California lawmakers raise the legal smoking age from 18 to 21, amid cheers from health officials campaigning against teen smoking. The question now is what will Jerry Brown do?
Courtney Perkes and Chris Haire write in O.C. Register: "Orange County public health advocates who are working to snuff out teen smoking on Thursday praised state lawmakers’ action to raise the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 for traditional and electronic cigarettes."
"If Gov. Jerry Brown signs the legislation, California would become the second state, after Hawaii, to increase the age for tobacco and e-cigarette purchases. The law would take effect Jan. 1. Brown’s office has not indicated the governor’s stance on the package."
"The series of six bills, which received final approval from the Senate on Thursday, represented California’s most substantial anti-tobacco effort in nearly two decades, according to the American Cancer Society."
Decisions, decisions... California faces a financial dilemma in a recent debate pitting the practicality of the high-speed rail project against the idea of using that same project money to build more reservoirs throughout the state.
The Mercury News' Paul Rogers reports: "Supporters of a proposed ballot initiative to kill California's high-speed rail project and use the money to build new reservoirs are racing to gather enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot."
"But the campaign, which is being bankrolled by San Joaquin Valley farmers, is already drawing fire from fellow farmers and environmentalists, who call it a "Trojan horse."
"Backers say the proposal is a common-sense idea, given the state's drought and growing water needs for farms and cities. They say it will cut through red tape and finally halt the highly controversial bullet train project to focus on higher-priority, long-stalled water projects. Those include Sites Reservoir in Colusa County, Temperance Flat Reservoir on the San Joaquin River near Sequoia-Kings National Park and raising the height of Shasta Dam near Redding and San Luis Dam near Los Banos."
Erroneous convictions in California have lead to more than $220 million in damages, after a recent study explored the amount of money involved in botched crime.
From the LAT's Paige St. John:: "A stuudy of more than 600 overturned felony convictions in California calculates the cost of those botched cases to taxpayers at more than $220 million over two decades."
"The effort to put a price on prosecutorial misconduct, errant judicial rulings and forensic lab mistakes was undertaken by the Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at UC Berkeley and the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania."
"Incarceration costs for individuals who were set free after their convictions were overturned added up to $80 million, the study found. Lawsuit settlements in wrongful conviction cases were $68 million, and an additional $68 million was spent on trials and appeals, according to the study released this week."
California's terminally ill have now acquired the legal right to die with dignity under a new law that would allow those with less than 6 months left to live the choice of choosing when and how to die.
Melody Gutierrez reports in the LAT: "Dying Californians can ask their doctors for a lethal prescription to end their lives beginning June 9."
"California’s law, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, is modeled after Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act, which was enacted in 1997 to give terminal patients the option of dying earlier. Before being prescribed a lethal dose of drugs, two California physicians would have to agree that a mentally competent person has six months or less to live. The patient would then decide whether and when to take the prescription. Those who do so would have to ingest the drugs on their own, without assistance from another person."
"California’s law requires a patient to affirm 48 hours in advance of taking the drugs that they are doing so of their own accord. The law expires in 10 years."
Guns are everywhere but money is not... California's Kamala-Harris struggles against an underground gun market and seeks additional funding to recover illegal firearms.
Julie Small reporting in KQED: "California law prohibits felons, people with a history of domestic violence and others with severe mental illness from having guns. It falls to Attorney General Kamala Harris and her Department of Justice to confiscate those guns. But 11,830 people currently banned from having guns may still possess them."
"That upsets Amanda and Nick Wilcox, whose daughter, Laura, was killed by a gunman in Nevada City in 2001 while working at the county behavioral health clinic."
“I was numb for six months,” Amanda Wilcox recalls. “I kept pinching myself, thinking I don’t believe this happened. I felt like I was outside my body — as if something had happened to someone else. It turns your life upside down.”"
