The Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that seeks to legalize recreational marijuana use, says it intends to put the issue before California voters on the 2016 general election ballot. The group’s decision to file a committee with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Wednesday means it may start raising funds to help finance signature gathering and qualify the measure in California.
OPINION: It’s the end of August and, like the rest of California, Sacramento is seeing temperatures rise. But over at the Capitol, legislators are sitting in the middle of a blizzard of alarmist rhetoric from the chemical industry about legislation to disclose the use of toxic flame retardants on furniture.
OPINION: To our disappointment, SB 648 which started out as a tough crackdown on electronic cigarette manufacturers to ensure the health and safety of our children may end up giving tobacco companies the green light to once again begin marketing to California’s children.
A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)OPINION: So, while the program is certainly generating revenue for the state, is it working? Eighteen months in, it appears the answer is yes. Firms affected by the requirements say that they are paying attention to it, that they believe it’s here to stay, and that it’s prompted them to look at ways to reduce emissions. In recent interviews with cement industry stakeholders we learned that companies are factoring the carbon price into their analysis of investment opportunities.
The Genesis Solar Energy Project near Blythe in the Mojave Desert. (Photo: The CYR Group)OPINION: Solar energy developers are working behind the scenes to sneak continuation of an industry-specific property tax exemption into the state budget deal, further tipping the playing field in their direction.
OPINION: Most of us don’t think twice about our options when we stop to fill our tank with gasoline. But what if you knew you had a choice of fuels, not just of brands?
Imagine being pick-pocketed every time you show up to work. For thousands of low-wage workers right here in the Bay Area, that’s the sad reality they face each day. Their employers, mega-corporations in the fast food industry, are illegally downsizing workers’ paychecks in much the same way they supersize a meal.
California, home to the largest number of older adults in the nation, would become the third state after Colorado and Montana to prohibit using sex as a means to differentiate the prices in long-term care policies — if the measure ultimately becomes law. “I term out in November… so this is my first and last opportunity — as an Assembly member anyway — to take this issue up,” said Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis. Her bill is AB 1553, introduced Jan. 27.
Gov. Brown summarily rejected the notion of a per-barrel tax on California oil as it comes from the ground, a move that sharply limits the political options of the tax’s backers who hoped to get a bill through the Legislature to raise perhaps $2 billion annually.
California’s TV and film tax incentive appears as popular as ever, despite a rash of negative news coverage of an FBI undercover sting of a state senator in which an industry tax break figured as a lure. “The FBI could have picked any topic from any industry to mount a sting,” Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra, D-Los Angeles, said recently at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s 2nd Annual State of the Industry Conference.(Photo: Stan Rudich)