Tag: Gov. Gavin Newsom

California lawmakers’ plan to bring back COVID supplemental paid sick leave, but it won’t cover small business workers.

In summary Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to use the California budget surplus to confront the crises facing the state, including COVID-19 and climate change.

IN SUMMARY A new report found stark racial inequality across California. Advocates hope that the 2022 state budget will offer some solutions. California is a state of contrasts. On the one hand, it is flush with a $31 billion budget surplus from the gains of the rich, enabling it to spend record amounts on schools and health care. On the other hand, a new study reveals that despite a progressive tax system, severe racial inequalities remain.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom ended mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes in the nation's most populous state on Tuesday, giving judges more discretion to impose alternative sentences. The mandatory sentencing law Newsom signed Tuesday grew out of what Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco called a failed war on drugs that disproportionately incarcerated people who are Black or Latino.

Faced with criticism from many Californians thrown out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday gave his approval to a package of bills aimed at reducing delays and fraud in the state’s beleaguered unemployment benefits system.