Posts Tagged: challenging

Opinion

Needed: Greater participation of women in construction industry

A woman checks her plans at a construction project. (Photo: Serhii Krot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Historically, the industry has been dominated by males, and while that is still true today, we are slowly challenging this reality as the number of women in construction is steadily increasing. In 2021, women made up 10.9% of the United States construction industry which is up from 9.9% in 2018.

News

CA120: California’s mail-in voting cranks up

Dermonstrators in front of the U.S. Post Office in Torrance protesting federal funding cuts. (Photo: Vince360, via Shutterstock)

Vote-by-mail ballots have been sent to all registered voters in Amador County, with Solano reporting they will be mailing ballots today, while Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego counties — and maybe others – will be mailing next week. These counties are getting ahead of the Oct. 5 deadline for California counties to mail ballots.  In other states, meanwhile, voting has been taking place for weeks.

News

Amid pandemic, California ballot measures facing tough sell

Photo illustration of a voter's reminder for the Nov. 3, 2020 general election. (Image: Prostock-studio, via Shutterstock)

Qualifying a proposition for the ballot – much less convincing millions of voters to support it – is always a Herculean task. In the best of times, it requires a near limitless supply of money, talent and luck. Nobody right now thinks we are in the best of times. Many months now into the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people instead feel trapped inside a George Orwell novel.

News

New push to expand ‘transitional kindergarten’ in California

A teacher and his students in a kindergarten class. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)

After a couple of failed attempts, a move to expand transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds in California is under way. Assembly members Kevin McCarty, Phil Ting and Eloise Gomez Reyes and state Sens. Susan Rubio, Lena Gonzalez, and Bill Dodd have introduced Assembly Bill 2500 to approve universal transitional kindergarten.

Opinion

Limiting drug firms’ gifts to doctors impedes education

A senior medical practitioner on the phone with hospital records. (Photo: sirtravelalot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The California Assembly is currently considering a bill, Senate Bill 790, which would put in place severe restrictions around gifts or other financial benefits that pharmaceutical companies can give to medical professionals as part of marketing activities. Not only will the bill limit physician access to important information about new treatments, but it also insults the integrity of every physician practicing in California and is a threat to the patient-physician relationship.

News

Drought emergency: The need for a biodiversity policy

Lake Oroville ravaged by drought. (Photo: State Department of Water Resources, 2014)

Analysis: California ecosystems are losing their resilience and their ability to sustain native plants and animals. In the past, even in droughts, there were natural refuges to sustain native species. Today, most of these ecosystems are changing rapidly from human impacts and many have deteriorated to critical condition. Refuges are scarce.

News

Legal questions trail pension ruling

But a series of state court rulings are widely believed to mean that the pension offered current workers on the date of hire becomes a vested right, protected by contract law, that can only be cut if offset by a new benefit of comparable value. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Patricia Lucas said in her ruling the question before her court is “one of law, not of policy,” referring to a state Supreme Court response to city and county briefs on an Orange County attempt to cut retirement costs.

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