Washington Post (July 29)
“Once again America woke up to news of a mass shooting. This time, it was at a popular food festival in California and among those killed was a 6-year-old boy, Stephen Romero, who had been playing at an inflatable bounce house when he was shot in the back.” Three died and twelve were injured. “It took just one horrific shooting spree in New Zealand to prompt leaders there to tighten gun laws, including a ban on most semiautomatic weapons. And so the question persists: “Why?”
Tags: Bounce house, California, Food festival, Gun laws, Injured, Mass shooting, New Zealand, Romero, Semiautomatic weapons, Shot, U.S., Why
The Economist (June 22)
Already “one in five Americans calls Texas or California home.” The behemoths are now “the biggest, brashest, most important states in the union, each equally convinced that it is the future.” But their vision is “heading in opposite directions, creating an experiment that reveals whether America works better as a low-tax, low-regulation place” or a “high-tax, highly regulated one.” Given Washington dysfunction, “the results will determine what sort of country America becomes almost as much as the victor of the next presidential election will.”
Tags: Biggest, Brashest, California, Dysfunction, Election, Experiment, Future, Regulation, Tax, Texas, U.S., Washington
Los Angeles Times (April 27)
“BPA and BPS lurk in products all around us, notably in plastics, and research has shown that most people have trace amounts in their bodies. But that the millions of paper receipts consumers handle every day might be another—and significant—source of exposure is not well known.” This is one of the reasons California may get behind legislation to ban large retailers and banks from offering paper receipts by 2022.
Tags: Ban, Bank, BPA, BPS, California, Consumers, Exposure, Legislation, Paper receipts, Plastics, Retailers
LA Times (January 24)
“Thank heavens for Berkeley.” The liberal enclave “was an early adopter of curbside recycling and banned polystyrene…30 years ago, way before it was hip to do so.” And now Berkeley is becoming “the first California city to take on the challenge of crafting a truly comprehensive plan to reduce single-use plastic trash.” The waste-reduction initiative Berkeley is enacting “could serve as the test case for other cities and states.” The liberal bastion has “answered the call to think beyond bags and straws.”
Tags: Bags, Ban, Berkeley, California, Curbside recycling, Early adopter, Liberal, Polystyrene, Single-use plastic, Straws, Trash, U.S., Waste-reduction
Los Angeles Times (August 16)
“The largest fire in California history continued to grow Thursday while firefighters worked to protect threatened communities…. Conditions have been ripe for the erratic fire behavior that has led to the explosive growth of the Ranch fire, which along with the River fire makes up the 364,145-acre Mendocino Complex fire. The days are so hot and dry that whatever gains firefighters see overnight when the humidity goes up quickly fade when the sun hits the fuels and sucks the moisture out.”
Tags: California, Dry, Erratic, Explosive, Fire, Firefighters, Hot, Humidity, Mendocino Complex fire, Ranch fire, River fire
LA Times (May 8)
California appears to be headed “toward requiring solar panels on all new houses,” which would make it “the first state to require solar panels on all newly built single-family houses.”
Tags: California, First, New houses, Single family, Solar panels
LA Times (January 11)
California must “break the terrifying pattern of fire and flood….Water and fire can be a lethal combination,” but there is a way forward. “Taxing ourselves to create more open space in the foothills will not stop fires from erupting or rain from falling. It will give city and county planners a powerful tool by which to restrain growth, offer burned-out homeowners a safer option than rebuilding in fire zones, and give those living downhill in the path of the slides some much-needed breathing room.”
Tags: California, Fire, Fire zones, Flood, Foothills, Growth, Lethal, Open space, Rebuilding, Taxes
San Francisco Chronicle (October 9)
“California’s fire season took an apocalyptic turn for too many Sunday as fierce winds and hot, dry air fanned more than a dozen Wine Country fires…. At least 1,500 structures and 10 lives were lost, scores were injured and tens of thousands evacuated, and smoke settled thickly over the Bay Area and beyond.” While containment remains the most urgent matter, “the latest catastrophic wildfires are also a policy problem that should motivate redoubled prevention and mitigation measures.”
Tags: Apocalyptic, California, Catastrophic, Evacuated, Fire, Mitigation, Prevention, Smoke, Wildfires, Winds, Wine Country
LA Times (July 11)
Worried about an explosion of diabetes, California is investing $5 million in prevention efforts. The cause for alarm is a recent study which found that “46% of adults in California have prediabetes” while 9% of Californians are already diabetic. “Implementing the program should save $45 million a year because of those who end up not developing diabetes — and requiring less medical treatment — as a result of the intervention.”
Tags: Alarm, California, Diabetes, Intervention, Invest, Medical treatment, Prediabetes, Prevention, Savings
LA Times (February 14)
“California’s majestic Oroville Dam is currently in danger of spillway failure in a season of record snow and rainfall. That could spell catastrophe for thousands who live below it and for the state of California at large that depends on its stored water. The poor condition of the dam is almost too good a metaphor for the condition of the state as a whole; its possible failure is a reflection of California’s civic decline.”
Tags: California, Catastrophe, Danger, Decline, Failure, Oroville Dam, U.S., Water
