A Los Angeles demonstration aimed at raising the minimum wage in 2015. (Photo: Dan Holm, Shutterstock)California’s job and economic growth has outpaced much of the nation in recent years. That growth, however, has not eliminated one of the state’s biggest challenges: poverty. This week, State Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes called poverty California’s No. 1 priority during a forum of legislative leaders in Sacramento.
A sugar factory , Puunene, Maui, Hawaii. (Photo: Mike Brake)OPINION: Political pundits are saying Gov. Brown, Senate Leader Kevin de León and Sen. Fran Pavley suffered a major political defeat when SB 32 was pulled back and the fuel reduction provisions of SB 350 were removed. We don’t see it that way. This was one skirmish in a long-term battle to balance our environmental, social and economic goals.
An elderly patient receiving health care at a hospital. (Photo: Photographee.eu, via Shutterstock)The LAO, noting that most of Brown’s plan bypasses the Legislature, says lawmakers should hold hearings on state worker retiree health care, going back to square one, 1961, when the benefit began. Times were different then. Workers were at risk of losing health coverage when they retired. Now state workers are eligible for federal Medicare at age 65.
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, 41, a Stanford Law School professor who was born in Matamoros, Mexico, and walked across the border each day to go to school in Texas, has been appointed to the California Supreme Court by Gov. Brown, the governor’s office announced today. Voters will be asked to approve the appointment on Nov. 4