California State Senator Rod Wright was convicted of lying about his place of residency – claiming to live in the district in which he was elected, but actually living outside the area. Sen. Wright faces up to eight years at sentencing.
Schneider Logistics, a contractor which runs a Walmart distribution center in Mira Loma, California, agreed to pay $4.7 million to as many as 568 workers as part of a settlement stemming from a case in the federal court system. The company was accused of systematically cheating workers out of overtime hours as well as illegally deducting wages from their paychecks.
Spurred by emotional testimony from sex workers, California officials voted Thursday to change a 1990s-era anti-crime regulation and allow prostitutes to receive money from a victim compensation fund if they're raped or beaten.
The gas station company Valero has admitted to egregious air quality violations in California. The company was fined just over $300,000 for the infractions, but this was too little, too late for the many who've contracted serious respiratory ailments from the contaminated air.
The stereotype is that Californians are very socially liberal. California is, after all, home to San Francisco and Berkeley — the natural environment of the godless hippie and homosexual. Hollywood is also located in California, and Hollywood's not exactly a bastion of social conservatism. It may surprise some then to note that in the past four years, Californians have voted against gay marriage, marijuana and the abolition of the death penalty.
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office has announced that Sacramento-based Green Valley Landscaping must pay $664,000 in back wages and fines to 43 workers. The investigation, launched in May of 2012, discovered that Green Valley had 43 workers despite claiming only 10 on its payroll records.
California has made dramatic steps in curbing its teen pregnancy rates. Comprehensive sex education and other tools have helped, but key is a general best practices regimen that keeps what works, and tosses what doesn't.
The key to the Senate Democrats' plans to get real reform in California's corrections system was a three year delay on the court ordered return to 137.5 percent of prison capacity. Gov. Brown has now gone ahead and asked the court for the delay. If it's rejected, the administration would spend $315 million this fiscal year to house the inmates in private prisons and county jails instead of turning them loose.
A bill passed the California legislature that would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for and receive drivers' licenses. This is part of the effort local and state officials are making toward immigration reform. The same reform has stagnated at the federal level.
With the recent passage of Assembly Bill 327 - a piece of legislation supported by solar advocacy groups and big investor-owned utilities alike - rooftop solar will be accessible to more California residents.
