GUEST COLUMNS
Thursday, February 2, 2023
At least a half-dozen initiatives and referenda appear headed for the ballot, all with potentially heavy economic effects that will generate multi-million-dollar campaigns for and against.
The UC "may not legally pay our employees or gift them funds if they did not provide a service to the institution," wrote Ryan King, a spokesperson for The University of California Office of the President, in an email to CalMatters Friday afternoon. He cited state and federal rules that forbid the university from paying employees who didn't work.
The Interior Department had asked those states — California, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah — to come up with a plan by Tuesday to collectively reduce the amount of water they draw from the Colorado.
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
If law schools are serious about recruiting students from diverse backgrounds and those who come from low socio-economic backgrounds, the grading system as it currently stands must be the next piece to fall.
"California continues leading the nation's economy," Newsom boasted after the December employment report was issued this month. Earlier he projected that if California were a nation, it would be close to surpassing Germany as the globe's 4th most powerful economy.
Since the law took effect in 2015, more than a million undocumented immigrants, out of an estimated 2 million, have received licenses, and more than 700,000 have renewed them. Besides California, 18 other states have followed suit.
It's a stunning reversal of fortune for the 23 campuses of the country's largest public university system, which have collectively lost 27,000 students in two years — part of a national wave of declining college enrollment.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Much of that oil, advocates say, is shipped to California for processing. In fact, half of the crude exported from the Amazon overall goes to California, according to a report by Amazon Watch and Stand.earth, two nonprofit groups that work to protect the rainforest.
"This is the meat — the actual meat — of what we're really trying to do," said Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat representing Los Angeles who also is a task force member.
Friday, January 27, 2023
Lessons learned while weathering the pandemic in law school.
California voters could pose those questions if newly introduced wealth tax legislation makes it through the Capitol, including a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom, and appears on next year's ballot.
To decrease violence in California, research shows that we must instead invest in our communities.
The motive remains unclear as law enforcement continues to investigate the massacre in Monterey Park, near Los Angeles, that claimed its 11th fatality on Monday — although some reports cited recent personal disputes and emotional problems.
The framework for distinguishing patents that claim laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas from those that claim patent-eligible applications of those concepts is a two-step process.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
When the judge takes senior status, the Northern District of California seat will move to San Jose, Orrick noted in his letter to President Joe Biden, due to the increasing volume of cases there.
Coinbase sides with the majority view, lamenting in its petition that it has been forced to answer two complaints that seek to proceed as class actions and face imminent discovery
Supporters have heralded the law change as a victory for pedestrians, and for people living in low-income communities of color who, statistics show, are more likely to be cited for jaywalking than people in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods.
The only practical solution is for Congress to promptly act to increase the debt ceiling, which it recently did with bipartisan support on three occasions during the Trump Administration, to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.
The lawsuits claim the company was a major driving force behind the underage vaping epidemic.
Attorneys debated for two hours about what speech the law restrains — and how extreme that speech would have to be in order to be sanctioned.
The California Air Resources Control Board has issued seemingly countless decrees, including one that would ban the sale of autos with gas- or diesel-powered engines by 2035.
Some advocates say the proposed school funding in the budget waters down the intent of the bill and will perpetuate the achievement gap for Black students.
After the massacre late Saturday night at Monterey Park's Star Ballroom Dance Studio that left 10 dead and 10 others hospitalized, on Sunday one politician after another, including President Biden, expressed sorrow and offered condolences. (An 11th person died Monday.)
The change means an estimated 6 million more people, including about 1 million military veterans, will eventually qualify for the tax-favored accounts, advocates for disabled people say.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Non-breaching parties to a letter of intent may have a claim for costs incurred in reliance on that promise if that promise is breached.
The persuasive attorney and wise jurist recognize that the historical underpinnings of a law, decision, or custom is critical to its proper application, whether in making an argument or in supporting a judicial ruling. In short, in the field of law, the past guides the future.
The notion that the free expression of religion of a student group like Fellowship of Christian Athletes may threaten others is not just a myth pushed by progressives. The threat is veiled but there.
The economic laws of supply and demand mean the housing shortage results in high home prices and rents. As those costs, particularly rents, filter down to the Californians on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, they result in California's having the highest rate of poverty of any state, 13.2%, when the cost of living is included in the calculation.
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the 51-year-old hospital over the brink, hospital leaders said.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
It again is five conservative justices advancing the conservative agenda, here with regard to immigration, in violation of clear legal rules and using the shadow docket to achieve their goals.
Among the many other examples, albeit less spectacular, has been a chronic crisis in unemployment insurance, the program that's supposed to cushion the devastating effects on workers who lose their jobs and their families during the state's periodic recessions.
Although founded on fairness principles, Newsom's proposed tax will do little to address the underlying root causes of the price spikes.
Sites that are operating under 50% capacity are scheduled to close before the end of January. Forty-four OptumServe sites will be shuttered this week, and 48 mobile "mini-buses" will begin closing in two weeks, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last year declaring Lunar New Year, which typically falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice, to be a state holiday — a way to "acknowledge the diversity and cultural significance Asian Americans bring to California," he said in his signing message.
Monday, January 23, 2023
Financial wisdom is a gift that can have lifelong rewards and last longer than a monetary gift.
So far, only a relatively tiny amount of the immense storm runoff has found its way into storage.
The future likelihood of a series of huge atmospheric rivers in California, a so-called ARk storm scenario, seems to be a certainty.
Friday, January 20, 2023
Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the growing resentment as he introduced his new state budget last week. "People have just had it," he told reporters. "They want the encampments cleaned up."
Of the roughly 113,000 beds occupied by university students, just around 17,500 are for graduate students, according to fall 2022 data the UC Office of the President shared with CalMatters.
State officials claim that the 12.5 million electric vehicles expected on California's roads in 2035 will not strain the grid.
These shortsighted actions are also an assault on our sacred connection to the land, which is fundamental to who we are as Native people.
Each of these cases could significantly impact IP law. For that reason, we will keep a close eye, and I will likely write about each of these cases as they continue to develop.
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Writing clearly requires getting out of your shell as a writer, and thinking about your reader.
Feinstein, who will be 90 in June, has not said whether she'll be seeking another term next year, but recently widowed, very unpopular with the dominant progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and plagued by accounts of cognitive dissonance, she is likely to retire.
One of the main ways California helps people financially — and redistributes wealth — is by passing money through the tax system. It's not just one-time pandemic payments; there are also yearly payments, called refundable tax credits, that provide thousands of dollars to lower-income people through the tax system.
She spoke with L.A. Times reporters Liam Dillon and Ben Oreskes about the California housing crisis, the homeless population in Los Angeles and the state, and gave her opinion on related topics like gentrification and Proposition 13.
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Gov. Gavin Newsom will soon reveal a proposed budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year that begins July 1, and it's likely to greatly differ from the 2022-23 version he and the Legislature adopted just six months ago.
Despite a fairly wet winter – so far – California is still coping with a multi-year drought that's devastating the nation's most productive agricultural industry, the electrical grid struggles to meet demand, public school students are struggling with learning losses from COVID-19 school shutdowns, and the state's chronic housing shortage underlies the nation's highest rates of poverty and homelessness.
President Joe Biden's administration aims to protect students who identify as transgender and nonbinary from discrimination under new rules proposed in June and now making their way through the Education Department's lengthy rulemaking process. If finalized, the changes to Title IX, the 50-year-old civil rights law, would clarify that its ban on discrimination on the basis of sex extends to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
The situation, and its use as a political backdrop, has prompted local officials to ask what state resources will be available next year with California facing a potential budget shortfall and the possibility that Title 42 will end.
Employers must provide current employees with their pay scales upon request. Although applicants and employees likely welcome the enactment of Senate Bill 1162, or the "Pay Transparency Act," employers face some new responsibilities.
New York Times News Service
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies via videoconference before a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust in Washington, D.C. Wednesday.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies via videoconference before a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust in Washington, D.C. Wednesday.
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NEWS
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Thursday, February 2, 2023 |
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| Including taxes and fees, the Judicial Performance Defense Insurance program cost about $970,000 during the 2017-18 fiscal year. It rose to $1.3 million in 2020-21 and $1.5 million in 2021-22. According to documents provided by the Judicial Council, the policy costs $1.8 million in the current 2022-23 fiscal year and will rise to an estimated $2.1 million in the coming 2023-24 fiscal year. | |
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Thursday, February 2, 2023 |
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| The committee's report urged against wholesale structural changes to the state's judicial disciplinary body. | |
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Thursday, February 2, 2023 |
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| Plaintiffs claimed Amazon's quotas discriminated against older workers because the hourly quotas are so high they cause all sorts of injuries and other problems for warehouse workers and it is plausible to infer older workers are at higher risk of those harms. | |
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023 |
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| Tesla former executives testified about their confidence Elon Musk could secure funding to take company private. | |
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023 |
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| Jennifer L. Keller used a racial slur in questioning a rapper about music lyrics. | |
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023 |
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| "It's chaos. The government agencies, in an effort to help, have created complete chaos. Nobody really knows what's going on or what the rules are," said David DiJulio, managing partner with DiJulio Law Group, which specializes in real estate matters. | |
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023 |
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| "I would expect the various gun rights groups to probably argue that it's a violation of the Second Amendment — it's an infringement on their right to own guns — because it imposes some significant new requirements on gun ownership," commented Jeremy K. Robinson, an appellate attorney at Casey Gerry Schenk Francavilla Blatt & Penfield LLP in San Diego. | |
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023 |
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| California argued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' policy change does not go far enough and allows ghost gun sellers and manufacturers to bypass common sense gun safety regulations in the Gun Control Act, causing the state fiscal and other harms. | |
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023 |
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| "The CARE Act does not invest in housing or services," said Nubyaan S. Scott, a staff attorney at Disability Rights California. | |
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Friday, January 27, 2023 |
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| City Attorney David Chiu said Monday that U.S. District Judge Donna Ryu's Dec. 23 order doesn't make clear what "involuntarily homeless" means, and therefore hinders the city from complying with the precedent set in Martin v. City of Boise. | |
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Friday, January 27, 2023 |
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| In the latest antitrust broadside against Google, the U.S. Justice Department seeks to break of digital advertising business. | |
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Friday, January 27, 2023 |
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| In dismissing the latest iteration of the complaint, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson found that the plaintiffs had failed to plead factual details proving that the company knowingly misled shareholders about sexual discrimination allegations and investigations in SEC filings. | |
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 |
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| The brief backs Google in a case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerning whether the tech giant is entitled to the protections afforded by the statute with regard to liability for third-party recommended content that appears on social media platforms. | |
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 |
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| The case was filed by Placer and El Dorado counties, saying that last year's 2022 Mosquito Fire, which damaged 78 structures and dozens of homes, broke out because the utility had not properly maintained its power lines. | |
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 |
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| Counsel for Microsoft called into question the validity of the plaintiffs' desire to enjoin the purchase in the initial motion to stay; arguing that it is redundant given a pending FTC matter with the same aims. | |
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 |
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| Glenn, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne counties will be the first to try, sharing $2.8 million to implement programs underway by Oct. 1. Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced recently that the Los Angeles County court will work with the county to implement a CARE Court plan by Dec. 1. | |
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 |
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| Kaiser is seeking to bring the dispute into arbitration and said SEIU inappropriately refused to participate in that process. | |
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 |
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| Thursday's proceedings in Santa Clara County dovetailed with the company filing an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in an upcoming case where the court will decide whether social media companies should be protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for content their algorithms suggest to users. | |
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 |
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| "We're very pleased to have the continued support of Sen. [Richard] Roth in putting forth that bill seeking to get additional judgeships for not only the Inland Empire but all of the under-resourced courts throughout the state," said Riverside County Superior Court Presiding Judge Judith C. Clark. | |
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Monday, January 23, 2023 |
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| What Musk did could not be fraud, Alexander B. Spiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP stated, because in real fraud cases, when the truth is revealed the stock drops, but in this case the stock rose. Moreover, he added, Musk and Tesla's board did not sell any stock to profit from the supposed fraud, a usual motive for such an act. | |
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Monday, January 23, 2023 |
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| "We accept CAL FIRE's determination that a tree falling into our power line caused the 2020 Zogg Fire," Lynsey Paulo, director of marketing and communications for PG&E, said in an email after the first of what may be a two-week preliminary hearing. "However, we believe PG&E did not commit any crimes." | |
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Monday, January 23, 2023 |
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| The San Jose Unified School District stripped the club of its official status after concluding the club violated its anti-discrimination policy. | |
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Friday, January 20, 2023 |
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| Twitter may regret winning arbitration ruling, plaintiffs' lawyer says | |
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Friday, January 20, 2023 |
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| Attorneys with the Joseph Saveri Law Firm recently filed a complaint on behalf of artists who say their work was used to train the AI software without their consent. | |
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Friday, January 20, 2023 |
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| The case concerns data transmission patents used in Wi-Fi chips. But as important as the case is to the university and technology companies, the Supreme Court — if it grants review — may resolve whether and how defendants can challenge a patent's invalidity. | |
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Thursday, January 19, 2023 |
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| Attorneys for employers say such clauses are standard, particularly for large companies like Twitter, but employee attorneys said those sent out last week may violate California law. | |
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Thursday, January 19, 2023 |
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| Ruling less than two hours after a hearing in her courtroom, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang ruled in favor of a group of restaurant owners carrying a referendum to block a new law designed to raise fast food workers' pay. She wrote that the "petitioners have demonstrated a very high likelihood of success on the merits." Chang added there was "very little harm to the respondents" in delaying implementation of AB 257. | |
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Thursday, January 19, 2023 |
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| The judges are trying to determine how to evaluate various California firearms laws under the Supreme Court's new standard, adopted last June in its first major firearms ruling in years. | |