ST HELENA
Thompson releases statement on December Jobs Report
On Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) highlighted the December jobs report that continued 35 consecutive months of job growth and historically low unemployment rates.
“Since January of 2021, we have experienced the fastest job growth in our history,” said Thompson. “Wages are outpacing inflation, unemployment remains at historically low levels, and the labor force participation rate remains near its highest level since before the pandemic. There is a lot more work to do to ease the burden that Americans are feeling on their pocketbooks, but these numbers are helping to move us towards an economically secure future.”
The U.S. economy added 216,000 jobs in December, for a total of 2.7 million jobs in 2023. The three-month average job growth is now at 165,000 jobs a month. Under President Biden (since January 2021), 14.3 million jobs have been added to our economy, 4.9 million jobs above the February 2020 peak.
The unemployment rate is at 3.7 percent. Unemployment has been below 4 percent for 23 months in a row, the longest time in over 50 years. Unemployment levels are below projections from early 2021 and are near full employment levels.
—Submitted
LAKE COUNTY
Ag Pass and Incident Safety Course
The Lake County Office of Emergency Services in coordination withb local agencies to host Ag Pass and Incident Safety course for commercial agricultural lands or livestock producers and permitted commercial cannabis producers. This informational course is optional but highly encouraged to understand how to obtain an Ag Pass to tend to properties during a wildfire evacuation.
The Ag Pass Program is for any commercial agricultural lands or livestock producer (including cannabis) who may want to tend to their property during a wildfire evacuation. The course will include an overview of the program, how to obtain and utilize the pass and an introduction to wildfire incidents as related to Ag Pass holders.
To encourage participation, courses are planned around the county. Attendees need only attend one of the following:
Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024
Scotts Valley Women’s Club 1 PM to 5 PM (Ag-Livestock)
2298 Hendricks Rd, Lakeport, CA 95453 6 PM to 10 PM (Cannabis)
Monday, Feb. 12, 2024
Lake County Fire Protection District 8 AM to noon (Ag-Livestock)
14815 Olympic Dr Clearlake, CA 1 PM to 5 PM (Cannabis)
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024
South Lake County Fire Protection District 8 AM to noon (Cannabis)
21095 State Hwy 175, Middletown, CA 95461 1 PM to 5 PM (Ag-Livestock)
To register and for more information visit https://lakesheriff.com/1358/Outreach or e-mail lakesheriffoes@lakecountyca.gov.
—Submitted
KELSEYVILLE
Fiddler’s Jam in The Barn
Come to the First Session of the Year!
Sunday, January. Music from 12 PM to 2 PM. Gates Open at 11 AM
Dear Friends of Ely Stage Stop,
Time to let go of the Winter blues! Gather with friends and neighbors in the Ely barn for the Fiddlers’ Jam on Sunday, January 7. There will be coffee and popcorn in our heated barn and fresh-cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, vegetarian chili, beer, wine, and apple pie available.
Best of all there will be toe-tapping tunes! Our raffle basket theme is ‘Open the Door to ’24’ Tickets to enter are available in the barn. See you Sunday!
—Board of Directors of the Lake County Historical Society
SACRAMENTO
California legislators introduce bills on guns, elections
While Day 2 of the California Legislature’s 2024 session wasn’t as eventful as the first, legislators wasted no time introducing new bills or revising measures that didn’t pass last year.
Among the noteworthy put in the hopper Thursday:
Elections: To avoid another “Fong fiasco,” Assembly elections committee chairperson Gail Pellerin, a Santa Cruz Democrat, authored a measure to prohibit a person from filing nomination documents for more than one office at the same election. In the same vein, Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, a Los Angeles Democrat, introduced a bill that establishes when a candidate files to run for a second office, they automatically withdraw their candidacy from the first office.
Quick recap: The bill is in response to the recent court battles of Assemblymember Vince Fong. In December, the Republican from Bakersfield filed paperwork to run for both his state Assembly seat in 2024 as well as for Congress to succeed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Despite state election officials rejecting his candidacy for Congress, a ruling by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge has allowed him to run in multiple races. The judge appeared to suggest the need for a fix, ruling that while “it somewhat defies common sense to find the law permits a candidate to run for two offices during the same election,” she was “compelled to interpret the law as it is written by the Legislature.”
Gun violence: Democratic Sens. Nancy Skinner of Oakland and Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas introduced a bill to strengthen the state’s red flag law, which authorizes law enforcement to confiscate firearms from individuals who have a gun violence restraining order against them, and pose a danger to themselves or others. The new proposal requires courts to follow-up with individuals — not just those involved in domestic violence incidents — to ensure they relinquish their firearms properly.
Public transportation: Saying that there “is no reason for there to be 27 public transit agencies for just the Bay Area,” Democratic Sen. Aisha Wahab of Fremont gut-and-amended a bill about electric vehicles into legislation that aims to consolidate the various public transit agencies operating across nine counties in the San Francisco Bay area. With several transit agencies across California struggling to avoid a “fiscal cliff,” some officials, including BART Board President Janice Li, view consolidation as a key step towards stability.
Cannabis: In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom blocked a bill to legalize “cannabis cafes” — where retailers can sell regular food and drinks to customers — arguing that it would undermine the state’s “long-standing smoke-free workplace protections.” Now Assemblymember Matt Haney, a Democrat from San Francisco and author of that bill, is trying again. In a statement Thursday, Haney announced he was reintroducing the measure to allow “businesses where smoking (cannabis) is already happening to sell coffee and food…”
Compared to Wednesday’s session — which had to adjourn early due to demonstrators inside the Assembly chamber calling for a ceasefire in Gaza — Thursday’s convening was undramatic. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas did address the protests, however, telling legislators that “this is a difficult moment for our communities… and for everyone around the world,” according to Politico.
Rivas also told his colleagues that climate change, crime and housing are at the top of his priority list in his first full session in charge.
Meanwhile, Gov. Newsom, who has declined Republicans’ call for a special session to deal with the budget deficit, is being urged by fellow Democrat, Sen. Steve Glazer of Orinda, to convene a concurrent special session to focus on homelessness.
—Lynn La, CALMatters
