News
The California cannabis conundrum: A lot more weed, a lot less money. Since Proposition 64 took effect earlier this year, the cannabis industry has raked in nearly $135 million of revenue for the state through sales taxes, not including local jurisdiction taxes. Even with increased sales each quarter, some officials are calling the revenue “substantially below projections.”
News
A sweeping new California Supreme Court ruling restricting who is an independent contractor is shaking up an exceptionally diverse range of industries. The ruling, issued in April, affects an estimated 2 million independent contractors working in healthcare, beauty salons, gig economy jobs like Uber and Lyft, journalism, music, real estate, education, financial planning, agriculture, construction, technology, insurance, transportation and more
Analysis
On Aug. 6, President Donald Trump made his first Twitter statement on California’s summer fire season, which started on June 1. Unlike his statement on last year’s Wine Country fires, when the president tweeted condolences to victims of the fires and support for the firefighters, Trump used these latest natural disasters to troll California with nonsense.
News
As California’s largest wildfire moved swiftly, the internet speed in the area slowed to a crawl: Verizon choked it down to the first responders battling the Mendocino Complex blaze. Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, says a new law is necessary to protect first responders’ access to high-speed internet, although Verizon acknowledged the move and quickly apologized.
News
The first sign that Rob Purdie had valley fever was when he woke up one day with what felt like a hangover but he hadn’t taken a drink. He had a splitting headache that was so bad that he had to stay in dark room with the blinds drawn and his sunglasses on. He was eventually diagnosed with coccidioidomycosis meningitis, the most severe form of valley fever.
News
Gov. Brown on Tuesday signed landmark legislation to eliminate money bail for many California defendants, replacing it instead with a system based on a person’s flight risk and other factors. “Today, California reforms its bail system so that rich and poor alike are treated fairly,” Brown said.
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The warring sides involved in California’s groundbreaking animal-tested cosmetics bill have reached agreement, and a compromise bill now appears headed for the governor’s desk. As originally written, SB 1249 by Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, would have prohibited importation and sale in California of cosmetics that contain ingredients tested on animals, starting in 2020.
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California has long had a reputation for sometimes wacky politics: movie stars, bodybuilders and strippers have been candidates at one time or another. None of the above are on hand this time around, but the recent situation involving who will represent state Senate District 32 is the most recent bizarre development.
Podcast
Dan Jacobson, Environment California’s state director, sits down with Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster to chat about the “straw law,” which would curb the proliferation of single-use plastic straws. Those ubiquitous little tubes damage the environment by ending up in the ocean and clogging waterways, among other things.
News
For the second time in recent months, the U.S. Department of Labor has extracted penalties from a California farm business blamed for the deadly crash of a vehicle transporting migrant field workers to their jobs. The Labor Department announced this month that Fisher Ranch LLC — a major produce farm near Calexico, close to the Mexican border — has agreed to pay $49,104 for violating the Migrant Seasonal Workers Protection Act. The case stemmed from a March 2017 van crash that killed one laborer and hurt six others.
A flowering marijuana plant in a California destined to be used for medicinal purposes in California. (Photo: PRO Stock Professional
