Gov. Newsom’s State Budget | CA Wildfires Threaten Insurers | Book ‘Kernels of Resistance: Maize, Food Sovereignty, and Collective Power’

Insight With Vicki Gonzalez

Gov. Newsom unveils his 2025-26 state budget proposal. Also, how wildfires in LA could further threaten California's insurance market. Finally, the author of “Kernels of Resistance: Maize, Food Sovereignty, and Collective Power.”

Gov. Newsom’s State Budget

January is when state lawmakers get a ballpark idea of the funding they have to work with. Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a $322 billion state budget plan. Over the coming months, the governor and legislators will negotiate budget priorities, before the June deadline to finalize a budget. H.D. Palmer is the spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, which is part of the governor’s administration, and joins us with a deeper look into Newsom’s fiscal priorities. Chris Hoene, Executive Director of the nonpartisan California Budget & Policy Center, also joins us with their response to the governor’s budget proposal.

CA Wildfires Threaten Insurers

California has already been struggling with keeping insurance companies in the state, as wildfires have grown increasingly destructive. And the threat of being dropped by an insurer may increase as multiple winter wildfires ravage the Los Angeles area. Christopher Flavelle is a reporter with the New York Times and has covered the effects of wildfires on California’s insurance market for almost a decade. We’ll learn about the potential consequences and risks that homeowners may have to shoulder across the state.

Book ‘Kernels of Resistance: Maize, Food Sovereignty, and Collective Power’

Liza Grandia is a cultural anthropologist, as well as a professor and Chair of Native American Studies at UC Davis. She joins Insight to discuss her book Kernels of Resistance: Maize, Food Sovereignty, and Collective Power which is described as “A David and Goliath story of how Indigenous movements in Mexico and Guatemala faced down one of the most powerful and reviled corporations on the planet.... and won.”