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Newsom’s California Vaccine Bill Change Surprises Backers

SACRAMENTO — Medical groups and a lawmaker behind California legislation to crack down on vaccine exemptions said Wednesday they were surprised by Gov. Gavin Newsom's last-minute call for changes to the bill, a move that inserted fresh uncertainty into one of the year's most contentious issues. It was the second...

Stockton Tests Yang's Buzzy Campaign Idea for Income

STOCKTON — Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang wants to give cash to every American each month. Susie Garza has never heard of Yang. But since February, she's been getting $500 a month from a nonprofit in Stockton, California, as part of an experiment that offers something unusual in presidential politics: a trial...

CA Insurance Commissioner 'Sorry' for Taking Industry Donations

SACRAMENTO — California's insurance commissioner apologized Tuesday for accepting campaign contributions from the insurance industry and announced reforms for his office and campaign. Democrat Ricardo Lara had promised during his campaign not to accept contributions from the industry he is responsible for regulating. But he has taken at least $50,000...

33 Bodies From California Boat Fire Recovered, 1 Missing

SANTA BARBARA — Thirty three bodies of victims from a scuba diving boat fire off Southern California have been recovered and one was still missing on Wednesday, authorities said. The new count of confirmed deaths came after officials recovered 13 bodies on Tuesday, said Coast Guard Lt. Zach Farrell, a...

Newsom Wants Fixes to Contentious Vaccine Exemption Bill

SACRAMENTO — California's state Assembly approved legislation Tuesday designed to crack down on doctors who sell fraudulent medical exemptions for vaccinations. But Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said immediately after the vote that he will seek additional amendments affecting one of this legislative session's most hotly debated issues. The bill by...

Walters: Charter Schools Cheat the Hangman

Elections have consequences – often beneficial ones for those on the winning side and detrimental to the losers. Operators of California’s charter schools – public schools that operate independently of school districts – knew they would be targeted when Gavin Newsom won the governorship last year, and union-backed Democrats increased...

Bill to Ban Most Paper Receipts in California Fails

SACRAMENTO — Those body-length receipts from retail stores are here to stay. A bill before the California Legislature would have banned paper receipts unless requested by a customer. But a legislative committee voted Friday not to send the legislation to the Senate floor for a vote. The move means the...

Big Tech or Big Labor? 2020 Democrats Line up With Unions

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of miles from the union halls of Pennsylvania and Michigan, organized labor is flexing its muscles in a pitched battle with Big Tech. And the Democratic Party's 2020 class isn't being shy about picking sides. In a rare injection of presidential politics into a state policy debate,...

Searchers Look for 9 Missing in California Boat Fire, 25 Die

SANTA BARBARA — Divers and search crews were still looking Tuesday for nine missing people after at least 25 were confirmed dead when a boat packed with scuba divers caught fire near an island off the Southern California coast. The dive-boat Conception became engulfed in flames before dawn as the...

Walters: California Unions Win in Politics But Lose Members

One of the more curious anomalies about California is that while labor unions’ political power has increased to virtual hegemony, especially in the last decade, union membership has declined just as sharply. On Labor Day 2019, one can only wonder whether both trends will continue and if so, what the...

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