The California Public Utilities Commission Thursday released a long-awaited overhaul of its proposal to regulate rooftop solar installations, removing an unpopular new fee but reducing how much utilities would pay homeowners for supplying power to the grid. The revised proposal comes after the CPUC earlier this year abandoned a controversial plan that solar advocates warned […]
California
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Universities Can’t Yank Financial Aid from Students Who Get Private Scholarships, New Law Says
As Dixie Samaniego prepared for her first semester at California State University Fullerton, she had one focus: finding a way to pay. “I knew that my family wasn’t going to be able to pay, or help in any way financially,” said Samaniego, now a senior, “so I started applying to scholarships everywhere.” As a low-income […]
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CDC’s Move Paves Way for California to Require School COVID Vaccines — But Lawmakers Have Given Up for Now
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccination advisors voted last week to recommend all children get the COVID-19 vaccine, a move that does not change California’s list of vaccines required for children to attend school. The addition of the COVID-19 vaccine to the CDC’s recommended vaccines for kids is not a mandate for […]
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What You Need to Know About the California Governor Debate
After months of an extraordinarily quiet race, in which Gov. Gavin Newsom has barely even acknowledged his own campaign for re-election, the Democrat came out blazing Sunday in the only gubernatorial debate, relentlessly attacking his Republican challenger as a stooge of oil companies who has obstructed his every effort to solve the biggest problems facing […]
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Agency Battling Wage Theft is Too Short-staffed to Do Its Job
For decades California’s lawmakers and regulators have taken aim at employers who rob their workers of pay, overtime premiums, tips and other forms of compensation. Just last year, legislators made certain instances of wage theft a felony. They also fixed their sights on wage theft in the garment industry, eliminating some longstanding pay practices that […]
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California to End COVID State of Emergency
California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end on Feb. 28, 2023, nearly three years after it began, officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced today. The announcement came as the new variants raise concerns of another deadly winter spike across the country and as test positivity rates stabilize in California after a nearly three-month decline. […]
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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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Congenital Syphilis Rates Soar Across California as Public Health Funding Dwindles
In the Central Valley, where two-thirds of the nation’s fruit and nuts are grown, the pastoral landscape masks entrenched racial and economic disparities. Life expectancy in Fresno County drops by 20 years depending on where you live, and it’s those who live in historically poor, redlined or rural neighborhoods who are most impacted by a […]
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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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Campus Advocates Provide Key Support to Sexual Assault Survivors — but ‘Superheroes’ are in Short Supply
When Laura Swartzen saw the email from Sacramento State University’s Title IX office, it felt like her heart skipped a beat. Swartzen, the Sac State confidential campus advocate, had spent the past nine months supporting a student who reported being sexually assaulted. Swartzen had listened to the student’s wrenching account, offered to connect them with […]
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Newsom Signs Abortion Protections into Law
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of 12 bills Tuesday, establishing some of the strongest abortion protections in the nation — a direct reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal abortion guarantees earlier this year. Collectively, the new laws aim to improve access and protect patients and clinicians by strengthening privacy […]
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‘Mandela’ Bill Would Limit Solitary Confinement in California Prisons and Jails
In solitary confinement, a former California inmate recalled, there were two kinds of people: One kind would read books in their cells, exercise and do and re-do crossword puzzles. The other kind would scream and curse, refuse to dress and throw their feces at the walls. The goal in solitary confinement, he said, was to […]