Tag "legislature"

Back to homepage

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

Read More

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

Read More

Election reform Part 2: ‘Dark money,’ vs. public money

Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of 2. Part 1 is here. Two election bills caused a stir in the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee last week. The first, SB 27, I covered in Part 1 of this series. A

Read More

Bills address campaign donations from private parties, not unions

Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of 2. California lawmakers object to “dark money,” a term for campaign contributions used to pay for an election campaign without disclosing the source of the money. But while Democratic lawmakers object to “dark

Read More

Obamacare success falls on California

SACRAMENTO — Obamacare implementation in 2014 depends on injecting California adrenaline into its system, according to state Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina. An optometrist, he authored three bills to advance the Affordable Care Act, the reform’s official name. “The success

Read More

Gov. Brown signs gender bathroom bill

Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1266, by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, which would require a student to be permitted to use the male or female bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools, based on the student’s gender self-identification. With the

Read More

Cash flows to committee taking up optometry bill

When doctors expressed concerns about legislation to expand the scope of practice for pharmacists, the state’s medical professionals all agreed on a compromise. Only pharmacists that received additional training would be given the expanded authority to directly administer certain contraceptives,

Read More

Doctors rip idea of nurses playing doctor

Medical doctors have qualifications no other medical employee has: four years of college, four years of medical school, three to four years of a residency program. Some also go on to a several-year fellowship for additional training in sub-specialties. That’s 12

Read More

Nurse practitioner bill on life support in Assembly

SACRAMENTO – With Obamacare set to go into effect in January, state lawmakers anticipate millions of residents with newly obtained health insurance will tap California’s already stretched health care resources. In preparation, Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, who is an

Read More

Assessing Gov. Brown before next year’s election

As he lays the groundwork for a likely re-election bid next year, Gov. Jerry Brown is upbeat. “California is back,” he and his supporters insist. Maybe it is in some areas. But overall, tremendous problems remain unresolved. According to a

Read More