Tag "California Legislature"

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Hearing uncovered abuse of CA special funds

SACRAMENTO — Only in government is borrowing considered a legitimate way to balance a budget. In California it has become standard operating procedure. To address this growing problem, the state’s Special Funds were the subject of a hearing last week

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AB 917 would send charter schools to the back of the class

The popularity and success of California’s 900 charter schools aren’t making everyone happy. Union leaders have tried to organize the non-union schools, but unsuccessfully. New tactic: Hamper the charters’ spread. AB 917, which just passed both houses of the Legislature,

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Gun controllers fire volley of bills through Legislature

A new Harvard University study found that gun bans don’t lower the murder rate. That hasn’t prevented the California Legislature from firing a fusillade of new gun-control laws. AB 711, by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, would make California the first state in the

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Judiciary Committee kills civil liberties bills

  SACRAMENTO — Two Republican members of the California Assembly recently authored resolutions encouraging Congress to halt the eavesdropping on the America people by the National Security Agency. Both resolutions were smacked down Tuesday in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, whose

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Will CA trust SF Bay Bridge re-opening?

After months of controversy over the 36 cracked bolts on the new eastern span of the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee made the decision in July to delay the Bay Bridge opening. But that decision was

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Brown still a friend of unions; signs SB 776

While Gov. Jerry Brown may have averted a strike by the Bay Area Rapid Transit workers, he’s no union buster. Brown just signed today, SB 776 by Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, which will eliminate independent monitoring and enforcement of prevailing wage laws.

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Vidak: ‘Let the people re-vote on High-Speed Rail’

SACRAMENTO — Newly elected Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, has authored a set of amendments to an existing Assembly bill to allow Californians to vote on whether or not to proceed with the High-Speed Rail project, and would halt any further bond sales

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SB 25: A ‘surgical strike’ against CA agriculture

California’s vital farm sector could see costs rise sharply if SB 25 becomes law. Backed by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, it would allow the United Farm Workers labor union to force an employer into mandatory mediation at

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CA Lifeline program cost could triple under AB 1407

  It’s been trendy for a couple of years now for people to dump their phone landlines and go only with their mobile phones, saving money and hassles. The government is going in the opposite direction, setting up both land

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SB 776 bumping off prevailing wage compliance

A big labor union in the state wrote a bill to defund a non-profit that actually recovers money for workers who are cheated out of wages by unscrupulous contractors. SB 776, authored by Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, but written

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