Posts Tagged: advocates
Opinion
OPINION: Nearly two decades ago, California raised the bar for our state’s wellness by requiring insurers to equally cover services for both physical and mental health conditions. Now a national standard, California’s groundbreaking Mental Health Parity law was among the first to recognize how grave inequities in the form of higher co-pays or fewer allowable visits diminish wellness and productivity.
Opinion
OPINION: California drivers are bearing the burden of the state’s transportation funding crisis, with the average driver spending more than $500 a year to repair the wear and tear on their vehicle caused by bad roads. Gas tax revenues currently fund most of the state’s road maintenance and repairs, but gas tax revenues are declining as cars become more fuel efficient and as drivers adopt hybrids and electric vehicles.
Opinion
A new analysis of the state budget from the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office identifies about $1.1 billion in new money available in the budget for discretionary spending. Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders have an opportunity to make spending decisions that will prioritize children, many of whom took the brunt of budget cuts over the last decade.
News
It’s as if they can read your mind: Before customers even ask to be picked up, apps let Uber or Lyft know you’ll need them. That’s because personal data housed in smart phones tell ride-sharing companies when and where their customers most frequently need rides. It’s innovated the car-service industry, critics say, at the expense of users’ privacy.
News
ProPublica reviewed more than 450 complaint investigations undertaken by the agency between 2009 and 2014 from roughly 50 Level 14 group homes, the residential facilities for California’s most acutely disturbed children. More than half the investigations produced “inconclusive” findings, meaning that no determination of facts was reached in cases that involved sexual abuse, physical assaults, drug use or inadequate care at the facilities.
Opinion
OPINION: From the beginning, the Vergara v. State of California lawsuit has highlighted the wrong problems, proposed the wrong solutions, and followed the wrong process. This deeply flawed lawsuit was not about helping students, but yet another attempt by millionaires and corporate special interests to undermine the teaching profession and push their agenda on California public schools and students
News
The field of marijuana initiatives for California’s November ballot has been cut in half in less than two weeks, leaving proponents of the two remaining measures in a narrower race for money and momentum while other drug advocates say the next presidential election in 2016 offers a greater chance for success. (Photo: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
News
Death certificates are the latest battleground for gay rights advocates trying to ensure that the gender a person identifies with in life carries over into death. A bill introduced recently aimed at ensuring the death certificates of transgender persons reflect their chosen gender is the latest legislative effort to vouchsafe the rights of this small category of Californians.
News
A coalition led by Democrats and advocates for the aged proposed a series of bills aimed at reforming the deadly conditions reported in some California’s elderly care facilities. Photo: Samantha Gallegos/Capitol Weekly.
A depressed man sits alone on a park bench. (Photo: Mikael Damkier)
