The California hotel workers union is pushing a bill that requires all hotel mattresses to have fitted sheets instead of flat sheets. They argue that the heavy lifting required for flat sheets is causing back injuries for workers. The problem is, the regulation comes with a price tag of $30-$50 million dollars charged to the taxpayers, according the California Hotel and Lodging Association. With a $15 billion dollar deficit, more costly regulations are the last thing the state should be considering. Not only that, but hotel operators say the fitted …
Full-time lifeguards in Newport Beach, Calif., make over $100,000 a year, with the highest paid earners topping over $200,000. And if you think that’s bad, wait till you hear this: Those same lifeguards can retire at age 50 in good health and receive a well stocked lifetime government pension and full government benefits until death, costing the city nearly $108,000 per healthy, retired lifeguard every single year. If a lifeguard lives until he’s 80, he costs the state $3 million – a huge sum of money that could be better …
Large majorities of the public favor parental notice before an abortion can be performed on a minor girl, and the laxity of current laws on the issue continues to draw the attention of policymakers- and the support of abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, which routinely challenges parental rights in this area. But Planned Parenthood is fully capable of setting a standard of parental rights when they align with their interest, as news out of California demonstrates. Planned Parenthood there is requiring parental consent for Sacramento teens to lobby against legislation …
The desire to achieve victory in any field of endeavor can become so intense that it deforms the character of the participants. That tendency has been on display in the past two weeks as a result of the intimidation offensive the Human Rights Campaign has waged against the law firm of King and Spalding and its partner, former Solicitor General Paul Clement, over his agreement to represent the House of Representatives in federal cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Clement has acted with honor and consistency by putting …
California is teetering on the edge of economic and social collapse. According to an Economist special report, this is largely the result of decisions to implement direct democracy reforms during the Progressive era, such as poplar recall, initiatives, propositions, and referenda — reforms that have “inflamed” the passions of the people — “James Madison’s worst nightmare.” The insidious influence of factions (groups united by passions or interests that are contrary to the rights of individuals or the wellbeing of the community as a whole) helped to cause California’s downward spiral …
When faced with losing one of the most brilliant companies in the country, Twitter, even San Francisco can have a moment of revelation regarding tax policy. Burdened with heavy California taxation—and San Francisco’s on top of that—Twitter presented a letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors giving them an option: either exempt Twitter from the city payroll tax for six years or watch the tweeting company walk. The board decided in favor of Twitter’s proposal, and Twitter signed its new lease last Friday.
Friday morning, a massive earthquake hit Japan and spawned a massive tsunami that is sweeping across the Pacific, requiring evacuation along the Hawaiian coast. This morning the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued an alert that “tsunami warnings and watches have been issued for the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, as well as portions of coastal areas in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington.” Damage and loss of life in Japan will be significant. We have to be concerned as well about the safety …
“It’s not about the money,” says University of Wisconsin Associate Professor of Political Science and Law Howard Schweber. Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell agrees: “This is not about protecting our pay and our benefits. It is about protecting our right to collectively bargain.” Both Scheber and Bell are half right: the fight in Wisconsin is not about the money… of state employees. These workers have already agreed to pay more for their health care and retirement benefits. But this is about someone’s money … the union’s. Consider that …
Today Wisconsin, tomorrow California? The battle between government unions and state budgets was inevitable once the unions were given collective bargaining rights over the past 50 years. The battle boiled over the past few weeks in Wisconsin as Republicans in the Legislature are attempting to repeal the state’s collective bargaining law for public-employee unions, along with requiring state workers to pay half their pension costs. A Rasumssen poll released Feb. 24 showed that 67 percent of Americans disapprove of Democrats’ tactics in Wisconsin, where all the state’s Democratic senators fled …
The economic harms of carbon cap-and-trade policies are so well established that even a state as reliably leftist as California has never been able to pass a plan through their legislature. Instead, environmentalists in the Golden State have relied on the California Air Resources Board (CARB), whose appointed governing board is democratically unaccountable, to develop and impose carbon regulations by bureaucratic fiat. And this past December, much to the delight of many environmentalists, CARB passed the first carbon cap-and-trade scheme in the United States. Everything looked ready to go … …
