Category: California

by Yue Stella Yu and Jenna Peterson / CalMatters / October 24, 2024

In summary

Only one-third of the California GOP congressional delegation has pledged to accept the 2024 presidential election results. And only two incumbents in office in 2021 voted to certify President Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 race. [Please see original here for important links. Here’s the total California House delegation]

In January 2021, seven of the 11 California Republicans in Congress refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results, boosting former President Donald Trump’s false claim that he lost in a rigged vote.

By Alex Nieves / Politico / October 16, 2024

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is suing a California agency that rejected his company’s plan to increase rocket launches from an Air Force base in Santa Barbara County, arguing that commissioners engaged in political bias while making the decision. Attorneys from Los Angeles-based law firm Venable LLP filed the complaint against the California Coastal Commission in Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday, days after Musk threatened in a weekend post on X to take legal action against the agency.

The lawsuit argues that the agency’s 12-member commission “engaged in naked political discrimination” during last week’s debate on a Department of Defense proposal to expand the number of SpaceX rocket launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base from 36 to 50.

Here is the OB Rag 2024 General Election Ballot Guide. Ballots began arriving in San Diego County mailboxes the week of October 7, while the first vote centers open October 26.

So, this is a guide to the major state and county candidates, issues and ballot measures in the election. (For some races and offices, there’s no need for discussion.) What we’re not covering are the school board and other-than-City of San Diego races, generally. (Our recommendations are next to the office or initiative listed.)

President – Kamala Harris

Senate – Adam Schiff -(D)

Adam Schiff, a 12-term Democratic Congressman from Burbank, is of course going after the seat held by the late Dianne Feinstein and is going against Republican Steve Garvey, a former Dodgers and Padres star who is seeking his first public office. Garvey is a two-time supporter of Trump. Note that you have to vote for your candidate twice — both to fill two months of Feinstein’s unfinished term, and then for the full six years beginning in January.

By Mat Wahlstrom

Of the fifteen state and local measures on this November’s ballot, arguably none would be more beneficial to the largest number of Californians than Proposition 33. Which is why it’s curious that one cannot find a single mainstream media outlet which supports it.

Proposition 33 is a clean repeal of the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, which bans cities and counties from limiting the amounts that new and existing tenants can be charged for rent. That’s it. It doesn’t specify any limits; it simply allows them to be enacted.

And that’s the ugly truth that’s being ignored: we already have rent control, but it protects landlords not renters. Current state law prevents even the possibility of tenant relief.

By Rachel Barnes / San Diego Patch /Oct 3, 2024

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is, once again, the wealthiest person in the Golden State, according to The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of America’s super-rich released Tuesday. …

Zuckerberg, 40, is worth an estimated $181 billion …. He last led the list in 2021 before Facebook suffered a series of rocky financial quarters. To claw back to the top this year, Zuckerberg dethroned Larry Ellison, Oracle software development company founder who was the richest person in California in 2023.

Last year, Zuckerberg ranked fourth on California’s list under Ellison and both Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Other big names from California that made Forbes’ top 400 include filmmakers George Lucas (net worth $4.8 billion) and Steven Spielberg (net worth $5.2 billion)

By Eric S. Page / NBC7 /September 30, 2024

The state of California legalized medical marijuana in 1996 and recreational marijuana sales and consumption 20 years later. On Monday, the Golden State legalized cannabis lounges where customers will be able to buy the drug, then stick around for a meal or a live show.

Matt Haney, the San Francisco-based Assemblymember who sponsored AB 374, announced Monday morning that California Gov. Gavin Newsom had signed the legislation into law. “Lots of people want to enjoy legal cannabis in the company of others,” Haney said

By Joe Mathews / JMathews@SCNG.com SD U-T / September 26, 2024

Lock up your tents, California! Toss out your old camping gear! Hide your pillows and blankets where the cops will never find them!

Because the people who run California have finally seen clearly that the greatest scourge in today’s Golden State is not climate change and not crime, not COVID and not corruption, not the rising cost of living nor grinding poverty.

No, what most threatens our way of life is people who camp.

By Melody Petersen / San Diego Union-Tribune TNS / Sept. 24, 2024

When Roy Richards spotted workers cutting down and shredding Joshua trees for a sprawling solar energy project near his Mojave Desert home last week, he started taking photos.

“Once the trees go through the shredders, they vanish,” he said, showing a reporter an image of a small pile of brown dust left by the crews. The developer of the Aratina Solar Center has government approval to fell all of the thousands of trees on the site.

By David Helvarg / Los Angeles Times Op-Ed / Sept. 20, 2024

Just up the road from Oakland and Berkeley, the city of Richmond is a minority and low-income community of 115,500 people — mainly Latino, Black and Asian American — with a major Chevron refinery whose pollution has been an ongoing source of conflict (the city just reached a $550-million settlement with Chevron to mitigate health and lifestyle effects of the refinery). It’s also home to an active port and soon — finally — a world-class park.

Planner and professor says massive increase in density and new housing didn’t bring costs down; in fact, costs are way up.

By Tim Redmond / 48 Hills / September 15, 2024

Patrick Condon was once what they now call a Yimby. A landscape architect, urban planner, and professor at the University of British Columbia, he worked with hundreds of others to build a sustainable, affordable city in Vancouver, BC. He showed how the Yimby approach didn’t work. It backfired.

San Diego, of course, is not the only California city holding a mayoral race this fall. 500 miles away, San Francisco is also embroiled in its own election for the helm of the city.

Aaron Peskin, the lone progressive, is running against incumbent London Breed along with 3 other Democrats. Here’s today’s LA Times on him:

From California Surf Museum 

This latest announcement means San O is safe, at least for another few decades. “California just signed a new deal with our federal partners to keep San Onofre open as a state park for another 25 years,” wrote California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday night. “San Onofre’s beaches, hiking and biking trails, and campgrounds will continue to welcome visitors for years to come.”