Free Republic

New legislation being proposed in California would ban the expedited security screening company Clear from operating in the state’s airports, as proponents say the service raises equity issues given it effectively lets wealthier people skip ahead of passengers waiting in line to be screened by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents. The bill, SB-1372, the first of its kind in the U.S., would require third-party vendors like Clear to get their own dedicated security lane or lose the ability to operate in California airports. Clear charges members $189 per year to verify passengers' identities at airports, allowing them to bypass TSA...

A Northern California school district is reimposing indoor mask requirements for students, staff and visitors amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases. The Berkeley Unified School District on Friday said the new mandate go into effect on Monday, citing the advice of health officials. "As you can see above, Dr. Hernandez has strongly recommended that the district use our authority to reinstate a mask mandate," district Superintendent Brent Stephens said about a message he received from city Health Officer Lisa Hernandez earlier in the week. "Because we are not a health agency, we must rely on these experts to guide us."

As a rule, few things are less likely to be the source of humor than court decisions. Sometimes there are excellent puns or low-key snark, but you don’t find belly-laugh material. Usually. Last Friday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit published a decision on a complaint arising from Ventura, California, that covered both the COVID panic and the Second Amendment. During the height of the COVID panic, that county ordered firing ranges, and gun shops closed. Presumably, this is because the Wuhan virus has a particular affinity for recreational venues. Several groups and individuals sued to overturn the order as...

In one opinion published last week, 9th Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke said Ventura County, California, violated the Second Amendment when it shut down gun stores early in the COVID-19 pandemic. In another opinion the same day, VanDyke said the county's policy was perfectly consistent with the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. That second, tongue-in-cheek opinion was meant to illustrate the disrespect that the 9th Circuit and other federal appeals courts have shown for the Second Amendment since 2008, when the Supreme Court explicitly recognized that the provision guarantees an individual right to armed self-defense. The Court may finally...

The San José City Council will vote Tuesday on requiring every household with a gun owner to have liability insurance coverage for their firearms and pay an annual fee – which would make San Jose the first city or state in the nation with such gun violence reduction proposals.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed a regulation aimed at “Small Off-Road Engines” on Thursday that will ban the sale of portable generators in the state — which includes generators mounted in recreational vehicles. The ruling bans the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers in the state beginning in 2024. Portable generators will be required to meet more stringent standards in 2024 and meet zero-emission standards starting in 2028. In the 2024 model year, portable generators will have to improve their efficiency by somewhere between 40% and 90%, which seems unrealistic in such a short period of time,...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom took a victory lap on Tuesday after voters rejected an effort to recall him from the governor’s mansion, casting his win as a rejection of “the negativity that’s defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years.” In remarks delivered in Sacramento minutes after he was declared the winner of the recall election, Newsom said that with his victory, Californians had voted to safeguard democracy, taking a swipe at his main Republican opponent, conservative radio host Larry Elder, and former President Donald Trump, who had raised baseless claims of fraud ahead of...

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder told supporters to be “gracious in defeat” as he conceded the results of the recall election on Tuesday night, which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) won in a landslide, crushing an effort to unseat him. As of Wednesday morning, the “no” vote led the “yes” vote by nearly two-to-one (64.2.% to 35.8%), a stunning result given that several polls of likely California voters in late July showed Newsom within the margin of error or even losing. “We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war,” Elder told supporters, urging them...

Commiefornia hands out stimulus checks, illegals can get them too! Psaki said what?! Another great Jericho Green anti-left tirade.

District officials in San Diego evidently believe that the practice of grading students based on average scores is racist. [At the Reason article]: ...Under the new system, pupils will not be penalized for failing to complete assignments or even show up for class, and teachers will give them extra opportunities to demonstrate their "mastery" of subjects. What constitutes mastery is not quite clear, but grades "shall not be influenced by behavior or factors that directly measure students' knowledge and skills in the content area," according to guidance from the district. District officials evidently believe that the practice of grading students...

The California Department of Public Health on Friday released new guidelines for private gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. The guidelines are an update on household gatherings that takes precedence over prior guidance that was issued most recently last month. Anyone who plans to host or participate in a private gathering must comply with the following requirements: 1. Attendance Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited. This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests. Remember, the smaller the number of people, the safer. Keep the households that you interact with stable over time. By spending time with the same...

The California Fish and Game Commission abruptly canceled a teleconference Thursday morning amid cries of “make fishing great again!” and “fascists!” before it could consider authorizing a limited ban on sportfishing in some areas. Earlier this week, a group of conservative politicians, sheriffs and media outlets told their followers that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration was planning to outright cancel the fishing season statewide because of COVID-19.

California's New Dystopian Laws Californians, are you ready for the twelve-hundred new progressive laws that take effect this year? Get ready because many of these new rules come with stiff penalties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8FhWH4uSdk&feature=emb_title  

I'd like to see everyone have a happy and prosperous New Year. But I'm afraid a lot of freelancers and independent contractors in California are going to have it tough in 2020. Thanks to Democrat lawmakers in Sacramento, in fact, hundreds of thousands of part-time Uber drivers and freelance writers like me could lose their jobs or face drastic cuts in their incomes. The culprit is Assembly Bill 5, the "progressive" new state law that rewrites the rules for part-time "gig" workers and forces companies to reclassify their independent contractors and turn them into full-time employees. As of Jan. 2,...

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new California labor law from impacting more than 70,000 independent truckers. The law, passed late last year, makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees, who are entitled to minimum wage and benefits such as workers compensation. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order sought by the California Trucking Association while he considers imposing a permanent injunction. He said the association is likely to eventually prevail on its argument that the state law violates federal law. He also ruled...

A nonprofit legal foundation is suing California on behalf of freelance workers who say the state's recently passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) will destroy their livelihoods. Set to take effect on January 1, 2020, AB5 will make it illegal for contractors who reside in California to create more than 35 pieces of content in a year for a single company, unless the outlet hires them as an employee. "By enforcing the 35-submission limit, Defendant, acting under color of state law, unconstitutionally deprives Plaintiffs' members of their freedom of speech as protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S....

California's governor on Wednesday signed sweeping labor legislation that aims to give wage and benefit protections to rideshare drivers at companies like Uber and Lyft and to workers across other industries. The closely watched proposal could have national implications as lawmakers, businesses and unions confront the changing nature of work and the rise of the so-called gig economy. "California is now setting the global standard for worker protections for other states and countries to follow," Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the bill's author, said in a statement. The legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom makes it harder for companies to classify...

Rather than spending the holidays relaxing, Will Griffith needs to decide whether he should immediately leave the freelance gig he's had for the past five years or stick around until his contract is terminated in March. Griffith was one of 200 Vox Media freelancers in California who lost their job on Monday. The company nixed freelancers because of a new state law that defines some positions previously filled by freelancers or gig workers as full-time roles with benefits. The law takes effect January 1. California lawmakers meant for the new law, Assembly Bill 5, to help Uber and Lyft drivers...

Vox Media rooted for the passage of a California gig economy bill that is now forcing Vox to lay off hundreds of its own freelance workers. * Vox Media is laying off hundreds of freelance workers as California’s gig economy rights bill takes effect. * Vox cheered for the gig economy bill on its own news pages. Now it’s letting freelance workers go because of the new law. * This is a painfully ironic, cautionary tale against the broader labor movement represented by politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren. California AB-5 takes effect in 2020 after passage by the California state...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Freelance writers and photographers on Tuesday filed the second legal challenge to a broad new California labor law that they say could put some independent journalists out of business. The law taking effect Jan. 1 aims to give wage and benefit protections to people who work as independent contractors. While the public focus has been largely on ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft, the lawsuit brought by the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Press Photographers Association says the law would unconstitutionally affect free speech and the media. The lawsuit filed by...