Posts Tagged: authority

Opinion

Lawmakers: Improve access to mental health drugs

A photo illustration of a young woman in mental anguish. (Image: Photographee.eu, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The California legislature is considering legislative action that would streamline the approval process for people accessing care through Medi-Cal to receive their prescribed medications for serious mental illness without undue delays As a physician who has served our community for more than 25 years, I strongly support this effort.

Opinion

California’s young face a bleak future without high-speed rail

An artist's rendering of California's proposed bullet train. (Image: California High Speed Rail Authority)

OPINION: We can’t afford to wait any longer. Climate change is already taking its toll on our health and safety. We need to act with urgency to transform our transportation system with electrified high-speed rail as its centerpiece. California’s leaders need to show we’re serious

Opinion

Help is on the way for California’s air and climate

Los Angeles, after a storm has passed through. (Photo: kjarrett, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Californians will literally breathe easier when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office in January. While the results of other races were mixed, the stark contrast between President Trump’s “Make Our Air Dirty Again” record and Biden’s promising green agenda made control of the presidency the decisive factor in our environmental outlook for the next four years.

News

Bullet train, moving slowly, hits another bump

An artist's rendering of California's proposed bullet train. (Image: High-Speed Rail Authority)

For more than a decade, California’s bullet train has faced obstacle after obstacle. The latest hurdle: the pandemic. Last week, the Authority postponed the approval of its 2020 business plan until Dec. 15 in order to assess the impacts of COVID-19.

News

California’s redistricting panel flooded with applications

A map showing cities in a swath of northern California. (Photo: BestStockFoto, via Shutterstock.

More than 7,100 people have applied to be on California’s independent redistricting commission, the 14-member panel that will draw new political boundaries based on population counts from the 2020 census. State Auditor Elaine Howle’s office said of the large applicant pool, nearly 6,000 were tentatively eligible.

Opinion

Fighting Trump’s ‘dirty air’

A black-and-white view of smoggy Century City, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. (Photo: trekandshoot)

President Trump, his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Republican leaders in Congress have all declared plans to allow the oil and coal industries to extract, transport and burn dirty fuels with little restraint, to quash the free expression of science within the federal government, and to neuter the agencies that are supposed to safeguard our air and atmosphere.

Opinion

The pitfalls of overregulation

A power plant in Manhattan Beach, shortly after its 2012 opening. (Photo: Luc Mena)

OPINION: Recognizing the need to reduce the burdens of overregulation to spur our nation’s economy, Congress put on the top of their legislative agenda the REINS Act, which would require the House and Senate to approve any major regulation before it can go into effect. California — no stranger to abundant regulations and the increasing consolidation of power in state agencies promulgating an ever-growing list of major regulations — must also rein in overregulation the way Congress is trying to do to revitalize job creation throughout our state.

News

‘Special master’ appointed to eye State Bar

An attorney gives advice to a client via a cell phone. Photo: PhuShutter)

A special master has been named to ride herd on the State Bar’s request for money – a move that follows the Legislature’s unprecedented refusal to allow the bar to collect dues from thousands of attorneys. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye on Wednesday appointed appellate court Justice Elwood Lui of Los Angeles to examine the Bar’s funding request.

News

Hawaii, California lead fight for renewable energy

A sugar factory , Puunene, Maui, Hawaii. (Photo: Mike Brake)

Hawaii last month became the first state to establish a goal of relying 100 percent on renewable energy, setting 2045 as the year to reach this ambitious target. Meanwhile, legislation moved forward in California that would significantly expand its pioneering efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. The Golden State has an economy larger than all but six nations in the world, and almost anything it does has the potential of having global impact.

News

Redistricting panel prepares U.S. Supreme Court filing

California’s voter-approved commission that draws the boundaries for legislative and congressional districts is going to the U.S. Supreme Court to support a similar commission in Arizona, which is locked in a power struggle with that state’s Legislature.

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