A group of terminally ill patients is challenging the state’s laws forbidding physician-assisted suicide in a San Francisco court case, arguing that their right to end their lives in a manner of their own choosing is a civil right. Howard Mintz, San Jose Mercury News:
“[Lawyers] for several terminally ill patients and doctors who care for the terminally ill are moving to block enforcement of California laws that date back 140 years barring physician-assisted suicide. A San Diego judge last month rejected similar arguments, but right-to-die advocates say the San Francisco case tees up the central legal issues to resolve the question across California.
"’The choice of a dying patient for a peaceful death through aid in dying is an essential civil right,’ said Kathryn Tucker, an attorney for the Disability Rights Legal Center.
“Attorney General Kamala Harris is defending the state's laws, which make it a crime for ‘every person who deliberately aids, advises, or encourages a person to commit suicide.’"
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Thursday levied $566,000 in fines against Exxon Mobil for workplace safety violations stemming from a February 18 blast that injured four. Veronica Rocha has the story in the Los Angeles Times:
“Cal/OSHA found the company neglected to eliminate known hazardous conditions and ‘intentionally failed to comply with state safety standards,’ likely resulting in workers being seriously injured or killed, according to the agency’s Department of Industrial Relations.
“The company has 15 days to appeal the citations to the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board.
“’Petroleum refineries have the responsibility to keep workers safe, and to also protect nearby communities and the environment,’ department director Christine Baker said in a statement. ‘This investigation revealed severe lapses in Exxon’s safety protocols.’”
California’s Public Utilities Commission is looking into whether drivers for ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft may be outside the law by using leased vehicles on the job. Andrea Chang, LAT:
“[The] CPUC said car leasing does not appear to be covered by state regulations for transportation network companies.
"’If you get a permit from us and you're a [transportation network company], it doesn't authorize the use of vehicles other than those privately owned by the driver,’ spokeswoman Constance Gordon said.”
Speaking of the sharing economy, California Senator Diane Feinstein and San Francisco mayor Ed Lee find themselves on opposite sides of Proposition F, a San Francisco measure that would impose strict limits on short term rentals in private homes (read: Airbnb.) Carolyn Said, San Francisco Chronicle:
“The two politicians authored the official arguments for and against San Francisco’s Proposition F, which would severely limit the use of homes as hotels through services like Airbnb. Their messages will appear in the guide sent to voters by early October, along with a yet-unknown number of 300-word paid arguments on both sides.
“Feinstein, who previously penned an op-ed against San Francisco’s plan to legal short-term rentals, wrote to support Prop F. The text of her argument will be available Friday at noon.
“Lee wrote that Prop. F is ‘entirely unnecessary’ because San Francisco already has ‘common sense short-term rental regulations’ limiting whole-home rentals to 90 days a year. He wants voters to allow time for that law and supporting efforts to work.”
KQED’s Marisa Lagos offers a follow up to Wednesday’s story examining local governments’ Sacramento lobbying activity, this time looking at a lobbying loophole that may have allowed a $240 million state contract for Common Core testing to be awarded without proper transparency.
“When California education officials awarded a $240 million, three-year contract to conduct Common Core testing for millions of school children this spring, they said it was an open and competitive process — and that Educational Testing Service, the winning company, simply had the best proposal.
“Not everyone agrees the process was so open, nor do they agree that ETS was the clear choice….”
California is well ahead of other states in respect to clean energy generation – but will a proposed joint venture with a regional western utility help them or hurt us? Dan Morain in the Sacramento Bee:
“[The] authorities who run the California Independent System Operator, the Folsom-based entity that manages this state’s electricity transmission, are contemplating entering into a joint venture with PacifiCorp, the Portland, Ore.-based utility that supplies electricity to 1.8 million customers in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
“The proposal offers promises, but raises questions, too. California could lose a measure of independence. So could the other states. Oregon and Washington, blue states that they are, are fine with green energy. But Wyoming, Idaho and Utah are deep red states with voters who are contemptuous of Obama, and the energy policies advocated by him and, for that matter, Jerry Brown….
“PacifiCorp mines and burns coal – lots of it. On its website, PacifiCorp says ‘coal is a valuable resource and fuels 58 percent of the electricity produced by PacifiCorp’s owned generating plants.’ All that energy has to go somewhere. If California doesn’t use it, presumably red states would.
“None of this is lost on Senate President pro tem Kevin de León, the author of pending legislation, Senate Bill 350, to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“’Regional energy markets can be a good thing if they don’t weaken California’s clean power program,’ de León said. ‘It cannot – cannot – weaken our strong energy policies so that all of sudden we’re getting dirty coal. … I’ll be watching like a hawk.’”
So, who had the #WorstWeekinCA politics this time around?
As noted above, Exxon Mobil has certainly had happier Fridays, and SF Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi can’t seem to catch a break: just as the furor over his department’s release of an immigrant felon who went on to murder Kathryn Steinle seems to be dying down, he gets popped for driving without a license after failing to report an accident. It’s like he’s trying to win our little contest.
This week he had some stiff competition: the California FPPC posted a slew of enforcement actions, including a $10,000 fine against state senator Jim Nielsen, (R-Gerber) for campaign finance violations related to Tehama County Supervisor Bob Williams’ failed bid for an assembly seat in 2012.
Most of the headlines went to the $16,000 fine for Million More Voters, a labor campaign committee that backed Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris in 2010. Put in perspective, MMV spent nearly $3 million on those races, but disclosure mistakes landed them a fine that is roughly one half of one percent of their expenditure.
Nielsen, by contrast, was fined more than double the value of the $4,320 radio spot that got him in trouble. That’s gotta smart, and we think it earned him our #WorstWeek accolades.
But hey, it could be worse: the former regional director of San Joaquin County's Office of Education’s migrant education program got popped for $40K, and no one outside of Stockton has even heard of her.
See you next week!
