Legislative Action and Inaction
With something around a thousand bills to deal with in the last two weeks of the legislative session, lawmakers decided to take a pass on two of the most difficult issues facing them: the question of utility liability for wildfires and the threat to the gig economy presented by the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling […]
Prop 3 Is Too Damn Long
Here’s a new reason not to vote for a ballot initiative: it’s too damn long. For years, I’ve made a point of reading the full text of every initiative on the ballot. I’m behind because Prop 3 is the first initiative on this November’s ballot (Props 1 and 2 were put on the ballot by […]
If California is Burning, Why is it Turning Away Experienced Firefighters?
Like the hydra of legend, California’s wildfires appear an inexhaustible force that simply multiplies and redoubles devastation in response to attempts to defeat it. Indeed, despite Herculean efforts, the Mendocino Complex Fire recently earned the unwelcome distinction of growing into the largest wildfire in California history, while the Carr Fire has claimed multiple lives on its […]
Sacramento’s New Way to Tax the Water You Drink
Another new tax is headed for your water bill, as if it wasn’t high enough already. Gov. Jerry Brown has been trying to push through a statewide tax on drinking water, the first ever in California history, and as you might imagine, it has been a challenge for him. People are fed up with new […]