August 29, 2025

A secretive appropriations process killed or reined in three bills regulating the use of pricing algorithms. A bill to monitor data center electricity use was also culled.

California’s Assembly Appropriations Committee killed “Leno’s Law” that aimed to give classic car owners like him a pass from smog requirements.

A San Francisco Democrat wants to streamline permitting and speed up the state’s high-speed rail construction. His proposal just died in the Legislature’s secretive “suspense file” hearing, following strong objections from local governments and utilities.

The task force, made up of six different state agencies, is the latest effort by the Newsom administration to remove homeless encampments from California’s streets.

California is considering a bill to limit how pharmacy benefit managers negotiate drug prices, which is one of the most effective tools for controlling prescription costs.

Economists and others worry about politicizing jobs and inflation data after Trump firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics chief and nomination of partisan replacement.

Independent pharmacies are closing across California and nationwide, and chain pharmacies aren’t far behind. Pharmacy benefit managers have a chokehold on prescriptions and their pricing.

Lawmakers will again fail to set a safe indoor temperature standard for housing, as builders and tenant advocates battle over the cost of retrofits.

George Sheetz could never have imagined a routine administrative transaction levied on a home-building project would turn into a legal dispute that reached the U.S. Supreme Court and remains unresolved almost a decade later.