A food delivery worker arrives at a customer's house. (Photo: Simone Hogan, via Shutterstock)As the new year gets under way, the most significant changes in years to the state’s labor law are in effect. The landmark ballot initiative, Proposition 22, favored by six out of 10 voters in November, defines the future of “gig work” in California. It took effect just weeks ago.
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Adonis Villanueva, via Shutterstock)Lobbyists at the state Capitol have noticed a trend developing over the use of letters to the Daily Journals in the Assembly and Senate as a substitute for making bill amendments. It’s a development little noticed by the public, but it is being closely watched by those with business before the Legislature.
Human fetal placenta under high magnification. (Photo: photowind, via ShutterstockThe California stem cell agency says the Trump administration’s moves against research involving fetal tissue have had no impact on the projects that it is financing, at least so far. The agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), was responding to a question originally raised by a reader of the California Stem Cell Report.
Paul V. Horcher during his years as a member of the California Assembly. (Photo: Assembly)That year, 1994, Assembly Republicans gained their first majority in a quarter century only to have one of their own — Paul Horcher — break away and vote to keep Willie Brown, a Democrat, in power. It was one of the most amazing moments in the history of the Assembly.
State Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Shuttesrstock)Substantive amendments deal with the core of the bill. But there are also important technical amendments that need to be made to legislation, often to ensure that the bills are properly enacted into statutes.
A power plant in Manhattan Beach, shortly after its 2012 opening. (Photo: Luc Mena)OPINION: Recognizing the need to reduce the burdens of overregulation to spur our nation’s economy, Congress put on the top of their legislative agenda the REINS Act, which would require the House and Senate to approve any major regulation before it can go into effect. California — no stranger to abundant regulations and the increasing consolidation of power in state agencies promulgating an ever-growing list of major regulations — must also rein in overregulation the way Congress is trying to do to revitalize job creation throughout our state.
San Quentin state prison, home of California's death row, which currently holds nearly 750 inmates. (Photo: Mark R., via Shutterstock)Field Poll: Proposition 62, the initiative to repeal the death penalty in California and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole, is narrowly supported by likely voters. The latest Field-IGS Poll finds 48% of likely voters saying they intend to vote Yes when presented with the official ballot summary that voters will see when voting on Prop. 62 in the November election.
As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)OPINION: The oil company partisans and their legislative allies apparently failed to read past the first five pages of the bill. Buried in the back pages of SB 350 is a full codification of the 2030 and 2050 climate targets that the industry thought it defeated, along with a powerful new set of directives to state energy agencies to meet those targets.
An officer of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association at memorial services for fallen colleagues. (Photo: CCPOA)The California Correctional Peace Officers Association was once one of the most visible – and powerful – political forces in Sacramento. It thrived with the state’s vast prison expansion and it muscled concessions from Democratic and Republican governors alike. But the CCPOA now is in transition. The 28,500-member union still has the power – but it keeps a far lower profile.
Full funding of the troubled California State Teachers Retirement System has been approved by the Legislature, with most of the additional $5 billion coming from school districts that get no offsetting money from the state.