[Source: CalChamber] A California Chamber of Commerce-opposed bill that allows organizations unaffiliated with the employer to access an undefined and potentially unlimited scope of employer internal documents awaits action by the state Senate. AB 978 (Limón; D-Goleta) also circumvents the rulemaking process now underway to provide employees access to their employer’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP). Read More…
Newsroom
Allowing polluters to offset carbon emissions by paying forest owners effectively reduces greenhouse gases
[Source: Stanford News] A pioneering California program to sell carbon offsets has surprising environmental benefits – including providing habitat for endangered species – and provides lessons for initiatives under development in other states and countries. You can’t grow money on trees, but you can earn money for letting trees grow. Or at least you can Read More…
Why does California have the nation’s highest poverty level?
[Source: CalChamber] With all the recent hoopla about California’s record-low unemployment rate and the heady prospect of its becoming No. 5 in global economic rankings, it is easy to lose sight of another salient fact: It is the nation’s most poverty-stricken state. So says the U.S. Census Bureau in its “supplemental measure” of poverty that Read More…
One-fifth of Americans find workplace hostile or threatening
[Source: Associated Press] The American workplace is grueling, stressful and surprisingly hostile. So concludes an in-depth study of 3,066 U.S. workers by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles. Among the findings: Nearly one in five workers – a share the study calls “disturbingly high” – say they face Read More…
California sues EPA over access to Pruitt records
[Source: San Francisco Chronicle] California’s attorney general went to court Friday seeking conflict-of-interest rules from President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, whose chief spent years suing to overturn the environmental rules he is now charged with enforcing. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s “ability to serve as an impartial decision-maker merits close examination, especially now that he has Read More…
New California law gives air quality officials the power to quickly shut down polluters
[Source: Los Angeles Times] Local air quality officials are gaining new powers to quickly stop polluters when they endanger people’s health under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday. The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, follows years of frustration in communities such as Paramount, Boyle Heights and Maywood — where regulators have Read More…
Minority-owned businesses thrive in California…but
[Source: Fox & Hounds] According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, California is leading all states in minority-owned and women-owned employer firms—and by a good margin. When it comes to numbers, California is expected to run up big scores because it is the most populous state. But, the mix of minorities in the Read More…
Climate policies study shows Inland Empire economic boon
[Source: Berkeley News] According to the first comprehensive study of the economic effects of climate programs in California’s Inland Empire, Riverside and San Bernardino counties experienced a net benefit of $9.1 billion in direct economic activity and 41,000 jobs from 2010 through 2016. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Read More…
Congress takes aim at the Clean Air Act, putting the limits of California’s power to the test
[Source: Los Angeles Times] California is confronting the limits of its power to save federal environmental protections as Congress and the Trump administration take aim at a landmark law the state has relied on for decades to clean the air of noxious smog. A push by Republicans to roll back parts of the Clean Air Read More…