Water streams from a hose in Scotts Valley during the 2021 drought. (Photo: Michael Barajas, via Shutterstock)OPINION: While nobody disputes that everyone should have safe, clean drinking water, not every Californian does. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, more than 250 water systems serving 900,000 Californians were out of compliance with drinking water standards in 2020.
A dialysis nurse checks his equipment. (Photo: Saengsuriya Kanhajorn, via Shutterstock)Close your eyes. Think about all the problems facing California. Think about the top 10 problems. Now think about the top 100 problems. Now open your eyes. We doubt anyone reading this thought about staffing in kidney dialysis centers. Yet this year proposition 23 was asking voters in California to have a say on the staffing requirements for kidney dialysis centers.
A scientist with a pipette doing cellular research. (Photo: 18percentgrey, via Shutterstock)OPINION: At a time of budget crisis, Proposition 14 commits California to spending $5 billion (plus interest) that we don’t have, on a bureaucracy we don’t need, in pursuit of cures no one can guarantee. Specifically, Prop. 14 would refinance the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), also known as the state stem cell agency.
An electric big-rig tractor-trailer truck. (Photo: Union of Concerned Scientists)OPINION: Polluters never miss an opportunity to exploit a crisis for financial gain — and the coronavirus crisis is no exception. As millions of Americans hunker down in their homes, sacrificing their incomes to save lives, truck manufacturers are endangering people in my community by lobbying for delays to the nation’s first electric truck standard, which would slash toxic air pollution from trucks.
A television screen surrounded by viewing options. (Photo: Haywiremedia, via Shutterstock)OPINION: We all adjust our individual habits in response to positive changes in the marketplace – the ubiquity of smartphones means I now text more often then I call, and consume news on my phone rather than my laptop. These habit changes are generally a good thing – companies are encouraged to invest in new products and services that satisfy consumers changing demands.
A young boy watches as he is vaccinated. (Photo: JPC-PROD, via Shutterstock) A contentious, heavily amended attempt to tighten California’s mandatory vaccination law remains stalled in the Legislature with the deadline less than four weeks away. The measure would crack down on doctors who write fake medical exemptions for children.
View toward downtown Los Angeles and surrounding communities on a hot, smoggy day. (Image: IM_Photo, via Shutterstock))OPINION: The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency offered another boon to the fossil fuel industry when it announced its intent to ignore the scientifically-proven impacts of air pollution on human health. By minimizing and outright denying the health risks of air pollution, the EPA is recklessly devaluing the lives of children and families who are assaulted daily by pollution and climate impacts that threaten their health, safety, and life expectancy.
A photo illustration depicting a medicine and regulation. (Image: one photo, via Shutterstock)OPINION: With Gov. Brown’s attention on landmark legislation to fight climate change, to address financing of wildfire damage and to give legal teeth to the #MeToo movement, a new law governing HMO mergers was bound to get drowned out. But everyone who was party to the California patients’ rights rebellion of the 1990s knows the governor’s signature on the new law is a very big deal.
An illustration of digital balance and justice. (Image: Anna Kepa, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California has long been at the forefront of Internet innovation. Now California stands to be the leader in a different way, substituting litigation for innovation. If legislation pending in the California Senate that would impose state level network neutrality requirements passes, it will almost certainly be struck down by the courts.
Carmela Coyle, incoming president of the California Hospital Association. (Photo: CHA)<Carmela Coyle is the incoming president of the California Hospital Association, a major player in the state’s intensifying debate over health care. Capitol Weekly caught up with Coyle recently in the midst of her hectic schedule relocating to Sacramento from Maryland.