News

Steven Tavares, East Bay Citizen

It may be one of the most dastardly political schemes in recent state history. After the lead and paint industry in California was recently ordered to pay penalties that could run into the hundreds of millions to remedy illegal lead hazards across the state, the industry is now moving toward placing an initiative on the statewide ballot this November.

The lead lobby’s proposed initiative essentially negates the court ruling and transfers their financial liabilities to taxpayers by requiring the state to back a $2 billion bond to aid in the cleanup of lead. In 2000, Alameda County was one of 10 cities and counties in the state that initially sued five leaders in the lead industry.

Sarah Cafasso, Woods Institute

The perennial threat of wildfire is a growing reality for many California communities. In 2017, almost 9,000 wildfires burned over one million acres of California’s forests and communities across the state, with major fires burning as late as December. Longer, more frequent droughts, higher temperatures, and unpredictable winds from climate change all factor in to the developing landscape of fire modeling and resiliency in California.

To tackle this issue, a group of Stanford scholars joined California State Assemblymember Dr. Bill Quirk in Sacramento, speaking at a briefing on “Fire and the Future of California Forests.” Over 120 people from government, non-profit, and business sectors gathered at the Citizen Hotel in downtown Sacramento, where the panelists focused on practical solutions to wildfires. 

Ed Howard, San Francisco Chronicle

Shhhhh! Listen carefully. You hear a rumbling sound? No, thankfully, that’s not the dreaded Big One. It is the sound of the progressives, who enacted the initiative process as a check on corporate greed, rolling in their graves.

Why so restless? Because a statewide initiative is being circulated by three giant companies that is disguised as charity but underneath is pure grinning greed. It is maybe the most cynically deceptive initiative in our state’s history.

Here’s the story. Corporate conglomerate Conagra Brands (owner of Marie Callender’s, Reddi-wip, and Orville Redenbacher’s, and many more), Dutch Boy paint company Sherwin-Williams and NL (short for National Lead) Industries were found by a state appellate court last year to have for decades “knowingly promot(ed) lead paint for interior residential use,” even though the corporations knew lead exposure was dangerous, especially to children.