In a 6-3 party line vote Thursday the California State Senate Appropriations Committee approved AB 52, a bill that would give California regulators the power to reject health insurance premium increases. Because the bill previously passed the Senate health committee back in July the legislation can now go before the full Senate. The fate of [...]

The California based organization, Consumer Watchdog, is looking to put a measure on the 2012 November ballot in California that would create a public health insurance option in the state and provide state regulators more control of premiums. From the San Francisco Chronicle: As Republicans try to make President Obama’s landmark health care law a [...]

Some in the California state legislature are looking to create a new Basic Health Plan as part of implementing the Affordable Care Act. The law give states the option of automatically putting people making less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level in a state run Basic Health Plan instead of forcing them to buy [...]

The bill, AB 52, which would give California regulators the power to control and deny unreasonable private health insurance premium increases late yesterday clear a critical Senate Committee vote. The Senate Health Committee approved the measure in a 5-3 vote. The bill, AB52, now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Last week the California Assembly narrowly passed AB52 which will give state regulators the ability to reject unjustifiably large premium increases from private health insurers. The bill still needs to pass the state Senate before it would become law but clearly it has the health insurance industry scared.

This morning, Just Say Now is proud to announce a new tool to put marijuana reform directly in the hands of activists: online phone banking to identify supporters of marijuana reform before November’s election.

There are thousands of voters in Arizona, California, Oregon, and South Dakota who we need to vote for marijuana reforms. We’re targeting calls to young voters and “surge voters” – people who turned out in 2008 but who are not yet likely to vote in the midterm elections.

Eric Sterling is a member of the Just Say Now advisory board, and President of The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. He released this statement in response to comments made by LA County Sheriff Lee Baca to the effect that the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries has resulted in more crime in Los Angeles: In the early [...]

Earlier this month the DEA conducted several coordinated raids of California medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives. Problem is, these DEA raids are in direct opposition to the directive issued by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder last year that designated raids on legal medical marijuana dispensaries to “not be a priority” for the DEA. Today, Firedoglake publisher Jane Hamsher joined drug policy reform organizations and a conservative group, led by the Marijuana Policy Project, in condemning the DEA’s raids.

The Hill has an article today talking about how much Republican Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) and Sen. Judd Gregg (NH) love what the Catfood Commission has been secretly scheming about. The fact that these two radicals admire what is happening in these private meetings is terrifying. But the article does contain an important detail about [...]

In November, the voters of California will decide whether to end prohibition against cannabis. In preparation for the possibility that marijuana might soon become legal, regulated and taxed, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union is organizing workers in the medicinal-marijuana industry, which is already legal. That is what you would expect labor unions [...]