News

California’s inability to prevent illegal and wasteful use of its water supply is more annoying than a leaky faucet. And far more costly.

When water is illegally diverted, it severely reduces the amount available to urban and agricultural users throughout the state. But the state Water Resources Control Board lacks the tools needed to enforce water rights and protect the limited supply.

Last week, California State Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan introduced a bill to combat algorithmic discrimination in the use of automated tools that make consequential decisions. And California is not alone—a new wave of state legislation is taking on artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, raising key questions about how best to design and implement these laws.

It’s an arcane system of water law that dates back to the birth of California — an era when 49ers used sluice boxes and water cannons to scour gold from Sierra Nevada foothills and when the state government promoted the extermination of Native people to make way for white settlers.

Today, this antiquated system of water rights still governs the use of the state’s supplies, but it is now drawing scrutiny like never before.

Oakland, CA – The East Bay Regional Park District and the Regional Parks Foundation recognized State Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan with the 2022 Radke Championing Advocacy Award at a ceremony at Inspiration Point in Tilden Regional Park.

Bauer-Kahan was instrumental in securing $4 million in the 2019-20 state budget for restoration at McCosker Creek in Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve in Orinda and $3.5 million in the 2021-22 state budget for wildfire protection equipment.

On February 7, 2023, California Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-16) introduced Assembly Bill (AB) No.

Nearly five years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law aimed at preventing “crisis pregnancy centers” from misrepresenting the prenatal and abortion services they offer, a state lawmaker is trying again with a different approach. The original measure required centers to provide pregnant people seeking help with information about how the state offers free or low-cost prenatal and abortion-related care to qualified applicants. The Supreme Court ruled that this violated the center operators’ First Amendment rights.

In the wake of this year’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs overruling Roe v. Wade, sheriffs and bounty hunters in anti-abortion states will try to investigate and punish abortion seekers based on their internet browsing, private messaging, and phone app location data. We can expect similar tactics from officials in states that have prohibited transgender youths from obtaining gender-affirming health care. Indeed, the Texas governor ordered state child welfare officials to investigate such care as child abuse.

CALIFORNIA, USA — A retail law known as the “Pink Tax” law brings to light gender-based pricing for goods in California, which the author of the bill argues will support women’s economic health and hold companies accountable by eliminating the "Pink Tax" in California once and for all."

Alameda County – Gov. Gavin Newsom signed hundreds of bills into law in 2022, many of them coming to fruition in the New Year. They range from abortion rights to hate crimes to climate change, workplace conditions and housing. There’s even one that makes jaywalking legal.

MARTINEZ, CA – Contra Costa Community College District (4CD) now has the opportunity to conduct outreach activities to specific traditionally underserved populations of Contra Costa County about the high quality instruction and student services offered by its colleges.