State Politics
- Governor Newsom has vetoed the Freedom to Walk Act, which would have removed the penalty for safe jaywalking. CalMatters provides a roundup of Newsom’s “year in vetoes.” A two-thirds vote in both houses of legislature would override any veto, but even with the current Democratic supermajority, no veto has been overturned since 1979.
City Politics
- In surprising news, Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was indicted and now faces federal corruption charges related to his relationship with the University of Southern California. Ridley-Thomas is the third LA Councilmember to be indicted on corruption charges in the past two years. LA Podcast has thorough coverage.
- The LA City Council Redistricting Commission’s attempt to unseat Councilmember Nithya Raman has become national news, with a multi-part opinion piece in the New York Times. This week Raman replaced her delegate on the commission with former councilmember and current LAUSD boardmember Jackie Goldberg. The final public hearing of the proposed map is tomorrow morning at 10am. See here for a toolkit for submitting written and public comment.
- The DSA-LA annual convention is tomorrow! More details here.
Labor
- The United Nurses Associations of California and Union of Health Care Professionals voted 96% in favor of authorizing a strike against Kaiser Permanente. CalMatters has more on this, as well as the potential of the coming #striketober to empower California healthcare workers across the system.
- Newsom has signed SB 62, which bans piece rate pay for garment workers. It will go into effect January 1. The bill also expands liability for wage theft in the garment industry.
- The Port of Los Angeles will now enter round-the-clock production, in order to clear a backlog of cargo ships. This was first announced in a statement released by President Joe Biden.
Environmental Justice
- An analysis conducted by Grist and Capital & Main demonstrates the racial disparities in community exposure to oil drilling across California, a state which does not regulate “buffer zones” between residential areas and drilling sites.
- Southern California’s fall wildfire season has begun, as the Alisal Fire has burned across 13,400 acres in Santa Barbara.
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta has launched an investigation into the Huntington Beach oil spill.