Two 2016 California ballot initiatives seek to amend the death penalty, with very different outcomes. One, Proposition 62 (Repeal of the Death Penalty), proposes to abolish the death penalty and substitute life sentences without possibility of parole for all first-degree murder convictions. Inmates currently on Death Row would have their sentences changed to life without…
The California State Water Resources Control Board has announced a public workshop and solicited public comments on a draft “Report to the Legislature on the Feasibility of Developing Uniform Water Recycling Criteria for Direct Potable Reuse.” The report was prepared pursuant to Senate Bill 918, enacted in 2010, which defined the term “direct potable reuse”…
The 2015-16 legislative session ended on Aug. 31, and now Gov. Jerry Brown has begun to sign and veto some of the many bills passed in the last month. Last week, he signed two bills that affect public agencies. Assembly Bill 2257, which Assemblyman Brian Maienschein (R-San Diego) sponsored, will require the legislative bodies of…
Proposition 61, titled by its drafters as “The California Drug Price Relief Act,” and on the ballot as “State Prescription Drug Purchases. Pricing Standards. Initiative Statute,” seeks to cap prices state agencies pay for prescription drugs to the lowest price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA generally pays the lowest prices under…
County elections officials and the California Secretary of State’s office have received more than 100 complaints from voters who have received letters from a group called the Voter Participation Center. The organization’s letters claim that the voter is not registered to vote and offers a pre-filled voter registration form with incorrect or outdated information, or…
Both propositions 65 and 67 deal with the subject of plastic bags but in opposing ways. If both pass, depending on which proposition receives the highest number of votes, both measures could either coexist or one could render the other moot. Prop 65, called the Environmental Fee Protection Act, proposes to redirect money from 10-cent…
On its face, Proposition 60, “Adult Films, Condoms, Health Requirements Initiative Statute,” would seem likely to attract wide approval as a health initiative designed to reduce risk of sexually transmitted disease by requiring use of condoms in the adult film industry. But the story may be in the united front opposing the measure. Prop 60…
Zika virus The invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can harbor and transmit the dangerous Zika virus, has been detected near the Hemet outskirts, according to Riverside County vector control officials, who announced this Wednesday, Aug. 17. A single mosquito was caught in a vector-control trap near Yale Street and Johnston Avenue in the Hemet’s unincorporated…
Proposition 52, “State Fees on Hospitals. Federal Medi-Cal Matching Funds. Initiative Statutory and Constitutional Amendment,” is fairly straightforward in its objectives but a bit complicated in its verbiage. Simply put, it aims to prevent the 2018 expiration of an existing hospital fee that helps fund Medi-Cal health care to low-income Californians, seniors, children and adults…
Last month, Covered California announced its rates for health insurance in 2017 with some health plans intending to expand into new areas this year. This will provide more competition for state health insurance consumers. The statewide weighted average change will be 13.2 percent, up from 4 percent in 2016 and 4.2 percent in 2015. Inland…
