Posts Tagged: prices

Opinion

Time is now to expand Californians’ access to broadband

A high-speed electronic hookup carrying data via an ethernet connection. (Photo: Everything You Need, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The past two years have made it abundantly clear that broadband is essential to 21st century living in California. Broadband has become vital for education, remote work, telehealth, entertainment and family connections. It’s necessary that we prioritize finding solutions to close the digital divide that will benefit rural and urban communities.

News

California’s marijuana market heads into a difficult 2022

Commercial marijuana being dried at a California facility. (Photo: Shutterstock)

With cannabis taxes to rise on Jan. 1 and a legitimate business landscape plagued by a thriving black market, California’s marijuana industry faces uncertainty. The tax hike — like others before it — stems from a state law requiring the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to recalculate the cultivation tax rates once a year because of inflation.

Opinion

California must tackle skyrocketing drug prices

A pharmacist puts medications on the shelves of his store. (Photo: viewfinder, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: We’ve seen the stories of Pharma Bro, we’ve read about Big Pharma’s Q1 profit margins. What drug companies are trying to keep secret though, is Pay-for-Delay, a sneaky tactic that brand name and generic drug companies are using – and getting away with — that costs Americans $3.5 billion per year in higher health care costs.

News

In NorCal fires, weed goes up in smoke

In this Oct. 17 photo, Marcos Morales, co-founder of the cannabis company Legion of Bloom, stands on the ruins of a state-of-the-art drying shed in Glen Ellen, Calif., where 1,600 pounds of ready-to-ship cannabis were destroyed in a fire. (Associated Press/Paul Elias)

It’s being called the Wine Country Fire, but the fatal October fires that blackened nearly 200,000 acres across Northern California might also be called the Cannabis Country Fire. While most of the coverage has focused on damage to the losses of homes, business structures and the wine industry, marijuana growers were also hit hard.

News

Affordable housing crisis grips California

A view towards Palo Alto, Stanford and the cities of south San Francisco Bay, where housing is at a premium.(Photo: Sundry Photography)

California lawmakers are in midst of trying to solve a housing crisis that has spread throughout the state. The state’s Department of Housing and Community Development — an agency that works to expand access to affordable housing — says California has built an average of 80,000 homes a year for the past decade, which is less than half of the 180,000 new homes needed to keep up with the predicted population growth through 2025.

Opinion

Nurses: Time to cut drug prices

A recent demonstration in support of curtailing drug prices. (Photo: California Nurses Association)

OPINION: The best argument for passing Proposition 61 to cut drug prices in California, may be SB 1010, a modest effort to require the drug manufacturers give more notice and some justification when jacking up prices. Though the bill would not have actually cut prices, it drew ferocious opposition from a who’s who list of major pharmaceutical firms. They won.

News

Voters turn attention to drug costs

A handful of prescription medication. (Photo: vepar5, Shutterstock)

Californians face one of the highest-stakes ballots ever on Nov. 8, including fierce and expensive campaigns involving sex, guns, and drugs. Especially drugs.

News

Cap-and-trade: Transportation fuels on the block

As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)

Permission slips covering an array of fuels used in California – and which account for nearly 40 percent of the state’s carbon emissions – will be put on the auction block as part of the state’s landmark law to curb climate-changing greenhouse gases.

News

Drought, oil price decline pummel Kern

Pumpjacks in a Kern County oil field, November 2013. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)

Oil and water don’t mix, but in Kern County they’ve joined to create a double-whammy. Already confronting a drought of historic proportions, Kern County — the nation’s No. 2 agricultural county — also faces a severe financial hit because of falling oil prices. The county is home to more than two-thirds of California’s oil production.

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