Posts Tagged: march

News

California’s jobless rate up to 4.1% amid mixed economic signals

A worker makes repairs to an electric rotor turbine unit at a geothermal plant. (Photo: VG Photo, via Shutterstock)

One month does not equal a trend, but can be a cause for concern. For instance, employers in California added 19,900 nonfarm payroll jobs in August after registering 84,800 new hires in July. Meanwhile, the Golden State’s unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in August from July’s 3.9%, according to the state Employment Development Department.

Podcast

Raging against the machine for AB 2183, the Farm Worker Voting Rights Act

Tom Morello performing on the west steps of the capitol, September 21, 2022. Photo by Tim Foster

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Tom Morello, the fiery, activist leader of the rock band Rage Against the Machine, brought his guitar to Sacramento last week to lend support to the United Farm Workers and their effort to pass AB 2183, what UFW spokesman Marc Grossman calls “The Farm Worker Voting Rights Act.”

News

Dolores Huerta , a civil rights legend, continues the fight

Dolores Huerta spoke Tuesday at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. (Photo: Julia Kikhinson, AP)

At age 92, civil rights icon Dolores Huerta maintains a busy schedule supporting the causes she has worked for her whole life. She speaks regularly all over the state, recently participated in a re-creation of the famed 1966 farm workers march from Delano to Sacramento, and is campaigning for Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke.

News

It’s a wrap: Nuke power, care for the mentally ill, abortion rights

Lobbyists crowd around video screen to watch the floor votes on the last night of the Legislature's session. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)

The final curtain fell early Thursday on a legislative session that coursed through a pandemic, bolstered reproductive rights, saw a speaker nearly dispatched by his own caucus and drew the national spotlight to a governor who had survived an effort to recall him from office.

News

A Democratic battle in SF’s 11th Senate District

Jackie Fielder, candidate in the 11th Senate District. (Photo: Fielder campaign)

Jackie Fielder is an activist and educator with her sights set on California’s 11th Senate District, hoping in an uphill race to topple incumbent state Sen. Scott Wiener, a fellow Democrat. Fielder is young (25), educated (Stanford University), a person of color (both Native American and Latina), an environmental protester and an activist with a background in grassroots organizing. She describes herself as a Democratic Socialist.

News

For survival, stem cell agency hunts for ‘wet signatures’

Robert Klein, who spent six years as the state stem cell agency's chairman, addresses issues related to the November ballot initiative. (Photo: David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report)

The folks who are trying to save the $3 billion California stem cell agency from financial extinction are using a well-worn technique that goes back to ancient Egypt, at least by some accounts. It is expensive, depending on what you are peddling, and generates a return as low as 1 percent. It is direct mail, but with a significant twist.

News

Bipartisan Capitol push for rape crisis center funding

The state Capitol in Sacramento, late in the day. (Photo: Adonis Villanueva, via Shutterstock)

A bipartisan group of state legislators are urging increased funding for California’s 84 rape crisis centers as reports of sexual assault and domestic violence rise under COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders.

News

Coronavirus spurs anti-Asian sentiment

Residents of San Francisco's Chinatown take a stroll through their neighborhood. (Photo: photo-denver, via Shutterstock)

One of the least-talked-about symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic is a rise in anti-Asian discrimination, harassment and violence. While there has been abundant anecdotal evidence of this phenomenon, only recently has anyone tried to quantify the bigotry. Two California-based groups and a professor from San Francisco State University are taking a lead on the issue.

News

Making history: Our first online census

An illustration of the 2020 census in California. (Image: census.ca.gov)

Most of us are already doing a lot of business online, from ordering products to banking to even filing our taxes. Now we will be asked to do one more task over the Internet — fill out a U.S. census survey. The next census, the all-important survey conducted every 10 years and next scheduled in April 2020, will be the first to be conducted largely online. People who choose not to will be able to respond over the phone or by mail.

News

Gov. Brown, departing, eyes future

California Gov. Jerry Brown takes questions from reporters and others at a meeting of the Sacramento Press Club. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press)

California’s longest-serving governor will turn things over to incoming Gavin Newsom on Jan. 7, but during a recent public appearance Jerry Brown bathed in the upside of politics. “I like sparring with the press, I like raising money, I like attacking my opponents, I like being attacked by my opponents.”

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