In the News

SAN FRANCISCO (Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone Lands) — The State of California is another step closer to formally endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty proposal as the resolution advances to the state assembly.

Gonzalez said: “It is time to end the use of fossil fuels once and for all. SJR 2 is about bringing the global community together to strengthen our ability to meet international environmental targets. It lays out the foundation that is missing—tackling fossil fuels head-on by stopping the expansion of coal, oil, and gas operations and transitioning to a prosperous green economy that promotes economic opportunity for all workers. This is an opportunity for California to step up in alignment with our values as a world climate leader, by encouraging others to join the dialogue to help build a global plan to save our planet and protect our future. I am proud to be the author of this resolution that will reaffirm California’s climate commitments, and I am thankful to the Chair and members of the Assembly Natural Resources committee for helping to move SJR 2 one step closer to the finish line.”

BY THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD

Helping to fund the destruction of our environment is insanity; profiting from it makes us complicit. We urge California lawmakers to pass SB 252, legislation by Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) requiring CalPERS and CalSTRS to shed their investments in the largest fossil fuel companies by 2031, and stop renewing or adding to existing investments starting next year.

By Caleigh Wells

On one side of a chain-link fence, a cluster of toddlers dig in the dirt next to Cabrillo High School in Long Beach. Nearby, a lawn mower prepares the field for the baseball team. It feels safe here, and clean.

But before you even look over the fence, the smell is a dead giveaway.

On the other side, a freight train leaving the Port of Long Beach passes between a convoy of semi-trucks and an endless expanse of oil tanks. A brown haze obscures the blue sky, thick as dust above a recently-driven dirt road.

BY SUSAN CARPENTER

LONG BEACH, Calif. — For all COVID’s negatives, there was one major upside for California workers last year: supplemental paid sick leave that guaranteed employees ten days off if they fell ill. For many service workers, that was a vast improvement from the three days of paid sick leave employers are required to provide under California law.

Now that expanded compensated sick leave is over, a proposed bill in the state legislature is seeking to raise the required minimum. SB 616 would increase guaranteed paid sick leave to seven days and also allow employees to carry over seven sick days to the following year.

“We talk a lot about California being the fourth largest economy, but that is solely because of our hardworking California workforce that has been showing up every single day,” California Sen. and SB 616 author Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, said at a rally Wednesday. “California is a leader in a lot of ways, but paid sick leave is one where we’re actually trailing behind many other states.”