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California’s giant ride-hailing and delivery companies suffered a major setback Friday as a state Superior Court judge invalidated a 2020 ballot proposition that allowed Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other businesses to classify their workers as independent contractors. In a lawsuit brought by the Service Employees International Union, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that parts of Proposition 22 are unconstitutional because they infringe on the power of the Legislature to include app-based drivers under the state’s workers’ compensation law. Gig economy companies spent more than $220 million last year in the nation’s costliest-ever ballot initiative campaign after the...

While Californians re-elected some extremely questionable super progressive Democrats, and possibly even replaced a Democrat District Attorney in Los Angeles County with a Soros DA, in the only statewide contests on the ballot they overwhelmingly voted for the conservative position. In addition to rejecting a return to affirmative action, as my colleague Alex Parker covered, California voters overwhelmingly voted to protect an individual’s right to contract, rejecting Big Labor’s attempt to take over the app-based gig economy in passing Proposition 22.Proposition 22, as I wrote last week, exempts app-based gig economy drivers from California’s terrible AB5 law and allows them...

The decision many have been waiting for has arrived: on Thursday, the California Court of Appeals ruled that Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. must now classify their drivers in California as employees. This was the final mile in the courts. In 11 days, California voters get to decide their fate. The ballot measure Proposition 22 will be the last stand for app-based rideshare and delivery drivers who wish to remain independent. If it passes, the prop will codify app-based driversÂ’ ability to choose to work as independent contractors with control over where, when, how long and for whom they...

Prop 19 went down in smoke, but the world's fifth biggest economy passed three propositions that address its yearly budget crisis. One makes it better and two make it worse, according to Bond Buyer. First, California voters passed Prop 25 to allow the legislature to pass a state budget without a 2/3 supermajority. This was the main obstacle to passing a budget this year for over 100 days past due. Arkansas and Rhode Island are the only states that still require a supermajority to pass the budget, and Rhode Island is another fiscal disaster. Second, California voters passed Prop 26...

Prop 19: When Worlds Collide.  NO.   If this simply allowed people to cultivate and smoke marijuana themselves and left the rest of us alone, it would be worth considering.   But it goes much further and provides that “no person shall be … discriminated against or denied any right or privilege” for pot use, inviting a lawsuit every time an employer tries to require a drug test, for example.  If you want to smoke pot in your own world, I don’t care.  But don’t bring it into mine.     Prop 20: Congressional Redistricting. YES.  This finishes the work we began in...

Proposition 19: NO – Marijuana legalization My biggest concern with this initiative, aside from the basic policy considerations, are two large unintended consequences: 1) will drug abuse grow, thus putting more of a strain on our out-of-control welfare system; 2) the impact of lawsuits on employers seeking to enforce a zero-tolerance policy (especially important in the defense industry). Proposition 20: YES – Redistricting reform extended to Congress Prop. 20 will make the independent State Commission on Redistricting re-draw Congressional Districts in 2011, instead of the legislature working with liberal interests, just as the independent commission will re-draw Legislative district boundaries...

The old All Star Dodge dealership in Banning looked to be just another ghost of business past in a town hit hard by a sour economy. But that didn't keep the city's redevelopment agency from paying top dollar for it — and then some. Without an independent appraisal, agency board members, who double as the City Council, shelled out $1.2 million for the vacant property in July 2009. It still sits empty. "Everything about that deal stinks," said Philipp Goebels, editor of The Banning Informer website, which devotes much of its attention to the city's "redevelopment disasters." A Riverside County...

WATSONVILLE - Like many California cities, Watsonville has trimmed its police force, cut hours at the library and scaled back maintenance at parks. City Manager Carlos Palacios says that's expected during tough times, when tax revenues from business and property owners are down. What's not expected, he says, is having state lawmakers snatch local funds to help balance their budget. "We're getting hit twice. Not only are own revenues down, but we have the state taking our money," Palacio protests. "Some governments that serve more wealthy communities might have a cushion to offset this. But when you cut our funds,...

Two propositions on the November ballot could create a $1-billion hole in California's already beleaguered budget by undoing one of the few agreements that lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have struck this year to shrink the deficit. Tucked into both measures, written before the budget agreement, are provisions that apply retroactively to all of 2010. Opponents are now accusing the special interests behind the initiatives of pressing their agendas at the expense of the state. "These two initiatives are Exhibits A and B as to why the initiative process needs to be reformed," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg...

From issuing historic rulings on gay marriage, affirmative action and abortion rights to ushering in a new era of legal and political clout for California's highest court, Chief Justice Ronald George has cast a long shadow of influence across the state since the mid-1990s. On Wednesday, California's 27th chief justice decided it was time to step aside, unexpectedly announcing he will not seek a new 12-year term in November and will put an official end to the "George Court" on Jan. 2. The 70-year-old George said he will retreat from his notoriously frenetic life to read, run and travel —...

You wouldn't have picked up on it during the debates, but John McCain and Barack Obama actually agree on some issues. One of them is gay marriage. Both candidates oppose the concept, preferring instead the squishy alternative of civil unions. They're both wrong. I can sympathize. In 2000, when 61 percent of California voters approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, I opposed gay marriage. I felt gay-rights activists should concentrate on a more achievable goal such as a federal civil rights bill outlawing private-sector discrimination based on sexual orientation. Then...

"More disappointed than surprised" -- that describes the feelings of a California pro-family coalition working to place a marriage amendment question of the fall general election ballot. On Thursday the California Supreme Court ruled against Proposition 22 and other prohibitions against same-sex "marriage" in a 4-3 decision. In doing so, says Ron Prentice of ProtectMarriage.com, the court created new law instead of interpreting existing law. Prentice contends the decision completely disregards the vote of the people, which defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. That vote took place in March 2000; however, it did not protect the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- In his right hand, Luke Otterstad held a pole attached to a big yellow sign that read "Re-Criminalize Sodomy." In his left, he held a bullhorn that never touched his lips. "I haven't used it at all," said Otterstad, 22, who drove down from Placerville, prepped for a booming rhetorical showdown with same-sex marriage advocates Tuesday outside the California Supreme Court. "I expected a mob. Maybe it's too early in the morning." Or too late in the game. As lawyers on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate argued before the state's highest court and hundreds of...

As gay-rights groups call for marital equality and opponents warn of a public backlash, societal decay and religious conflict, the California Supreme Court is prepared for an epic three-hour hearing Tuesday on the constitutionality of the state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. It shapes up as the most momentous case the court has heard in decades - comparable to the 1981 ruling that guaranteed Medi-Cal abortions for poor women, the 1972 ruling that briefly overturned the state's death penalty law, and the 1948 decision, cited repeatedly in the voluminous filings before the court,...

Senator McCain told reporters this morning that he would vote yes on California Proposition 22, the so-called knight Initiative, which is on the California ballot on March 7. ...McCain said he would "vote yes" on the measure if he was a California voter, adding that "this is consistent with my psoition in opposition to same-sex marriage."

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The California Supreme Court unanimously agreed yesterday to decide whether the state's ban on same-sex "marriage" violates a constitutional ban on discrimination, though an outcome is not likely until late next year. The justices are reviewing an October decision by the 1st District Court of Appeal, which ruled that California marriage laws do not discriminate because homosexual couples can get most rights the state confers to married couples. Massachusetts is the only state that authorizes same-sex "marriage." California offers domestic partnerships, similar to civil unions in Vermont and Connecticut. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized homosexual...

SAN FRANCISCO Whether gays and lesbians have the right to marry in California moved to the state's highest court Monday, a month after an appeals court ruled against same-sex marriage. The city of San Francisco filed the appeal to the California Supreme Court, claiming that laws authorizing only heterosexual marriages are unconstitutional discrimination. A lower court had agreed, but an appeals court last month reversed that decision. The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that, among other things, it was not the judiciary's role to define marriage as 61 percent of California voters in 2000 declared marriage as a union...

The 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled today that California's marriage laws banning same-sex marriage do not violate the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday his movie-star celebrity and his boundless enthusiasm for all things California make him a great international salesman for the state's products and services. Speaking to the Commonwealth Club of California at the Herbst Theater, the governor said he will go anywhere to tout California's wares, "to go out there and tell our story" to buyers in any nation. "They want our products, they need our environmental know-how ... and our state-of-the-art technology." Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides' campaign Wednesday issued a pre-emptive memo outlining Schwarzenegger's foreign-trade failures: fewer exports now than in...

San Francisco, CA - Today, Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mathew D. Staver will present oral argument before the California Court of Appeals in San Francisco in defense of the state's marriage laws. Liberty Counsel represents Campaign for California Families, a public policy group that supports marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The Campaign was involved in the passage of a statewide legislative initiative known as Proposition 22, which passed in 2000 by a vote of 61.4%, and declared that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. Proposition 22 is a legislative rather...