preparation for COVID budget issues. They then look deeply at the discussion between the Governor and Legislature over the budget. He argues that it would be more disruptive to cut programs in June...

Senator Bill Dodd joins SacTown Talks again for an illuminating look inside the work the legislature is doing to fill the budget gap left by COVID-19. They discuss sports betting, his new bill, SCA 6, and the tensions between different gaming stakeholders. They then turn to the overall state of the budget, how the federal response hasn’t reached many of his constituents, and his worries over touri...

This week Jarhett is joined by Calfornia State Senator Andreas Borgeas (SD8) and Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (AD65). Senator Andreas Borgeas discusses how Covid-19 has changed the legislative experience, and how well his staff has responded to help constituents, the need to take the virus seriously with tracing, resources and testing. He talks about his journey to the Senate, from internatio...

SacTown Talks welcomes two guests this week. First Senator Scott Wiener (SD-04) joins us discussing how being a politician has changed in the COVID era, legislative priorities, especially help for the hospitality industry, and how the pandemic has cast a bright light on inequities in CA.     00:29:41:08 - Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (AD-04) discusses how her district has been battle tested...

SacTown Talks welcomes Assemblymember Jay Obernolte. He discussed how sheltering-in-place was busier than normal for the legislature and staff and the surreal nature of social distance legislating during COVID-19.  Then he and Jarhett get into the details of the budget process, the use of the Committee of the Whole, Governor Newsom’s May Revise, proposed revenue increases, and his guiding principl...

SacTown Talks welcomes Jim Wyatt of the President of the California Entertainment Machine Association. He explains who his association represents, discusses the effect COVID-19 has had on his association members, and the downstream effects of COVID-19 closures, how CEMA has compiled best practices to meet the challenge of operating during and after the Covid-19 pandemic to protect public health, a...

Nick Sanders of the Sutton Law Firm discusses what political law is and how it works, how his work has changed since the shutdown, the question of remote voting in the Assembly and Senate, how the initiative and referendum process works, which initiatives have qualified and which are likely to qualify, and how the process works. He also discusses the past  and future of getting initiatives on the...

SacTown Talks has Scott Ostlund, Senior Vice President of Lee & Associates on the pod. Scott talks about the burden being put on commercial real estate by COVID-19, how commercial property works in CA, the split-roll initiative, and who is really harmed by raising taxes. Then he discussed the difficulties of building in CA, how to fix the housing crisis, rent control in CA and the law of unintende...

SacTown Talks welcome the mayor of Gardena, CA, Tasha Cerda. Mayor Cerda talks about how she started in public service, the effect of COVID-19 on Gardena. She discusses how city government functions during the crisis, the coming revenue shortfalls do to COIVID-19, how deferring sales tax will hurt city governments, being the chairwoman of the California Cities for Self Reliance Joint Powers Author...

SacTown Talks introduces the new host, Jarhett Blonien. Jarehett interviews Sid Lakireddy, the president of California Rental Housing Association. They discuss what CalRHA does, what the organizations response to COVID-19, their renters assistance proposal, possible solutions to the housing crisis, and other rental housing issues.   Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @Sactowntalks