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CALIFORNIA IS STILL NO. 1 FOR UNEMPLOYMENT
Via David Lightman...
California’s unemployment remains the highest state rate in the nation.
New data from the state’s Employment Development Department put the April rate at 5.3% for the third consecutive month.
The national rate last month was 3.9%. Trailing California in April were the District of Columbia at 5.2% and Nevada at 5.1%. The lowest rates in the country were in North Dakota and South Dakota. Their rates were both 2%.
California’s rate a year ago was 4.5%. It climbed and remained higher for several reasons. Michael Bernick, former EDD director and now an employment attorney at Duane Morris LLP, sees at least three.
He cited the “ongoing struggles of small businesses in California, faced with higher prices and tightened consumer spending; tech layoffs which have slowed in pace but are still above the pre-pandemic rates and the coming to an end of the enormous federal and state pandemic and post-pandemic spending. “
There is some brighter news. There were 17.99 million nonfarm jobs in the state last month, up 5,200 from March. But on an annual basis, total nonfarm jobs were up 1.2%, below the U.S. gain of 1.8%.
BERNIE SANDERS ENDORSES CALIFORNIA RENT CONTROL MEASURE
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders this month threw his political weight behind an initiative set to go before voters this November.
The ballot measure, which was declared eligible for the November 2024 ballot last July, would prohibit the state government from blocking local municipalities from enacting rent control measures in their jurisdictions.
“In California and across the country, we are in the midst of a massive housing crisis. Landlords should not be allowed to raise rents to whatever they want, whenever they want. I am proud to support Californians in their fight for rent control,” Sanders wrote in a recent Facebook post.
The measure is backed by AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who in a statement to BusinessWire said that he was “honored” to have Sanders’ endorsement, calling the Vermont senator “the political conscience of our nation.”
“If there is one thing you know for sure about Bernie, it is that he is on the side of working families and opposed to the greed of corporate vultures such as the California Apartment Association,” Weinstein said.
The CAA is an opponent of the measure, through its committee Californians For Responsible Housing.
Committee spokesman Nathan Click told The Bee in an email, “Californians have twice rejected Michael Weinstein’s housing freeze by 20 points (each time Weinstein’s measure had Sanders’ endorsement).
“This third measure is even more extreme than the previous two attempts, as it gives wealthy cities and counties building new iron clad legal avenues to avoid building their fair share of housing,” Click wrote.
Also opposing the measure are two prominent Democratic state lawmakers: Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland.
They have characterized the ballot measure as a “sneak attack” on state affordable housing laws, and in a statement last week said that the initiative will allow wealthy coastal communities to continue to defy those laws.
“All I can say is don’t be fooled. The only way to guarantee the strides we made on housing are protected is for the initiative proponent to remove it off of the ballot,” Atkins said in a statement.
The California Apartment Association has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Atkins’ ballot measure committee this election cycle, through a pair of committees.
Weinstein said that Sanders is independent “from the special interests that dominate our politics in California and make it impossible to pass any meaningful renters’ rights relief in Sacramento.”
“We remind everyone how valuable Bernie’s endorsement is based on how convincingly Bernie won the Democratic presidential primary in California in 2020,” Weinstein said. Sanders topped now-President Joe Biden in the state’s presidential primary by eight percentage points.
TULARE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER ACCUSED OF PROSELYTIZING, BULLYING STUDENTS
A Tulare Joint Union High School District teacher has used his position to bully atheist students and prominently display stickers with conservative and religious slogans on them, according to a letter to the district superintendent from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The teacher, at Mission Oak High School in Tulare, whose name was redacted in the letter, had stickers on a fridge displaying slogans such as “Unborn lives matter,” “Pray without ceasing” and “Let’s go Brandon.” The latter slogan is a euphemism for a vulgar way of expressing opposition to Biden.
“These divisive religious and political messages make our complainant’s child feel uncomfortable in (the teacher’s) classroom,” according to the letter.
The letter goes on to cite an incident that allegedly occurred on May 2, where the teacher referred to the number “666” as the “devil’s number.”
“This discussion led to a student revealing they were an atheist. Another student asked what an atheist is and (the teacher). told the class that an atheist is ‘a fool.’ He then directly called out the student for being an atheist. Other students reportedly started making crosses in the air or praying,” according to the letter.
The foundation demanded that District Superintendent Lucy Van Scyoc take immediate action to prohibit the teacher from discussing his religious views with students, making denigrating statements about atheists or promoting religion.
“Any religious iconography or inappropriate messages should be removed from (the teacher’s) classroom,” the letter demands.
The letter said that the teacher should apologize for calling atheists “fools.”
“If he cannot refrain from promoting his beliefs and denigrating the beliefs of his students in his classroom, he cannot fulfill the obligations of a public employee and he should be terminated,” the letter said.
Reached for comment, Superintendent Van Scyoc wrote in an email to The Bee that “the district immediately addressed the issue and the stickers have been removed or covered. Personnel matters are confidential and thus we are not able to share further information as to the employee.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Time to go Harrison Butker! Chiefs should release him now so he can find his true ‘vocation’ and become a happy homemaker!”
- Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, discussing the Kansas City Chiefs kicker’s recent commencement address, where he called on female graduates to forgo jobs and be stay-at-home wives and mothers instead, via X.
Best of The Bee:
What exactly did Sacramento State and Pro-Palestinian protesters agree to about divestment? Via Joe Rubin.
Sonoma State president Mike Lee supported Israel divestment, boycott. Now he’s retiring, via Jenavieve Hatch.
California will audit its telework policies as workers frown on return-to-office mandates, via Vik Jolly.
Capitol Annex Swing Space evacuated after arrival of suspicious package, California officials say, via Ishani Desai and Lindsey Holden.
California lawmakers kill psychedelics legalization — and hundreds more bills. What was cut? Via Lindsey Holden and Andrew Sheeler.
Joe Biden announces key step toward easing weed regulations. What it means in California, via Gillian Brassil.
Rocklin school board will work with conservative legal group for trans parent notification policy, via Jenavieve Hatch.
Fresno ex-Congressman TJ Cox takes plea deal in federal fraud, money laundering case, via Gillian Brassil.
Price tag for California’s controversial Delta tunnel project increases by $4 billion, via Michael McGough.
This story was originally published May 20, 2024 4:55 AM.
