Sweeping new laws ramping up in 2021 will force California businesses to offer employees more help to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, including measures on disclosure of workplace infections, on healthcare and wage replacement, and on job-protected leave to care for sick family members.
For state lawmakers, 2020 “was a year that started out with lots of aspirational plans,” said Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “But it became a year about saving lives.”
What with legislators’ personal COVID-19 scares and Capitol shutdowns, “leadership basically asked us to kill any bill that wasn’t COVID-related,” said Heath Flora (R-Ripon) vice chair of the Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee.
Sj: Tombstones Honor 196 Homeless People Who Died In Silicon Valley
Bay City News Service
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San Jose Spotlight
Row after row of makeshift tombstones filled a plaza outside a county building in San Jose, each with the name of a homeless person who died on the streets of Silicon Valley this past year. If we don t do this, then people just don t recognize the enormity of the problem and how many people are dying, said Shaunn Cartwright, a longtime homeless advocate who helped create the tombstones.
On each one of the 196 tombstones, a flower was painted above each name and age, signifying the person s ethnicity based on the color of the flower.
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California Democrats hope to push the incoming Congress and Biden administration to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the coming year with a new state bill.
Democratic lawmakers in the California Assembly and Senate introduced this week the Abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bill, a joint resolution that calls for the federal agency at the Department of Homeland Security to be shuttered. A state legislature does not have the legal ability to take apart a federal agency only Congress has that authority. Two assemblymembers who spoke with the
Washington Examiner believe Democrats in Washington are motivated to move on the liberal wish list item now.
To the relief of parents, California quietly reversed the outdoor playground ban Wednesday in its regional stay-home order, which is now in effect for the stateâs southern half and many Bay Area counties to control spread of the coronavirus.
The stay-home order announced last Thursday, Dec. 3, listed outdoor playgrounds as off limits in affected regions. It also bans outdoor dining at restaurants, but encourages other outdoor activity like hiking or going to the beach.
The California Department of Public Health confirmed the update Wednesday.
âPlaygrounds may remain open to facilitate physically distanced personal health and wellness through outdoor exercise,â the department said in a statement. Playgrounds located on schools that remain open for in-person instruction, and not accessible by the general public, may remain open and must follow guidance for schools and school-based programs.