The California Legislative Jewish Caucus on Thursday released a list of its priorities for the legislative year, including a set of bills aimed at preventing hate crimes and improving Holocaust education in response to increased attacks targeting the Asian American community and a rise in antisemitic incidents.
Other bills focus on criminal justice reform, elimination of the death penalty, suicide prevention and increased services for the homeless, along with a slate of of “tikkun olam” measures meant to “bring our Jewish values into the policymaking process.”
The caucus, which has 18 members, is also pushing Gov. Gavin Newsom to approve $50 million in the 2021-22 budget toward the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps houses of worship improve their security measures. Last year, no money was allocated because of the pandemic. The budget must be approved by June 15.
Insuring Another Disaster
The concept of insurance is a simple one that revolves around pooling risks and dates back to the 1700s B.C. Under the Code of Hammurabi [1], Babylonian King Hammurabi instituted an insurance-like system for cargo ships. It was a vast improvement over the method of selling into slavery those merchants (and their families) whose cargo was lost at sea, shipwrecked, or stolen by pirates.
Called “bottomry,” under this system “Merchants were allowed to finance their shipping through loans from lenders,” according to an explanation [2] by Western Financial Group. Merchants would repay the loan upon the cargo’s safe arrival but didn’t have to pay “if the merchandise met with an unfortunate incident along the way … Considering the very high risk, the calculated interest on the loan was exceptionally high.”
Assembly Bill 65 would give many Californians $1,000/month.
California state lawmakers are ready to talk about universal basic income. But they’re not ready to fund it.
The idea to give everybody or just lower- and middle-income residents a monthly cash payment with no strings attached gained national attention after it was proposed by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
The pandemic and resulting economic hardships borne by low-wage earners has only shown how vulnerable they are, said Santa Clara County Democrat Assemblymember Evan Low.
“More than 36% of California residents are at or near the poverty level” and most Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency, Low told the Assembly Tax and Revenue Committee Monday. “That makes it very clear that one in three Californians lives in poverty, or they’re just one bad day away from becoming homeless.”
April 28, 2021
ThitareeSarmkasat/iStock
A virtual town hall discussing mental health during the pandemic is being hosted today by North Bay Assemblymember Marc Levine. Joining him in today’s town hall are Bill Carter, the Behavioral Health Division Director for Sonoma County Department of Health Services, and Dr. Jei Africa, Director of Marin County’s Department of Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. The meeting will explore ways to maintain mental health during this time as the pandemic is hopefully waning. The town hall is at 4 PM and can be viewed on Assemblymember Levine’s Facebook page
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