News
California governments spend millions lobbying Sacramento
Image by udra11 via shutterstockCalifornia governments up and down the state spend millions in taxpayer dollars to lobby government officials in Sacramento.
Posts Tagged: cities
Image by udra11 via shutterstockNews
Bottoms up: Should California bars serve booze until 4 am?
The scene at the Last Kind Words Saloon in Furnace Creek, in Death Valley. (Photo: Thomas Trumpeter, via Shutterstock)Jerry Brown said the bill would cause “mayhem” and vetoed it, now its author has another plan to extend bar closing hours from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. – this time limiting it to cities that already want it. “There is no mayhem,” Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said of Brown’s memorable phrase. “That was our grumpy governor. And I love him to death, but he was wrong about this.”
Opinion
Metal recycling: State tries end run around cities and counties
Metal scrap awaiting recycling. (Photo: TonelsonProductions, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The state is at it again. This time, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is attempting, in an end-run around the normal regulatory process, to impose “emergency” harsh and unjustified new rules on the metal-recycling industry — the one aspect of California’s troubled recycling sector that is still going strong. Why? Because they believe they can, I guess.
Opinion
Now is the time for the Health Equity Fund
A scene along Anaheim Street, a main artery in Wilmington. (Photo: Matt Gush)OPINION: There’s no question that communities of color — like the areas where I grew up and represent today, Watts, Wilmington, Compton, for example — have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s past due for us to right this injustice.
This is why I’m championing a proposal to create the California Health Equity Fund.
News
Safety for pedestrians, cyclists targeted in legislation
A pedestrian crosses Hollywood Boulevard in L.A. (Photo: View Apart, via Shutterstock)An effort backed by advocates for pedestrians and bicycle riders would set up experimental programs in several California cities to get drivers to obey traffic laws, in part through the use of red-light and speed cameras.
Opinion
The push for clean energy is powering up
Photovoltaic modules capture sunlight. (Photo: foxbat, via Shutterstock) OPINION: Americans have grown accustomed to a parade of bad news on climate change coupled with a stream of federal policy shifts designed to promote fossil fuels. But outside of the Beltway, in cities and towns across the country, the move to 100% clean energy is becoming a reality.Dozens of cities and counties in California and elsewhere are already running on 100% clean electricity, and over 150 American cities and counties have set 100% clean energy goals.
News
Path to fracking eased in oil, gas drilling plans
The silhouette of a pmpjack at sunset. The jacks can remove five to 40 liters of crude oil wuith each stroke. (Photo: Ronnie Chua, via Shutterstock)Once again, the stage is being set for a multi-pronged battle in California between environmentalists and the Trump administration. On May 9, the federal government announced plans to open 725,500 acres of public lands on California’s Central Coast and the Bay Area to new oil and gas drilling.
News
Brown leaves with pension reform pending
Gov. Jerry Brown discusses public pension issues at a Capitol budget briefing for reporters. (Photo: AP/Rich Pendroncelli, via calpensions.com) Gov. Brown leaves office next week with a smaller cost-cutting pension reform than he wanted. But after he’s gone, union challenges to minor parts of his reform pending in the state Supreme Court may open the door to big changes. The main parts of Brown’s reform add several years to retirement ages and make some employees pay more for their pensions.
News
Some locals profit off of ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrest an undocumented immigrant in California. (Photo: ICE, 2017)Two California counties profit from a loophole in the “sanctuary state” law, while most others have canceled their ICE contracts under public pressure or let them expire. When California’s sanctuary state law, Senate Bill 54, was approved, the public assumed that local law enforcement would be prevented from cooperating with ICE agents except when dealing with people “convicted of a serious or violent felony,” such as murder, rape, child abuse or battery.
News
A city fights with CalPERS’ costs
CalPERS headquarters, downtown Sacramento. (Photo: CalPERS)Monrovia’s city manager, Oliver Chi, told the city council the budget could absorb the CalPERS employer pension rate increases enacted in 2012, 2013, and 2014 — but a large fourth rate increase last December could push the city into insolvency.