August 25, 2017

Orange County

OC Register: Beuthin: Bring county contracts out of the shadows

Today, county governments are exempt from the same common sense standards that protect taxpayers from pay-to-play abuses when our state government, libraries, school districts and community colleges contract with the private sector to deliver services.

 

Voice of OC: Aitken: Table of Dignity for the workers that built Orange County

Today, we officially unveiled the Table of Dignity on your Orange County Fairgrounds. Consider bringing your family to experience this living and breathing tribute to those that stand for fairness and dignity in our community.

 

OC Register: Orange County church finds higher purpose for unused land: affordable housing and community services

Wesley Village may well represent the beginning of an emerging response to a growing need to address homelessness and the region’s lack of affordable housing, said sociologist Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

 

Daily Pilot: Mesa Water District considers hiking rates by 5% a year for the next 5 years, starting in 2018

At the root of the push, officials said, are falling revenues as a result of conservation efforts that began during the drought and recent sharp increases in the cost of water.

 

Labor

Sacramento Bee Opinion: One key to affordable housing crisis? Pay construction workers a living wage

A study also reveals that middle-class incomes that were once the backbone of a vibrant economy are being redistributed into the pockets of developers and builders, whose profits have grown 50 percent faster than either labor or material costs since 1992.

 

Washington Post: Bend the trend: Reviving unionization in America

In advance of Labor Day, the Economic Policy Institute just released an important piece on the importance of unions as a force to push back on inequality, wage losses and a political system that fails to represent most Americans.

 

California

LA Times: With new allies and approaches, California lawmakers try again to confront high prescription drug prices

Much of the action centers on legislation that recalls a failed 2016 bill to require more disclosure around prescription prices, with lobbying efforts tracing familiar battle lines — labor unions, health plans and consumer groups facing off against drug manufacturers.

 

Publication Date: August 25, 2017