After State Farm declared in late May that it wouldn’t sell any new home insurance policies in California, people shopping around for new insurance had one fewer option. When days later it was revealed that Allstate had quietly made the same decision last year, Californians are now left wondering: How bad is this? And how […]
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Lawmakers Want More Social Media Regulation. Here are the Legal Hurdles They Could Face
When Sophie Szew first downloaded Instagram at her 10th birthday party, she was exposed to a flurry of information that “promoted eating disorders,” she told California lawmakers. By 15, she said, she was following “every starvation regimen recommended” by Instagram’s “explore” page. Szew, now 20, spoke in Sacramento at a Senate hearing in April in […]
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What Stands Between You and a Four-day Week
It’s Thursday evening. You pack up your things at work and hit the road. Maybe you’re thinking about a lunch plan you’ve got with a friend or a show you plan to binge. But you’re not thinking about clocking in tomorrow: You’ve got a three-day weekend. All your weekends, in fact, are three-day weekends. It’s […]
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Court Upholds California Prop. 22 in Big Win for Gig Firms Like Lyft and Uber
In the winding story of California’s gig worker laws, another chapter has come to a close. Justices in a California court of appeals ruled Monday that Proposition 22 — a 2020 ballot measure that allowed Uber, Lyft, and other platforms to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees – is largely constitutional, but […]
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Study: Paid Family Leave in California Keeps Women in Jobs
If you work in California and your sister is undergoing cancer treatments, or your spouse gets knee surgery, you might be able to get paid while you take time off work to care for them. It’s a less well-known part of California’s paid family leave benefit, which also covers new parents who leave work to […]
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This is How Much Money You’ll Get from the California Gas Rebate
California is sending money directly to millions of residents to help with rising costs and high gas prices. The payments, which started going out Oct. 7, range from $200 to $1,050, depending on income and other factors. About 18 million payments will be distributed over the next few months, benefiting up to 23 million Californians. […]
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Fact Checking Ads for California’s Sports Betting Propositions
Odds are, one of the many ads for legalizing sports betting has snagged your attention, given their ubiquity on TV, websites and billboards across California. You’d be forgiven, though, for still not having a clear sense of what either of the initiatives do. Some of the ads don’t mention sports betting at all, potentially leaving […]
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Some Seniors and Disabled People Will Miss Out on New California State Payments
Some 23 million Californians’ bank accounts will get a boost of $200 to $1,050, thanks to a new round of payments approved by state lawmakers. But the payments, aimed at mitigating higher prices for gas and other goods, will leave out lots of low-income Californians. Among those passed over are some seniors, many living on […]
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Gas money: Is it Better to Send Out Checks or Suspend a Tax?
State lawmakers have several proposals for sending checks to people to help with the increased cost of gas. One-time checks would be especially helpful for people with lower incomes, economists and policy experts said. Republicans are pushing to temporarily suspend the state gas tax to reduce the price of gas. California is flush with cash […]
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Here’s How State Lawmakers Want to Help Californians with High Gas Prices
There’s a collective groan, rippling across California, as drivers pull into gas stations and see prices above $5. Gas prices per gallon are getting higher across the U.S., but prices in California are soaring higher than any other state according to the American Automobile Association. Thursday, the average price of gas in California was $5.69 […]
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California is Heavily in Debt from Unemployment Payments: How to Get Out of a $20 Billion Hole?
You may have heard how fake pandemic unemployment claims flooded California, or how desperate callers clogged phone lines with questions the state employment agency struggled to answer. But there’s another problem with the Golden State’s unemployment system that has been quietly brewing during the pandemic: California now has the unfortunate distinction of having as much […]
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Here’s What’s Changed as California’s New COVID Workplace Rules Go into Effect
As COVID-19 case rates in California have jumped to their highest levels yet — more than six times the peak of the delta variant wave — updated workplace rules kicked in last week to better help protect workers vaccinated against COVID-19. The revised rules come from the California Division of Safety and Health — also […]