A bluer California? Young people could mean more liberal future, survey says
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
YES, YOUNG PEOPLE REALLY ARE MORE LIBERAL THAN OLD PEOPLE
A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that younger Californians, defined as those between 18 and 34, skew more liberal than older residents.
“All else being equal, the future of California may be somewhat more liberal and less polarized by party than the California of the present,” the report said.
In the last 30 years, California has grown from a Republican-leaning state to one that is solidly Democratic. And it’s likely to stay that way in the coming years, if the PPIC’s findings are right.
That’s because younger Californians are more likely (58%) to identify as either Democrats or No Party Preference with Democratic leanings than are older Californians (52%), and are more likely to call themselves liberal, 42% to 30%.
They are less likely to identify as Republican: Just 22% of younger Californians do so, and just 23% call themselves conservative. Among those who do identify as Republican, they are much less likely to be polarized than older Californians.
Young Republicans were 17 percentage points more likely to approve of the job President Barack Obama did than were older Republicans, and were 15 percentage points less likely to approve of President Donald Trump. They are 8 percentage points more likely to approve of President Joe Biden.
ASSEMBLYMAN WANTS SCHOOL SAFETY ZONE FIXES
Via Lindsey Holden
A Bay Area assemblyman is pushing for improvements to school safety zones, including slower speed limits that are time frame-based.
Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, recently authored a bill that would lower speed limits to 20 mph near schools. It would also create time parameters around the lowered speed limits, rather than using the “when children are present” specification. The bill would require drivers to slow down from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., with room for local flexibility.
“A lot of folks don’t realize that they’re in a school zone,” Berman said during a Thursday press conference near Castlemont Elementary School in Campbell. “They see the school zone sign. They see the ‘when children are present,’ and then they take their eyes off the road and they start to scan the surrounding area. And by the time they’ve slowed down, they’re already past the school and out of the school zone.”
Berman said during the press conference he originally wanted to set the speed limit ceiling at 15 mph, but he increased it to 20 mph after conversations with the chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City. The assemblyman’s bill is scheduled for an April 15 hearing in that committee.
“We started with 15,” he said. “After conversations with various stakeholders in the process we’ve increased it to 20 as the ceiling, as the highest you can go. But communities have the opportunity to lower it to 15 mph if they think that’s what’s best for their community, and there’s a process they can go through to do that.”
BILL AIMS TO HELP HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS RECOVER STOLEN PROPERTY
A Camille Pissaro painting hangs in a Spanish museum, but its provenance is murky. The painting once belonged to 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 after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the museum did not have to return it, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Now, California Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, who co-chairs the Legislative Jewish Caucus, and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, are teaming up to get legislation passed that would help families like the Cassirers recover their stolen property.
The bill, AB 2867, would hold that California law should take precedence over foreign laws when there is conflict in cases such as that of the Cassirers.
“This bill will ensure that Holocaust survivors and other victims of persecution can secure justice through our legal system and recover 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 killed and their property stolen, was a lesson in Holocaust history,” she said. “The decades-long effort to return confiscated property to Jewish families is morally courageous.”
David Cassirer, the only surviving member of his family, said that his father, Claude Cassirer, “would have been terribly disappointed” in the Ninth Circuit ruling, but that he would be “so happy and grateful” that the Legislature is taking steps to make sure looted art gets returned to its rightful owners.
The bill is currently before the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which will hear the bill later this spring.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Living wages and worker safety should be a priority for corporate fast-food companies. The vast majority of fast-food locations in California operate under the most profitable brands in the world. Those corporations need to 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 cost to consumers.”
- SEIU Executive Vice President Joseph Bryant in a statement. Monday marks the beginning of the $20 an hour minimum wage for many fast food workers in the state.
Best of The Bee:
Former insurance commissioner warns state agency about California’s ‘uninsurable future,’ via Stephen Hobbs.
Elk Grove parents protesting LGBTQ student clubs organize walk out, keeping kids out of school, via Jenavieve Hatch.
Where does ethnic pride cross into politics? Sacramento museum staff report keffiyeh ban, via Emma Hall.
Newsom uses fentanyl seizures at border to slam congressional GOP. ‘We’re doing our job,’ via Andrew Sheeler.
