Yesterday, Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) was passed in California’s Senate by a vote of 29-11. AB 5 is aimed at ensuring that independent contract works in the gig economy have a minimum wage, workers’ compensation and other benefits. If passed, this bill will result in major consequences for on-demand delivery and ride-hailing companies such […]

Earlier this week, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara apologized for accepting campaign contributions from donors that had connections to the insurance industry. Lara was also scheduling meetings with these donors and he claimed that he would stop all political fundraising until the end of the year while he works to put an end to this […]

Just like that, Democrats go from being against foreign interference in our elections (SR 23) to wanting to allow foreign nationals to vote in elections (SB 288). California Democrats have talked a lot about foreigners influencing and interfering in our elections, but in an ironic twist state Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, […]

The authors of a bill that would allow San Francisco drug users to inject themselves at supervised facilities without legal consequences announced last month that the bill won’t move forward this year. Assembly Bill 362 (AB 362) would have created a safe injection site pilot program in San Francisco that, if passed, would last for […]

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will investigate whether California motorists that pay reduced auto insurance premiums, due to being part of a group plan, creates hike rates for other low-income drivers. He scheduled an investigatory hearing for Sept. 17 at the Ronald Reagan State Building in Los Angeles to get to the bottom of the […]

According to an audit release in May, the state paid for a Caltrans manager to commute from San Diego to Sacramento for work for two years. The audit states that the manager was reimbursed around $30,000 for airfare and car rentals, plus an additional $12,000 for meals, lodging and other costs from 2016 through 2018. […]

Last month, a proposed bill that was introduced by state Senator Patricia Bates was voted against on a bipartisan vote. The proposed bill, Senate Bill 401 (SB 401), was seeking to place limits on contributions that may be made to and received by candidate-controlled ballot measure committees. In other words, the purpose of SB 401 […]

In late April, an internal draft report by the state rail authority’s staff revealed that the cost to build the 119-mile section of the California bullet train in the Central Valley is projected to increase by $1.8 billion. If this draft report is accurate, that would mean that the total cost for this stretch of […]

In late March, California sold $600 million in bonds to help pay for the high-speed rail project. Unfortunately, a key source of funding for the project is actually bond money. In 2008, voters approved $10 billion in bonds and the state routinely sells them. However, the project is estimated to cost $77 billion due to […]

In late March, the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ audit, conducted by the California Department of Finance, was released and it claims that the DMV has “significant deficiencies” and an “outdated” organizational structure that led to poor customer service and that resulted in the failed implementation of the Real ID program. It was determined by […]