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New California Ballot Measure Demands Groundbreaking Privacy Rights (mercurynews.com)
Supporters gathered 625,000 signatures to put the "California Consumer Privacy Act" on the ballot in November -- far exceeding the 365,880 signatures needed to qualify. The Mercury News reports:
The proposed initiative aims to allow consumers to see what personal information companies are collecting about them and ask the companies to stop selling that information, and also seeks to hold businesses accountable for data breaches. "Today is a major step forward in our campaign, and an affirmation that California voters care deeply about the fundamental privacy protections provided in the California Consumer Privacy Act," said Alastair Mactaggart, the San Francisco real estate developer who is bankrolling the measure. He has spent $1.65 million on the effort, according to filings with the California secretary of state.
The measure is opposed by companies such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google, which have all donated $200,000 each to fight the measure. Facebook has also given $200,000 to the opposition. However, Facebook last month said it would leave the effort to fight the initiative.
The article notes that Facebook's decision to stop publicly opposing the privacy measure occurred "around the time Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was testifying to Congress about the company's Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal."
The measure is opposed by companies such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google, which have all donated $200,000 each to fight the measure. Facebook has also given $200,000 to the opposition. However, Facebook last month said it would leave the effort to fight the initiative.
The article notes that Facebook's decision to stop publicly opposing the privacy measure occurred "around the time Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was testifying to Congress about the company's Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal."
Having a large economy doesn't necessary mean you have a healthy economy. You also have the largest debt of any state in the union at over 700 billion.
In absolute terms, the debt is the largest of any state, but of course, that is entirely expected because the total California economy is the largest of any state. In terms of debt as a percentage of GDP, California is about in the middle in terms of ordinal ranking as well as being very close to the aggregate percentage of all states combined.
The highest tax rate, one of the highest homeless population in the country, and the fastest shrinking middle class. You know the ones that actually pay all those taxes.
Well, that's a nice populist sentiment that is not necessarily supported by actual numbers. Looking at slightly old (from 2015) numbers, half of all income tax revenue in California comes from those in the top 1% of income earners. For 2003 to 2014, all years except for one saw at least 40% of total income tax revenues coming from the top 1% of income earners.
An a complete and total dependency of surrounding states for water.
Well, sort of but not really. California uses about 40 million acre-feet of water per year. About 10% comes from the Colorado River system. One third comes from ground water. Another third comes from the Sierra snowpack. The rest comes mostly from in-state reservoirs.