Tag: california

California’s New Minimum Wage Is Predictably Killing Food Delivery Jobs

A new California law will require that most food-service workers get paid at least $20 per hour starting next year.

But hundreds of pizza delivery drivers in the Los Angeles area are about to discover Thomas Sowell’s famous adage that the true minimum wage is zero.

Pizza Hut announced Wednesday that it would lay off about 1,200 delivery drivers in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties, CBS News reported. Pizza Hut franchises are outsourcing delivery to third-party apps like GrubHub and UberEats as a cost-saving measure in advance of the new law taking effect.

The layoffs are likely to take effect in February, The Los Angeles Times reports, just weeks before the new, higher minimum wage hits.

California’s minimum wage for all workers is already $15.50, one of the highest wage floors in the country. The new $20 per hour minimum wage applies to all employees of fast-food chains with at least 60 locations in the country.

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‘Severe revenue decline’: California faces a record $68 billion deficit — here’s what is eating away at the Golden State’s coffers

California is dealing with a revenue shortfall partly due to a delay in 2022-2023 tax collection. The IRS postponed 2022 tax payment deadlines for individuals and businesses in 55 of the 58 California counties to provide relief after a series of natural weather disasters, including severe winter storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides.

Tax payments were originally postponed until Oct. 16, 2023, but hours before the deadline they were further postponed until Nov. 16, 2023. In line with the federal action, California also extended its due date for state tax returns to the same date.

These delays meant California had to adopt its 2023-24 budget before collections began, “without a clear picture of the impact of recent economic weakness on state revenues,” according to the LAO.

Total income tax collections were down 25% in 2022-23, according to the LAO — a decline compared to those seen during the Great Recession and dot-com bust.

“Federal delays in tax collection forced California to pass a budget based on projections instead of actual tax receipts,” Erin Mellon, communications director for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, told Fox News. “Now that we have a clearer picture of the state’s finances, we must now solve what would have been last year’s problem in this year’s budget.”

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California Officials Force Elderly Couple To Dismantle Home, Citing Blocked Ocean Views

The two-story mobile home that Michael and Susan Christian own and live in in the Orange County beach community of San Clemente, California, isn’t blighted, dangerous, ugly, or even unpopular with the neighbors.

But it is a little too tall, according to state officials with the California Coastal Commission.

For over a decade, the commission—a state agency with the final say over most development on the California coast—has been arguing that the Christians’ addition of a second story to their home obscures ocean views from a nearby walking trail. It also argued the couple added that second story without getting the required permits from the commission.

Late last month, a California appeals court sided with the commission, ruling that the Christians must comply with its demands to shrink their house from its current 22 feet in height down to 16 feet. The Christians’ representatives say that will require them to completely tear down and rebuild the home.

“They’re an elderly couple. They’re in their 70s. They have all kinds of health issues. This is their only home; they live in it,” says Lee Andelin, one of the Christians’ lawyers. Dismantling the home “is going to cost them millions of dollars, for what? There’s not a broader benefit for the public.”

Andelin argues the ruling will embolden the commission to place even more restrictions on coastal homeowners’ ability to improve their properties.

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California Psychedelics Ballot Measure Could Undermine Marijuana Taxes, State Officials Say

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released its review this week of a prospective ballot initiative to legalize psychedelics, outlining not only the plan’s policy implications but also its potential fiscal impacts on the state—which the report calls “various” and “uncertain.”

The measure, which proponents submitted the final language for earlier this month, would allow adults to legally grow, possess and use substances like psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline. A person would need a healthcare practitioner’s recommendations to purchase psychedelics at regulated stores.

As filed, the so-called Psychedelic Wellness and Healing Initiative of 2024 refers to “entheogenic” plants and substances, and it includes cannabis among them.

That approach, LAO said in its review, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in potential tax revenue to the degree it affects the state’s existing marijuana market.

“If the interpretation and implementation of the measure causes a large share of cannabis businesses and consumers to shift from the existing legal cannabis market to the new market created by the measure,” the report says, “it could result in a net reduction of hundreds of millions of dollars in cannabis-related tax revenue.”

On the other hand, LAO added, the change could in fact lead to more revenue for the state.

“If there is not such a shift, the measure could result in a net increase in tax revenue,” the office said, “as people selling currently illegal entheogenic plants or substances or providing related services could begin doing so legally under state law and therefore pay sales and personal income taxes.”

Analysts noted that the potential increase in tax revenue, however, “is significantly smaller than the potential revenue reduction.”

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California’s ‘toilet-to-tap’ approved — treated sewage coming back into homes

Who ever claimed Californians were full of crap?

Officials in the Golden State this week approved new “toilet-to-tap” regulations, allowing water agencies to take wastewater from homes, recycle it and pump it back to households in an effort to boost the state’s dwindling water supply.

“It will truly be the highest quality water delivered in the state when it’s done,” said Darrin Polhemus, director of the Division of Drinking Water and the State Water Resources Control Board.

Despite some trepidation from consumers, officials have guaranteed the scheme is safe due to the wastewater undergoing three rigorous stages of treatment.

The water is treated for pathogens and viruses in a way officials say is so thorough, minerals actually have to be added back to improve the taste.

“If one fails, there’s still two remaining in its place as backups to make sure nothing goes untreated,” Polhemus said. 

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Lawsuit: Calif. sheriffs left 75 pizza boxes at pot farm after allegedly illegal raid

A Southern California pot farmer is suing Riverside County for what he characterizes as an illegal law enforcement raid on his property.

The farmer, Preston McCormick, is alleging that deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office ransacked his business and left 75 pizza boxes behind following the operation last year. In his suit filed Friday against several individuals and public entities — including the County of Riverside and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department — in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Preston is claiming $10 million in losses and damages.

In his complaint, as Law360 first reported, McCormick claims that more than 100 deputies and support staff conducted a predawn raid on his farm, East Wind AG, located just north of the Salton Sea on tribal land owned by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. The suit says the deputies intentionally ripped down hundreds of greenhouses and other infrastructure due to an “unbridled lust for chaos.”

The suit says the raid, carried out Dec. 7 of last year, resulted in the destruction of 18,299 plants that were on “the cusp of harvest.” In addition to valuing the crops at approximately $10 million, McCormick alleges that deputies confiscated personal items from his home on the property, including $10,000 in cash.

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Interstate Marijuana Commerce Could Put California At ‘Significant Legal Risk’ Of Federal Action, Attorney General Says

The attorney general of California has determined that the state could put itself and its employees at “significant legal risk” of federal enforcement action if it were to authorize interstate marijuana commerce.

In a legal opinion sent to state cannabis regulators on Tuesday, Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said there are “strong arguments” that state officials could be federally prosecuted for implementing a law that permits cannabis imports and exports between consenting legal states.

The opinion comes in response to a request earlier this year from the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), seeking the attorney general’s assessment of potential liability for permitting interstate commerce under a law Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed last year.

While DCC argued in its request that the state would not find itself at substantial legal risk for allowing the activity, the attorney general’s opinion says it cannot rule out that possibility given the threat of federal preemption under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that strictly prohibits cannabis.

The law Newsom signed stipulated that the governor would be authorized to enter into interstate commerce agreements with other legal states if federal law or guidance changed, or if the state attorney general ruled out the possibility of “significant legal risk.”

“We appreciate the Attorney General’s conclusion that the arguments supporting interstate agreements are ‘strong,’” a DCC spokesperson said in a statement shared with Marijuana Moment on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, even strong arguments cannot put novel questions beyond all debate. If you are looking for certainty, you will not find it in cannabis.”

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Why Are California’s Animal Shelters Killing So Many Pets?

As I write this column, Marigold—my long-haired orange tabby who demands constant attention—is purring next to me. She’s a delightful creature that I adopted at a local shelter’s Five Dollar Fridays, where they adopt out vaccinated and spayed adult cats for that modest fee. I got her (and Fluffy) when my wife was out of town, so she’s now forbidden me from visiting a shelter alone.

I don’t blame my wife for setting some ground rules, given that I can’t wander through the aisles of forlorn animals and not bring at least one home. So I’ve been filled with disgust at California’s government-funded animal shelters, which claim to be models of compassion but really are killing fields that euthanize many healthy and adoptable animals.

In Orange County, critics complained that high euthanasia rates were the result of limited government resources. As a result, the county in 2018 opened a new $35-million Animal Care shelter in Tustin that includes all the cool features (dog runs, play areas) lacking at the decrepit former facility. One news report compared it to a five-star resort and noted that it had a paid staff of 140 plus 400 volunteers. That’s quite the operation.

Yet The Orange County Register‘s Teri Sforza reported on data analyzed by a former volunteer and found the “kill rate for adult dogs…has nearly doubled since 2018, and the amount of time they spend behind bars has jumped 60 percent.” During the pandemic, the shelter stopped walk-in visits and required appointments. That was understandable then, but even after the pandemic ended the shelter continued focusing on appointments and requiring accompanied visits.

Obviously, fewer people will fall in love with a purring or barking buddy if they can’t wander through the kennels and see which animal pulls at their heartstrings. You can no more pick out a pet based on a shelter’s photo than you can pick out a spouse solely on their dating website bio. Animal Care increased the number of walk-in visits amid criticism, but it’s still absurdly limited and I gave up trying to get info after a really long wait on its phone line.

The bureaucrats who run the facility—the largest municipal “animal-care” operation in the West—depict these customer-unfriendly, animal-harming policies as a means to protect the critters from stress and protect the public from animal bites. In reality, it’s just the latest instance of government putting the employees’ convenience above the public good—like the way public schools and teachers’ unions dragged their feet on school re-openings.

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Former sheriff’s deputy pleads guilty to child sex abuse, child porn charges

A former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy Wednesday changed his plea to guilty on multiple charges, including child sex abuse and possession of child pornography.

Jose Soto Jr. was arrested in May and charged with possession of child pornography and an assault weapon.

In addition to his guilty pleas on the child pornography charge, Soto pleaded guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and one count of continuous child sexual abuse.

Under California code, a “continuous sexual abuse of a child” charge applies to a person who has regular access to a child under 14 and has committed three or more lewd acts on them for three or more months.

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Terrorists Win: Gavin Newsom Cancels Public Christmas Tree Lighting to Avoid Pro-Hamas Protesters, Plans “Pre-Recorded Virtual” Lighting Instead

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) canceled Tuesday’s scheduled annual public lighting of a Christmas tree on the grounds of the state Capitol in Sacramento in the face of a permitted 300 person pro-Hamas demonstration planned for the event. Newsom announced he will instead hold a “pre-recorded virtual ceremony” lighting of the Christmas tree on Wednesday.

Pro-Hamas demonstrators have disrupted Christmas tree lighting ceremonies around the country in the past two weeks, most famously in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with Joe Biden in attendance and at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

KCRA-TV reporter Ashley Zavala reported from the Capitol on the cancellation of the lighting and a planned holiday market. Zavala said a spokesperson for the governor said the public lighting was canceled for the “safety and security of all participating members and guests, including children and families” because of the protests that have occurred at other recent events.

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