Posts Tagged: San Diego

News

San Diego Assemblymember Ward introduces ‘hate littering’ bill

Photo courtesy of California Assembly Democrats via YouTube

AB 3024, The Stop Hate Littering Act, would expand the definition of “intimidation by threat of violence” under the Ralph Civil Rights Act of 1976 to include “distribution of hateful materials on the private property of another without authorization for the purpose of terrorizing the owner or occupant of that private property or in reckless disregard of the risk of terrorizing the owner or occupant of that private property.”

News

Rising Stars: Monika Lee, a star on the move

Monika Lee, photo by Scott Duncan Photography

Monika Lee’s story showcases many of the possible avenues for creating meaningful change in Sacramento. In her five years in the community, Lee has moved up the ranks in three different organizations and worked with a variety of issue areas, letting her passion for equity guide her along the way.

News

California researchers vie for millions in stem cell dollars

Photo by ANDREI ASKIRKA via Shutterstock

Nine California research organizations will vie behind closed doors this week as the state’s stem cell agency scores their bids to kick off what would be a first-in-the-nation, $80 million manufacturing network to speed the development of revolutionary medical therapies.

Recent News

PPIC survey: Dems hold edge in key House districts, Prop 30 slips

The California Capitol in Sacramento, surrounded by Capitol Park. (Photo: Merge Digital Media LLC, via Shutterstock)

 In the final weeks before Election Day on Nov. 8, support for Proposition 30, the state ballot measure on funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has slid to less than a majority. On the congressional front, Democrats hold an overall edge across the 10 competitive districts that could determine which party controls the US House of Representatives.

News

Facing drought, climate change recycled water is key to survival

Scant water at Granite Island and River Valley along the North Fork of the American River east of Sacramento. (Photo: Lisa Parsons, via Shutterstock)

In 2019, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled what the city calls “The Green New Deal.” This ambitious sustainability plan stipulates many policy and infrastructural changes to prepare the four-million-person city for climate change. To name a few, the Deal includes: transitioning the power grid to 100% renewable energy by 2045; modifying 100% of buildings to be net zero carbon by 2050; increasing zero emission vehicles, and electrifying all Metro and LADOT buses, to reach zero carbon transportation by 2050.

News

Politically savvy surfers in California fight plastic pollution

A surfer catches a wave in Malibu, where the Surfrider Foundation was launched in 1984. (Photo: JAVS, via Shutterstock)

A landmark bill designed to drastically reduce plastic pollution in California, SB54, was signed into law on June 30. It imposes the most stringent plastic reduction rules in the United States. It has to. California, like the world, is enduring a seemingly insurmountable plastic pollution crisis.

Opinion

Smart land use planning, not courts, key to wildfire safety

The 2018 Woolsey Fire, which ultimately burned nearly 95,000 acres, seen from the Hollywood Hills. (Photo: Jeff Pinette, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Record-setting wildfires, fueled by the climate crisis and uncontrolled sprawl, are burning at all times of the year. Yet local officials continue to greenlight hillside projects as if these land-use decisions aren’t linked to the never-ending fire season.

News

Lorena Gonzalez leaves Assembly, heads to Cal Labor Fed

Lorena Gonzalez in the Assembly shortly after her 2013 election. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)

Lorena Gonzalez, the San Diego-area Assemblywoman who successfully pushed landmark legislation to reclassify many California independent contractors as employees, is leaving the Capitol to run the California Labor Federation. Gonzalez, 50, will become the group’s executive officer when the current leader, long-time chief Art Pulaski, retires this summer  after serving 25 years as the top executive.

Recent News

Amid pandemic, California murder rate shows shocking rise

Police at a Vallejo crime scene, where three people were shot during an armed robbery. (Photo: Francis Arrostuto, via Shutterstck)

Preliminary numbers from California’s biggest cities suggest that 2020’s stunning 30-percent increase in the statewide murder rate – the largest since 1960 – has continued to rise this year, and crime experts have as many questions as answers. “We’re seeing a continued trend” in rising murder rates throughout 2021, said Mangus Lofstrom, a policy director and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

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