Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Thursday to crack down on inflated profits stemming from car crash lawsuits, blessing a hard-fought compromise between Uber and the state’s trial attorneys that averts a November showdown between two of California’s most powerful and moneyed lobbying forces.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a last-minute legislative deal between ride-hailing giant Uber and California trial attorneys on Thursday, officially averting a costly ballot measure showdown between the two sides, according to representatives from both camps.
California Democratic lawmakers are pushing to advance a package of election-related bills they say would protect the state's voting system from potential federal interference ahead of the November general election.
In response to President Donald Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the California primaries, state Sen. Tom Umberg launched an initiative he calls “Hands Off Our Elections” and spotlighted two Senate bills pending Assembly approval, one a safeguard against any effort by Trump to tun for a third term and one barring ICE from polling places. Umberg and others also addressed claims that Trump’s crackdown on mail-in ballots was reminiscent of Jim Crow-era voter exclusion.
For six days over a holiday weekend, a chemical tank in an Orange County aerospace plant threatened to explode, and more than 50,000 people had to leave while crews figured out how to stop it. The tank kept getting hotter. A valve in the tank’s cooling system had failed. Officials used drones to read the tank’s temperature from the outside. Ground crews set up an “unmanned ground monitor” — a portable water cannon — blasting water across the tank’s side.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said California officials are starting to review safety records of the aerospace firm whose pressurized tank in Garden Grove nearly exploded with a toxic chemical over the Memorial Day weekend, as well as other similar chemical plants.
“Thanks to the courageous work of firefighters who were able to get on top of the tank and remove the shroud, emergency crews now have the ability to cool the tank even further,” Umberg said, adding that he was grateful for the president’s action and for the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The threat of a major explosion at a Southern California aerospace facility is "off the table" after firefighters performed an all-night operation Sunday to test the pressure inside a cracked tank in Orange County, officials told CBS News, as more than 50,000 people remain under evacuation orders.
“We are cautiously optimistic that the greatest danger may have been eliminated and that we are heading in the right trajectory,” Senator Thomas J. Umberg, a state legislator who represents the area that has been evacuated, said in a statement. “However, we cannot yet assure residents that it is safe to return home. We are asking for a little more patience.”