Opinion
OPINION: Now that it’s reconvened, the state Legislature faces critical decisions about where and how to spend over $1 billion raised by the state’s cap-and-trade program to fight climate change. Those decisions will affect the lives, health and jobs of millions of Californians, and will have an outsized impact on those facing pollution and poverty.
News
A worried Herald Fire Protection District board discussed the possibility last week that the fee for leaving CalPERS may be around $400,000, an amount some members fear could push the small district in southern Sacramento County into bankruptcy. Earlier this month, Transparent California reported that the suburban Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District has 216 retirees receiving annual pensions of $100,000 or more, and a dozen of those are $200,000, or more.
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California is facing a primary care physician shortage, and one of the only solutions to address it is sitting on the edge of a fiscal cliff. The Teaching Health Center program, which places new resident physicians in underserved communities, will lose federal funding unless Congress acts to reauthorize it by Sept. 30.
Opinion
OPINION: The stated mission of this bill is to drastically reduce the number of individuals detained during pretrial. SB 10, written by Sen. Hertzberg, threatens the safety of victims by allowing the elimination of the private bail sector. The bail system in the state is no longer the determining factor. Instead, a computer program that makes a risk assessment of each arrested individual replaces the current system
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CalPERS is a leader in forming a first-ever global alliance of large investors that would use its combined shareholder clout to engage companies with the most carbon emissions, believed by scientists to contribute to climate change. The CalPERS board was told last week that its staff is working with others to complete the plan in time for an introduction at a United Nations investor meeting next month in Berlin, followed by a public launch in November at a UN climate change meeting in Bonn.
Opinion
OPINION: Aliso Canyon was the biggest methane well blowout in U.S. history, and we still don’t know why it happened. The California Public Utilities Commission and Brown administration regulators just reopened the facility without the necessary environmental and safety reviews, so we have no way of knowing if it will happen again.
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It was ‘way back in 1984 when Arnold Schwarzenegger first uttered the movie catchwords “I’ll be back” in The Terminator. Today, Arnold is back. Sort of. Now, through his Terminate Gerrymandering Crowdpac, Schwarzenegger has committed to match donations to a fund that will help Common Cause participate in a case before the Supreme Court challenging maps drawn by Wisconsin Republicans. He’s into other things, as well.
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Los Angeles jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay damages of $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on years of using the company’s baby powder for feminine hygiene. It was the first California trial in the mushrooming legal battle over links between genital use of talc and ovarian cancer, and the award against J&J on Monday was by far the largest so far.
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Millennials haven’t inherited the best batch of goods from baby boomers. They got a housing crisis, a shaky job market, and some enormous student loans. But until recently, viral hepatitis was the burden of boomers alone to bear. Now, millennials are also facing an outbreak of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV).
Opinion
OPINION: A current law that is supposed to protect seniors and all electricity customers from paying for power that was purchased for other customers is not working. A broad coalition of senior groups and dozens of others is encouraging the Senate committee to discuss the fair allocation of costs for clean energy and other long-term contracts that were purchased to meet our state’s clean energy goals
Pollution over Long Beach on a clear day. (Photo: Katharine Moore)
