Image by FlegereOPINION – Outdated regulations written before the internet existed continue to require broadband companies to prop up old copper telephone networks, even as consumers abandon them for the new horizons, capabilities, and possibilities of broadband.
OPINION – Some lawmakers are pushing to rush through the Delete Act (SB 362), allowing consumers to wipe their online data in one fell swoop. Concerningly, there is a lengthy list of unintended consequences for small businesses and consumers that policymakers need to consider.
Image by Lightspring via ShutterstockThe pace of AI and chatbot technology is accelerating by the week. California’s lawmakers must act quickly to protect Californians from severe potential AI harms.
A view of downtown Los Angeles seen from the Hollywood hills. (Photo: logoboom, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Perhaps the greatest financial risk faced by Californians today has nothing to do with rising interest rates or a looming recession. Rather, it is the loss of access to products they rely upon to protect their most valuable assets: auto, homeowners and commercial insurance.
A person uses a laptop computer to go online and search for housing. (Photo: Tada Images, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Expanding broadband access is key to advancing equity in our increasingly digital society. So why are California regulators taking steps to restrict the use of federal and state broadband subsidies to support communities that need them most, effectively widening the digital divide?
Keys on a computer representing the state of California. (Image: Per Bengtsson, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Over the past two years, California’s grocer community has overcome supply chain complications, unprecedented demand, and workforce challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now contending with record inflation, the last thing grocers and their customers need are unintended consequences from the state’s new online privacy regulations, which pose a threat to how consumers access savings opportunities and e-commerce shopping tools like curbside pick-up and delivery.
Pigs confined in cages, prior to slaughtering and processing. (Photo: vinsenssandy, via Sutterstock)OPINION: A case before the U.S. Supreme Court — derived from a California ballot measure — could decide the fate of current and future state laws related to the climate crisis, harmful compounds in consumer products, and even the safety of baby food. The case involves Proposition 12, which was passed in landslide fashion in 2018 by 63% of California voters.
A Los Angeles police officer inspects the damage of a car crash. (Photo: Matt Gush, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Imagine paying the insurance premiums on your home for years, thinking you’re protecting yourself against disaster. Then, horribly, one day your house burns to the ground in a catastrophic fire. Only then do you find out the shocking news that your insurance policy will pay the cost to replace your home – but only up to the value of what the home was worth in 1967, back when Lyndon Johnson was President.
Traffic on Harbor Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.(Photo: Jose Luis Stephens)Several factors are shaping demand, prices, sales and supply of new and used cars in the Golden State, but consumers know one thing — their pocketbooks are taking a hit.
Sold sign in front of a house in a California residential neighborhood. (Photo: Sundry Photography, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Gov. Newsom recently signed 27 new bills to increase affordable housing supply and strengthen accountability for professionals who work in and around the real estate industry. Together, the suite of bills aims to bring transparency and accountability, including the creation of a new enforcement unit within state government.