Posts Tagged: referendum

News

Retail theft a big concern this election season

A man shoplifts a pair of jeans at a clothing store. (Photo: Monstar Studio, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Shoplifting and stealing are becoming a bigger problem in California, which is why small businesses are showing interest in two statewide ballot measures that deal with crime and justice. Proposition 20 seeks to strengthen consequences for serial theft, while Proposition 25 is a referendum on the Legislature’s no cash bail law.

Recent News

A European view of California’s stem cell agency

A pipette and recepticles used in stem cell research. (Photo: CI Photos)

Some folks in Europe are worried about stem cell research, particularly about organizations like California’s $3 billion stem cell agency. The alarm was sounded just yesterday in Horizon, which calls itself  “The EU Research and Innovation Magazine.”

News

A tale of tension at the Coastal Commission

Bixby Creek Bridge in Big Sur, south of Carmel. (Photo: Tom Tietz)

For those attempting to oust Charles Lester, the executive director of the California Coastal Commission, the upcoming hearing is a referendum on his job performance. For the environmentalists who follow the commission, it’s a coup and an attempt to seize the upper hand in the power struggle between pro-development interests and an environmentalist staff that they believe has defined the commission since the reign of Peter Douglas.

News

Plastic bag vote looms, but locals proceed anyway

A shopper totes his plastic bag across an intersection. (Photo: Connel, via Shutterstock)

California’s statewide law banning plastic bags may have been suspended pending the voters’ decision in the November referendum, but cities and counties are moving ahead with their own local bans. The local laws would be exempt from the proposed statewide repeal. A “no” vote means the ban will be thrown out, a “yes” vote means the law will be left in place.

News

Pension initiative draws unions’ fire

School workers at a labor rally in Bakersfield. (Photo: Richard Thornton, Shutterstock)

A union coalition contends that a proposed initiative is being falsely portrayed as only a potential cut in pensions for new employees, when in fact it could cut or eliminate pensions earned by current employees for work done in the future. One of the initiative authors, former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, disagrees with the union reading of the proposal. But it’s a key pension reform issue that could lead to another disputed initiative title and summary.

News

Watchdog eyes 2014 activities

State Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: David Monniaux)

California’s political watchdog, facing 2014’s high-stakes statewide elections in which a relatively small number of donors put in more than $158 million to influence voters on ballot propositions, closed hundreds of cases with settlements – the most in its 40 years of existence.

News

Money flows in plastic bag fight

A landfill strewn with plastic bags. (Photo: Picsfive, Shutterstock)

With California’s law banning plastic bags on hold, the plastic bag industry and its allies already are pouring money into California in hopes of overturning the law in a referendum two years down the road. Referendum proponents have until Dec. 29 to collect enough signatures to put the referendum before voters in November 2016.

News

New ballot effort to block disputed casino

Two weeks before the November election, a major casino-owning tribe in Southern California has launched a campaign against Proposition 48 to block another tribe’s establishment of a new casino in the Central Valley.

News

Anti-casino referendum qualifies

Foes of a $250 million tribal casino-hotel north of Madera have qualified a referendum for the November 2014 ballot – a move that delays construction on the 305-acre site until voters decide the issue next year.

News

Transgender ballot battle looms?

Six weeks before California’s first-in-the-nation law takes effect to guarantee certain rights to transgender students, foes of the new statute say they have collected enough signatures for a statewide referendum next year to let voters decide. The new law, signed by Gov. Brown in August after it was approved by the Legislature, takes effect Jan. 1.

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