Posts Tagged: Choice

News

Beer battle brewing over distribution

A worker at a small brewery examines beer during the fermentation process. (Photo: MAD_Production, via Shutterstock)

An under-the-radar tussle is shaping up in California over how beer is being brought to drinkers across the state. The emerging beer battle pits small craft brewers against big distributors. On one side are the small brewers, who charge that the big distributors don’t want to bother with the relatively small volumes of craft brewers.

News

CA120: In California, Super Tuesday means super confusion

Voter registration forms at the Santa Cruz County registrar's office. (Photo: Political Data, Inc.)

About 4 million-plus independent voters who are eligible to vote in the Democratic Primary will see no presidential candidates at all on their ballots. What?? Yes.  In March 2020, in one of the hottest primary elections in recent history, where California is set to play a more important role than usual as the largest state on Super Tuesday, there will be approximately 3.5 million voters receiving blank presidential ballots.

Opinion

AB 5: Small solution, big problems

Demonstrators outside the Uber offices in San Francisco. (Photo: Lucius Rueedi, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Assembly Bill 5 has been signed; now the battle begins. The bill compels some businesses, and labor platforms like Uber, Lyft, Doordash, TaskRabbit or GrubHub to classify their on-demand workers as employees with labor law protections. 

Analysis

Brokered GOP convention? No way. Yes, way…

The Republican national convention in Cleveland's Public Auditorium in 1924. This year's GOP convention is in Cleveland, too. (Photo: Everett Historical, via Shutterstock)

ANALYSIS: The conventional wisdom says fuggedaboutit. Pundits, campaign managers, and the politicians themselves express doubt about the possibility. Not as much as previously, but still doubt. It might happen. And California could be in the middle of it all. We’re talking about a “brokered” convention.

News

Private firms eye state-run pension savings plans

A retiree checks out the newspaper in his back yard. (Photo: Budimir Jevtic, Shutterstock)

Calpensions: A board working on a proposal to enroll most small business employees in a state-run retirement savings plan, unless they opt out, was told last week that small technology-focused financial firms could do the job. The founders of three firms that offer 401(k)s and other retirement plans to small businesses did not object to competition from the state.

News

State-run ‘automatic IRA’ gets boost

Calpensions: President Obama said he has directed his labor department to propose rules showing states how to create what in California could be an “automatic IRA,” a payroll deduction that puts money into a tax-deferred savings plan unless workers opt out. The rules are expected to answer a key question: Is Secure Choice exempt from a federal retirement law, ERISA, that not only has employer administrative costs but may also expose employers to liability for failed investments and other problems?

Opinion

Vaccination bill dismantles parents’ informed consent

SB277 removes the right of informed consent from California parents. It slid through the Senate Floor on a Democratic Party line, and paused briefly at the Assembly Health Committee Hearing June 9th, drawing over 5,000 people in protest to the Capitol stairs and hallways of Sacramento. Its next stop, this week, the Assembly Floor Vote.

News

Survey: Water bond, fiscal reform up; Prop. 45 dips

Jerry Brown maintains his strong lead among likely voters in the governor’s race against Neel Kashkari. Among two statewide ballot measures that Brown is campaigning for, Proposition 1—the $7.5 billion water bond—continues to have majority support and Proposition 2—the “rainy day fund”—has gained ground since September, with about half of likely voters in favor today.

News

State-run IRA drawing supporters

It had a name, Secure Choice, and now an attempt to create the first state-run “automatic IRA” for workers with no retirement plan has its first donors, authorization to hire consultants and a favorable response from a wide range of groups asked for advice. The author of the program, Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, may become the next leader of the state Senate. So the plan being developed by a nine-member board could have a strong advocate when it comes back to the Legislature for approval.

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