Daily Headlines

Daily Headlines June 28, 2024

We scan major news sources* and compile selected articles to keep you up-to-date on current issues affecting California business – the economy, health care, environment, transportation and more. Receive Daily Headlines by Email

Today’s Top Story

Legislature Approves Bills Reforming PAGA System
Months of negotiations between a coalition of business partners, labor and legislative leaders, convened by the Governor’s office, culminated this week in the passage of legislation to reform the lawsuit-first Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) system.

Top California News

  • California Lawmakers Advance Tax on Big Tech to Help Fund News Industry
    The California state Senate on Thursday passed legislation aimed at helping the news industry by imposing a new tax on some of the biggest tech companies in the world. Senate Bill 1327 would tax Amazon, Meta and Google for the data they collect from users and pump the money from this “data extraction mitigation fee” into news organizations by giving them a tax credit for employing full-time journalists. Los Angeles Times (Subscription required)
  • Ballot Measure Madness: How California Lawmakers Are Scrambling the November List
    …Over the past week, the governor’s office and lawmakers announced five deals with the proponents of qualified ballot measures to remove them in exchange for legislative action — on employer liability, pandemic preparedness, children’s health care, high school finance classes and oil drilling. That’s more than in any previous election. CalMatters (No subscription required)
  • California Approves Final High Speed Rail Link Connecting S.F. to Los Angeles
    California’s bullet train project reached a major milestone: The entire 463-mile route from San Francisco to Los Angeles is now environmentally cleared for construction. The High-Speed Rail Authority’s board on Thursday signed off on a preferred route and environmental clearance for the 38-mile segment that would carry bullet trains from Palmdale to Burbank. San Francisco Chronicle (Subscription required)
  • High Interest Rates Are Hurting People. Here’s Why It’s Worse for Californians
    …that is weighing especially hard on people in California, where housing, gas and many other things are more expensive than in most other states. California’s economy also relies more on interest rate-sensitive sectors such as real estate and high tech, which helps explain why the state has been lagging in job growth and its unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. Los Angeles Times (Subscription required)

Top National, International News

  • Supreme Court Allows Cities to Enforce Bans on Homeless People Sleeping Outside
    The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking. The case is the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the issue and comes as a rising number of people in the U.S. are without a permanent place to live. The Associated Press (No subscription required)
  • Supreme Court Pares Back Federal Regulatory Power
    …The 6-3 decision, along ideological lines, discards a 1984 precedent directing federal courts to defer to agency legal interpretations when the statutory language passed by Congress is ambiguous. Conservative legal activists, Republican-led states and some business groups have argued in recent years that the 1984 case, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, allows agenda-driven regulators to push the limits of their power. The Wall Street Journal (Subscription required)

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