Published on December 28th, 2020
The Fractracker Alliance has just published a new study on the potential impacts of health and safety setbacks and environmental justice in California revealing that over 2 million people, mostly low income and people of color, live within 2,500′ of oil and gas infrastructure.
By Dan Bacher
The report, People and Production: Reducing Risk in California Extraction, makes a number of conclusions, including recommending a setback of at least one mile between oil and gas wells and homes, schools, based on the peer reviewed literature.
Kyle Ferrar, MPH with the Fractracker Alliance, writes in the report’s executive summary:
Walters: Changing Election Rules Alters Outcomes
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Periodically, owners of major league sports teams change game rules and in doing so they inevitably affect the games’ outcomes, purposely or not.
Politics are no different. Changing the rules of campaigning, voting and other political procedures affects election results.
Dan Walters
Opinion
We saw an example of that adage this year. Loosening voter registration requirements, allowing or disallowing ballot harvesting and, in some states, shifting from in-person voting to vote-by-mail affected voter turnout, altered the composition of the electorate and thus ultimately had an effect on what or who won or lost.
In summary
In sports, when you change the rules, you affect outcomes. That’s also true in politics as two new California proposals demonstrate.
Periodically, owners of major league sports teams change game rules and in doing so they inevitably affect the games’ outcomes, purposely or not.
Politics are no different. Changing the rules of campaigning, voting and other political procedures affects election results.
We saw an example of that adage this year. Loosening voter registration requirements, allowing or disallowing ballot harvesting and, in some states, shifting from in-person voting to vote-by-mail affected voter turnout, altered the composition of the electorate and thus ultimately had an effect on what or who won or lost.
Answers to Bay Area readers questions on Prop. 19, Medicare surcharge, RMDs
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Assembly member Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, helped put the Proposition 19 property tax measure on the ballot.Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press
Today I have answers to reader questions on Proposition 19, the November ballot measure that changed many property tax rules; the Medicare premium surcharge; and required minimum distributions from retirement plans.
Q: I’m 55 and buying a home in San Francisco, which closes Jan. 11, and will sell my Sunnyvale property in spring next year. Do you know if I would qualify for Prop. 19 if I hold off selling until April 1? I haven’t been able to reach anyone who can give me advice.
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California’s 108-year-old system of direct democracy was designed to provide voters with the tools, when needed, to wrestle the power of governing away from elected officials who might be too firmly in the grasp of powerful special interests.
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“They do give to the electorate the power of action when desired, and they do place in the hands of the people the means by which they may protect themselves,” then-Gov.