Tag "Public Employee Unions"

Back to homepage

Bills Report 1: Stadium/CEQA, other bills pass…

Here is a quick rundown of some of the bills to pass the California Legislature this week: Fracking regulations bill, SB 4 by Sen. Fran Pavely, D-Auguora Hills. This bill would would impose California’s first regulations on hydraulic fracturing, and other

Read More

Critics charge AB 375 doesn't really protect students

SACRAMENTO –The Legislature still is working on teacher-discipline legislation. AB375 is by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo. It passed the Senate Education Committee Tuesday and is being heard Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, all of the

Read More

Gorell: CA prisoners live better than deployed military

On the Assembly floor today during debate of a prison bill, Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, R-Camarillo, put the contentious and often ridiculous situation into perspective. “Until our prison conditions rival those of our forward deployed military, I will not be sympathetic

Read More

Dueling prison plans: Brown vs. Steinberg

SACRAMENTO — California continues to grapple with a 2009 federal court order requiring reductions in prison overcrowding. Two plans are before the Legislature: One by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento; the second by Gov. Jerry Brown. On Wednesday,

Read More

Bill would allow AWOL state employees to keep jobs

SACRAMENTO — Imagine you miss work for five consecutive days and don’t call your supervisor to explain why. You probably wouldn’t have a job for very long. But employment conditions in state government are very different, and about to get

Read More

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,

Read More

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

Read More

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.

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