Doug LaMalfa (born July 2, 1960, in Oroville, California) is an American politician currently serving in the California State Senate. He is a Republican representing the 4th district, encompassing Del Norte, Siskiyou, Shasta, Trinity, Tehama, Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Sutter, and Yuba counties, as well as parts of Nevada and Placer counties. Prior to his election to the state senate, he served in the California State Assembly, representing the 2nd district.

LaMalfa is a fourth generation rice farmer and a lifelong Northern California resident. He and his wife, Jill, along with their four children, make their home on the family farm in Richvale, California. LaMalfa graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor's degree in Ag/Business. He manages the family farming business originally founded by his great-grandfather in 1931.

LaMalfa was elected as a founding director of the California Rice Commission from Butte County. LaMalfa also served on the Domestic Promotion Committee of the USA Rice Federation. He was chairman of the Richvale Foundation Boosters, an organization dedicated to maintaining the profitability of the Richvale Café a community meeting facility. LaMalfa is an owner and manager of the Dsl Lamalfa Family Partnership. Since 1995, Dsl Lamalfa Family Partnership received payments totaling $4,694,840 in federal commodity subsidies.

Michael A. Hiltzik (born November 9, 1952 in New York City) is an American reporter and writer who has written extensively for the Los Angeles Times. In 1999, he shared the beat reporting Pulitzer Prize for co-writing an exposé of corruption in the music industry. In 2004, he won a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.

He was a journalist at the Buffalo Courier-Express (Buffalo, New York) 1974-1978 and bureau chief 1976-1978. He was a staff writer at the Providence Journal-Bulletin (Providence, Rhode Island) 1979-1981. He joined The Los Angeles Times as a financial writer 1981-1983, and was its financial correspondent in New York City 1982-1988, Nairobi bureau chief 1988-1993, Moscow correspondent 1993-1994. He was a financial staff writer, editor, and columnist at the Times 1994-2006. More recently, he began writing a column about business and economic issues in the US West Coast.

He won Silver Gavel award from the American Bar Association and the Overseas Press Club cited his reporting on East African issues. In 1996 he was a finalist for two Pulitzer Prizes, for his reporting on health care issues in California and his reporting on a major entertainment merger between Disney and ABC.

Norman Maurice Goldman (born March 17, 1959) is an American attorney and talk radio host.

Goldman first broadcast nationally as a fill-in host for The Ed Schultz Show in 2006, as well as creating colorful segments as the show's Senior Legal Analyst, —responsibilities that he continues to this day. He began hosting his own radio show in 2009, syndicated by Compass Media Networks.

Born in New York City, Goldman was orphaned at age eleven, resulting in his remaining childhood being based from New York orphanages. He graduated from high school in 1976 at age seventeen.

Goldman graduated from Hunter College of The City University of New York with a B.A. degree in political science. He then attended and graduated from law school on a full scholarship at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. He passed the California Bar Exam at age 26.

Goldman was the plaintiff's attorney in Krumme vs. Mercury, a 2002 lawsuit in California. Both the trial court and the California Court of Appeal found for the plaintiffs that the insurance companies were mislabelling agents as independent brokers. The court upheld damages and attorney's fees. An insurance industry journal has described the case as "infamous". Goldman also represented plantiffs in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court against Auto Insurance Specialists accusing the company of paying sales money to an insurer in exchange for commissions.