Posts Tagged: personnel

News

China Lake: When a quake hits a secret area

A highway fracture caused by the Ridgecrest quake and aftershock in early July. (Photo: Nick Sklias, via Shutterstock)

The epicenter of the quakes was the Naval Weapons Air Station at China Lake, which does research into military weapons in the Mojave Desert. Because of the secret nature of its work, the state Seismic Safety Commission has been unable to go in and check out what is happening, said the commission’s chairman Mike Gardner.

News

Mental health workers reject Kaiser contract

Kaiser Permanente workers picketing during a five-day strike in December. (Photo: National Union of Healthcare Workers) United Healthcare Workers

Mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente have overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer — a move that followed months of negotiations between Kaiser and the National Union of Healthcare Workers. Negotiations between Kaiser and NUHW are continuing.

Opinion

Union pressure behind emergency services bill

Emergency workers at a Malibu auto accident on Pacific Coast Highway. (Photo: EGD, via Shutterstock)

OPINION:Providers of emergency medical services across the state are opposing AB 263 authored by Assembly Member Freddie Rodriguez. Under the pretense of an “Emergency Worker Bill of Rights,” AB 263 is nothing short of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Opinion

Needed: Good-time credits for lifers

Sunlight streams through the bars of a prison cell. (Photo: nobeastsofierce, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Proposition 57’s 50 percent good time credit should be applied retroactively to all incarcerated people, including lifers who committed violent crimes. Contrary to popular fears, releasing reformed lifers may be the best thing we can do to reduce violent crime.

News

Term limits for CalPERS board leaders?

The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)

A tentative CalPERS proposal would limit the board president and committee chairs to four consecutive one-year terms, a policy that could end the long-running presidency of Rob Feckner in 2017. He has presided over times good and bad at the nation’s largest state public pension system.

News

Firefighting tab at $133 million

From last year's fire season,, and aerial view in Mendocino County's Lodge Fire. (Photo: N.F. Photography)

California has spent $133 million fighting wildfires since July 1, about a third of its budgeted amount. The figure includes the costs of suppressing major blazes across the heat- and drought-ravaged state during the past month. The state has fought about 4,500 fires since January.

News

Personnel Profile: George Steffes, the octogenarian golf guru

Retired lobbyist George Steffes, prepared for his favorite activity. (Photo: Rich Ehisen)

If you want to play better golf, longtime Capitol lobbyist-turned-golf-instructor George Steffes has some advice: learn how to throw a club. Now Steffes – who once upon a time was Gov. Ronald Reagan’s Legislative Director – is not encouraging duffers to pitch a hissy fit when things go wrong on the course. Throwing a club – or more accurately, tossing a club at a specific target – is just one of many drills he uses to help folks work out their swing.

Opinion

Vergara: An attack on teachers, schools, students

A California school sign alerting motorists to the presence of youngsters. (Photo: Eddie J. Rodriquez)

OPINION: From the beginning, the Vergara v. State of California lawsuit has highlighted the wrong problems, proposed the wrong solutions, and followed the wrong process. This deeply flawed lawsuit was not about helping students, but yet another attempt by millionaires and corporate special interests to undermine the teaching profession and push their agenda on California public schools and students

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