Posts Tagged: advocates

Recent News

State stormwater permit would stall housing, infrastructure

A stormwater runoff system under construction. (Photo: Maksim Safaniuk, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Gov. Gavin Newsom has boldly promoted the goal of building more than 3 million new homes by 2025 to address the significant supply/demand imbalance and bring down the cost of housing. Given California’s challenging regulatory processes, we’re already falling woefully short of those ambitious goals. In spite of this, an excessive new proposal by the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) – comprised of gubernatorial appointees — will further stall new housing production.

Opinion

Lessons learned from failure of medical ‘right to repair’ bill

A hospital's Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI. machine. (Photo: KaliAntye, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As an organization committed to prioritizing patient access, affordability, and safety, we watched with alarm as state Legislatures across the country became the target of a coordinated campaign to weaken and roll back quality and safety framework.

Opinion

Hefty budget offers chance for state to seal ‘Green New Deal’

An oil well pump jack in the San Joaquin Valley. (Photo: Mark Geistweite, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Sacramento must use the windfall to even up the sides during this economic recovery, while also setting the stage for more equitable and sustainable prosperity in the decades to come. The surplus represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go big on a just transition to an equitable clean energy economy. Right now is the time for a California Green New Deal.

News

A rape crisis detailed, step by step

A traumatized woman alone in her room. (Photo: ChameleonsEye, via Shutterstock)

At 10 p.m., Jane Doe is sexually assaulted in Springville, a small town of 1,100 in Tulare County, forty-five miles west of Visalia, at the edge of Sequoia National Forest. After a night working through shock and trying to process what happened, Jane calls the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, who dispatch an officer from Porterville. It is 10 a.m. The officer arrives 30 minutes later.

News

In Prop. 10 fight, some tenants caught in the crossfire

Condos in San Francisco, which has a local rent control ordinance. (Photo: Stephen VanHorn, via Shutterstock)

What neither side predicted is that some California tenants faced a nightmare scenario before a single vote was cast. Rent was being increased at one building, the manager said, because “we’re facing rent control and more importantly, the likelihood of controls on increasing rent after vacancies.”

Recent News

Locals battle PUC over ‘community choice’

Renewable energy: Windmills line a ridge near Palm Springs at sunset. (Photo: Joe Belanger, via Shutterstock)

The California Public Utilities Commission is poised to decide the formula that determines how much consumers are charged by the big investor-owned utility companies, or IOUs—such as Pacific Gas & Electric or Edison, for example—when the customers switch to local community energy programs. It’s a complex issue, but one with major implications for consumers’ pocketbooks.

Opinion

Fixing Obamacare: It can be done

People in support of the Affordable Care Act rally in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Rena Schild)

OPINION: Democrats and Republicans have found ways in the past to bridge the partisan divide on major health policy issues such as insurance for low-income children, the expansion of Medicare to include drugs, and changing the way Medicare pays for health care services that emphasize value. There’s no reason we can’t do the same to fix the Affordable Care Act, stabilize the marketplace and improve affordability and choice.

News

CW Interview: Carmela Coyle, California Hospital Association

Carmela Coyle, incoming president of the California Hospital Association. (Photo: CHA)<

Carmela Coyle is the incoming president of the California Hospital Association, a major player in the state’s intensifying debate over health care. Capitol Weekly caught up with Coyle recently in the midst of her hectic schedule relocating to Sacramento from Maryland.

News

Childhood trauma a crucial public health issue

A fearful child seeks to protect herself. (Photo: 271 EAK MOTO, via Shutterstock)

Preventing childhood trauma should be one of the top goals of California policymakers, a coalition of child advocates say. In California alone, more than 1.5 million children have had two or more adverse childhood experiences, according to advocacy group Children Now, another co-sponsor of the policymaker education day.

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