| | | | |  | | By Alexander Nieves | Presented by CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund | CANNABIS ON THE BALLOT: Nearly six years have passed since California voters approved the state's recreational cannabis market, yet a majority of cities and counties still ban pot shops. The industry is going back to the ballot to change that. Residents in more than a dozen cities and counties across the state will have a chance this November to vote on whether to allow dispensaries in their own backyards — or watch as local officials make that choice for them. Those decisions will be made in localities large and small, from Riverside — with a population of more than 300,000 people — to tiny St. Helena in the Napa Valley. While the ballot movement is spread from the far northern reaches of the state to San Diego County, there are a few clusters of activity that stand out as potential difference makers.
- Residents have qualified initiatives in four Southern California beach cities that cover an area ranging from Los Angeles International Airport to the Palos Verdes peninsula. Those cities — El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach — have a combined population of around 140,000 people.
- City councilmembers in the Inland Empire cities of Riverside and Ontario — accounting for more than half a million people — are moving forward with ordinances to allow retail cannabis sales, driven by the threat of citizen initiatives. Those are two of the largest cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, both of which have been slow to embrace the legal cannabis market.
- Four cities in Orange County are considering allowing cannabis retail as the threat of citizen initiatives loom. The largest of those is Huntington Beach, which placed its own measure on the ballot asking residents to approve a tax on future cannabis sales. That sort of move is generally seen as a city's first step to opening a local market. Only four of the 34 cities in the county currently allow retail sales.
In total, 25 cities and counties are facing citizen initiatives, attempting to circumvent them or placing their own tax measures on the ballot, according to cannabis industry consultant Hirsh Jain. This flurry of activity comes as cannabis sales in California continue to be dominated by a vast underground market that's estimated to be three times larger than the legal industry. That disparity has largely been blamed on high taxes and a lack of market access for brick-and-motor or delivery retail businesses, which are still banned in 62 percent of jurisdictions . HAPPY THURSDAY AFTERNOON! Welcome to California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check of California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to katymurphy@politico.com and anieves@politico.com or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open!
| | A message from CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund: LEGISLATORS AND GOVERNOR NEWSOM - THANK YOU FOR WORLD-LEADING INVESTMENTS IN THE JOB-CREATING CLEAN VEHICLE INDUSTRY! The electric vehicle industry - especially the burgeoning electric truck sector - is a crucial pillar supporting California's economy. You can support good jobs, infrastructure build-out, and clean air by protecting investments for equitable clean electric car and truck programs including established programs like HVIP, Clean Cars 4 All, and the new SB 372! Learn more: www.InvestInCleanAir.com . | | | |  | WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY | | BOUDIN BOWS OUT: Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced today that he would not run to wrest back the seat he lost in a June recall election, averting a second bruising clash over criminal justice. Voters ousted Boudin by a broad ten-point margin, vindicating recall backers who argued the progressive prosecutor had undermined public safety with overly lenient charging decisions. The race tested a national reform movement and reflected deepening public anxiety about crime and homelessness. Wealthy interests poured in money, outspending progressive groups. — Jeremy B. White
| | ON THE BEATS | | MONKEYPOX EMERGENCY: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra today declared monkeypox a national public health emergency , a move that follows earlier declarations by California , New York, Illinois and several cities and counties, including San Francisco and Los Angeles. The designation, which comes as cases surge to more than 6,600 nationwide and at least 1,135 cases in California , is meant to speed up distribution of the monkeypox vaccine and treatments to affected communities, and to expand additional resources to fight the outbreak. But Sen. Scott Wiener , an outspoken critic of the federal government's response, was quick to point out that simply declaring an emergency doesn't solve the problem. "A federal state of emergency on monkeypox is great news, but it will only have meaning if federal health officials develop a deep sense of urgency & stop dropping the ball on vaccine," Wiener, chair of the newly formed Senate select committee on monkeypox, said in a tweet shortly before today's announcement. The committee is set to hold its first oversight hearing on Tuesday in Sacramento with state and local health officers. — Victoria Colliver SAVE LAGUNA HONDA: San Francisco's current and former city attorneys today announced separate lawsuits over the plan to close Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center next month, displacing some 600 vulnerable residents. The federal government cut off Medicaid and Medicare funding after an inspection last year found problems with the city-run facility, which is one of the largest skilled nursing homes in the country. After the city transferred 57 patients in the spring in preparation for the shutdown, nine died shortly after the move. City Attorney David Chiu 's lawsuit calls for the federal court to eliminate the Sept. 13 transfer deadline imposed by the federal government, and for the funding to continue at least through the appeals process and until all patients can be safely transferred. Chiu called the deadline arbitrary and said it forces the city into "an unworkable closure and transfer plan that has done more harm than good." Mayor London Breed was at a news conference announcing the suit and called the decision "a matter of life and death." Louise Renne , a former San Francisco City Attorney who founded her own firm, filed a class action suit against the state and the federal government on behalf of the patients and their families. — Victoria Colliver
| | | | A message from CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund:   | | | | | AROUND CALIFORNIA | | " Tom Girardi's epic corruption exposes the secretive world of private judges ," by the Los Angeles Times' Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton: Following the collapse of California attorney Tom Girardi's law firm about a year and a half ago, the Los Angeles Times' combed through the firm's internal records, finding that most of Girardi's practices relied on private judges. These findings call into question if there are "enough safeguards in this highly confidential and largely unregulated industry to protect the public from predatory attorneys." Many of the retired jurists who worked with Girardi have since died, and none who still live agreed to be interviewed by the Times. "His [legal] skills were phenomenal," said Danny Barnes, a Girardi client who started working at Lockheed as a teenager and developed cancer at 27. "The bad part was he didn't do the money right." " CA Bill Aims To Release Severely Ill Patients From Prisons Vs. Parole In Nursing Homes ," by LAist's Elly Yu: Assembly member Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), took the lead of AB 960 in 2021, hoping to help more people qualify for the program. Ting amended it after LAist revealed sweeping changes to the program. "We were really disappointed," Ting said. "When you have inmates by their very nature, who are either terminally ill, or they need full time medical care or a high level of medical care, it's just very difficult to imagine them being dangerous at all. Those are exactly the kind of people that we need to get out of a prison setting into more of a lower security, medical setting." Compiled by Sakura Cannestra.
| | MIXTAPE | | — " It began as 'kind of a joke.' Why one couple bought a $1.75 million Bay Area garden ," by the San Francisco Chronicle's Gregory Thomas. — " Asian American residents sue Siskiyou County and its sheriff. Here are the allegations ," by the Sacramento Bee's Sam Stanton. — " A YouTubers' child predator sting, a foot pursuit across a busy freeway, and an arrest ," by the Orange County Register's Eric Licas.
| | A message from CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund: World-leading investment in clean vehicles in this year's budget will help relieve all Californians of the soaring costs of gasoline and diesel by helping them transition to electric cars, trucks, vans, and buses. Budget funds for programs like HVIP, Clean Cars 4 All, charging infrastructure investment, and the new SB 372, which help all Californians acquire these pollution-free electric vehicles, must be protected.
Pollution from cars and trucks has a disproportionate impact on low-income communities and communities of color, having suffered generations of systematic marginalization . Helping all Californians and our businesses cut pollution from these vehicles will save lives. As we finalize our state's budget, our legislators must defend hard-fought investments in these important clean electric vehicle and infrastructure programs!
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