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YES, YOUNG PEOPLE ARE REALLY MORE LIBERAL THAN OLD PEOPLE
A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that younger Californians, defined as those between the ages of 18 and 34, are more liberal than older residents.
“All else being equal, California’s future may be somewhat more liberal and less polarized by party than the California of the present,” the report said.
Over the past thirty years, California has gone from being a Republican state to one that is solidly Democratic. And that will probably remain the case in the coming years, if the PPIC findings are correct.
That’s because younger Californians are more likely (58%) to identify as Democrats or No Party Preference with Democratic leanings than older Californians (52%), and are more likely to call themselves liberal, 42% to 30%.
They are less likely to call themselves Republicans: only 22% of younger Californians do so, and only 23% call themselves conservatives. Among those who do identify as Republicans, they are much less likely to be polarized than older Californians.
Young Republicans were 17 percentage points more likely to approve of the job of president Barack Obama did than older Republicans, and they were 15 percentage points less likely to approve of the president Donald Trump. They are 8 percentage points more likely to approve of the president Joe Biden.
ASSEMBLYMAN WANTS SOLUTIONS FOR THE SCHOOL SAFETY ZONE
Via Lindsey Holden
A Bay Area lawmaker is pushing for improvements to school safety zones, including slower speed limits based on time frames.
Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, recently introduced a bill that would lower speed limits near schools to 20 mph. It would also create timing parameters around the reduced speed limits, rather than using the ‘when children are present’ specification. Under the bill, drivers must drive slower from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., with room for local flexibility.
“A lot of people don’t realize they’re in a school zone,” Berman said Thursday during a news conference near Castlemont Primary School in Campbell. “They see the school zone sign. They see ‘if there are children present’, then take their eyes off the road and start scanning the area. And by the time they slow down, they’re already past the school and out of the school zone.”
Berman said at the press conference that he originally wanted to set the speed limit at 15 mph, but he raised it to 20 mph after discussions with the president of the Transport committee meeting, Assembly Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City. The assemblyman’s bill is scheduled for an April 15 hearing in that committee.
“We started with fifteen,” he says. “After discussions with various stakeholders in the process, we have increased the ceiling to 20, the highest possible. But communities have the option to reduce speeds to 15 mph if they think it’s best for their community, and there is a process they can go through to do that.”
The bill aims to help Holocaust survivors RETURN STOLEN PROPERTY
a Camille Pissaro painting hangs in a Spanish museum, but its origin is obscure. The painting was once owned by the Cassirers, a Jewish family living in Nazi Germany. After the Nazis looted the painting, it eventually ended up in a collection in Madrid, Spain, where it remains to this day. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the museum did not have to return it, the committee said Los Angeles Times.
Now, California Assemblyman Jesse GabrielD-Encino, who co-chairs the Legislative Jewish Caucusand lieutenant governor. Eleni Kounalakisa former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, are working together to get legislation passed that would help families like the Cassirers get their stolen property back.
The bill, AB2867would argue that California law should take precedence over foreign laws when there is a conflict in cases like the Cassirers’.
“This bill will ensure that Holocaust survivors and other victims of persecution can obtain justice through our legal system and reclaim property that rightfully belongs to them and their families,” Gabriel said in a statement.
Kounalakis, a sponsor of the bill, served as ambassador to Hungary under Obama from 2010 to 2013.
“My time spent in Budapest as US ambassador, where nearly half a million Jews were mercilessly murdered and their property stolen, was a lesson in the history of the Holocaust,” she said. “The decades-long effort to return confiscated property to Jewish families is morally courageous.”
David Cassirerthe only surviving member of his family, said that his father, Claude Cassierwould have been “terribly disappointed” in the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, but that he would be “so happy and grateful” that the Legislature takes steps to ensure that looted art is returned to its rightful owners.
The bill is currently before the Assembly Judiciary Committeewho will hear the bill later this spring.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Living wages and worker safety must be a priority for fast food companies. The vast majority of fast food restaurants in California operate under the most profitable brands in the world. Those companies must pay their fair share and provide their operators with the resources they need to pay their workers a living wage without cutting jobs or passing the costs on to consumers.”
– SEIU Executive Vice President Joseph Bryant in a statement. Monday marks the start of the $20-an-hour minimum wage for many fast-food workers in the state.
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