MAIL PROTECTIONS: For many Californians, recreational cannabis use is now as normal as drinking a glass of wine. But it could still cost you a job at businesses around the state.
While the number of companies in California that control for cannabis has steadily declined in recent years amid a competitive job market, nearly 10 percent of companies require drug tests for new applicants or current employees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Bill Quirk, a member of the Bay Area Assembly, is pushing to stop the practice.
Quirk has successfully led legislation to the Senate floor that would eliminate the urine, hair and blood tests that have traditionally been used to test for cannabis metabolites, traces of the plant that can stay in the body for up to a month. Workers’ rights groups have long argued that these tests are discriminatory, penalizing people for using a legal product on their own time.
Businesses will still be allowed to use saliva tests that require active tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a sign that a worker may be intoxicated on the job.
SB 2188 also includes a list of exemptions for workers in the building and construction trades, and people who are employed in positions that require a federal investigation or security clearance. It also exempts businesses that must comply with stricter testing rules to qualify for federal licensing and contracts.
The fact that California, which likes to advertise its credentials as a pioneer of progressive labor and cannabis policies, not having this policy in place has been a source of frustration for marijuana advocates. Voters in the state authorized recreational pot sales in 2016 and made it the first to legalize medical cannabis nearly three decades ago.
California’s Democrat-led government has fallen significantly behind as nearly half the country — including red states like Arkansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma — have enacted protections for workers who use medical cannabis. Six other states — Connecticut, Montana, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island — have also extended this right to recreational consumers.
It’s still far from a slam dunkthan the bill will reach Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Quirk’s measure faces a long list of objections from business groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, which argues it would lead to lawsuits by workers against their employers. And three previous versions of the measure have failed to clear the Legislature.
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GASCON SAFE: Los Angeles will not vote to recall progressive District Attorney George Gascon, avoiding a second bruising battle over criminal justice reform in a major California city.
Gascon’s opponents fell about 50,000 valid signatures short of what they needed to trigger a vote, the Los Angeles County elections office said Monday. The result spares Gascon the need to defend his job two years after taking office, setting him up for a re-election bid in 2024.
Despite failing, the effort to recall Gascon reflected a difficult moment for the criminal justice reform movement that catapulted Gascon into office after the 2020 summer of racial reckoning. Democratic officials rallied behind Gascon as he vowed to implement a new vision. But growing anxiety about public safety has since changed the political landscape and prompted the withdrawal of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Gascon’s successor and ally. – Jeremy B. White.
WATER FOR FIGHTING: The seven states that rely on the Colorado River have not reached an agreement to drastically cut their water use in light of the ongoing drought, and the state of Nevada is calling for help from a higher authority: the federal government. Nevada’s chief Colorado River negotiator asked the Interior Department to force farmers, cities and industries to reduce water use and keep the water flowing for “human health and safety” if the reservoir levels continue to fall, in a The biting paper on Monday. He is particularly upset with California and Arizona farmers who want money in exchange for saving water to which they have high rights, calling out “unreasonable expectations of water users, including pricing and proposals for drought benefits.” . – Camille von Kaenel
THE LATEST AT LAGUNA HONDA: Federal regulators announced today that Medi-Cal and Medicare payments to San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center will be extended until Nov. 13 — a full two months after the federal government’s original deadline for the remaining 600 patients to be discharged or transferred. . The city of San Francisco sued the federal government earlier this month over its order to force all patients to leave the nursing facility by Sept. 13, a deadline that local authorities called unworkable.
At least nine patients died shortly after the city moved them in the spring. The federal government had decertified and cut off funding for Laguna Honda after it was found not to meet a number of safety standards during inspections. The city runs the facility, one of the largest skilled nursing homes in the country, and is working to recertify it. Patient transfers will remain on hold during the extension.
Speaker of the Chamber Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called the expansion welcome news. “My office will continue to work with Mayor @LondonBreed and the Biden administration to support Laguna Honda’s dedicated staff to make needed improvements and ensure the hospital remains a pillar of health for some of the most vulnerable residents of our city,” she said in a tweet. . – Victoria Colliver
“Families hoping for a near-normal school year as classes begin across the LA area,” by Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times: “‘We want to welcome all parents back,’ said Principal Ibia Gomez. “We want them to feel like they’re part of the team.”
“As the new school year began in Los Angeles and several other districts across California on Monday, the first bell rang for later starts at middle and high schools, districts retreated from pandemic safety measures and many campuses had increased security in response to the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.”
“California state agencies free to delete emails after lawmakers kill retention billby Wes Venteicher of the Sacramento Bee: “The Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Burbank, stopped the bill from going to a vote in the full chamber, effectively killing it without explanation or debate.”
“The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Greenbrae, received unanimous support in the Assembly in May.”
“‘The two-year retention standard is pretty good for cities and counties, so you have to scratch your head and wonder why the state isn’t willing to embrace that standard,'” Levine said in an interview Friday.
-“They thought it was food poisoning – then came the ventilator. Inside a California couple’s battle with Legionnaires’ diseaseby Carolyn Said of the San Francisco Chronicle.
-“A year after the fall of Kabul, LA Group is making good progress in resettling Afghan refugees,” by Leslie Berestein Rojas of LAist.
-“Netflix puts an entire Bay Area campus up for sublease amid turbulent year,” by Andrew Charmings of SFGate.
