Tobacco ban gets a hearing + Americans more optimistic about recovery + More legal challenges for Newsom

It’s Wednesday! The week is halfway done! Thanks, as always, for reading.

FLAVOR TOBACCO BAN TO GET A HEARING

Remember Senate Bill 793? The one that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco in California? It’s still around. In fact, it’s set to be heard by the Senate Health Committee this morning.

If passed into law, SB 793 would ban all flavored tobacco products from being sold in the state, including hookah, e-cigarettes and other vaping devices, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, snuff and tobacco edibles.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, has had a bit of a bumpy journey through the Legislature.

A similar version of the bill was pulled by Hill last year, because it was amended to include an exception for hookahs and tobacco products patented before 2000.

“The aim was to prohibit tobacco products with fruit, candy and other flavors that entice young people from being sold in stores. The amendments imposed on the bill erode those protections by creating unnecessary, harmful exemptions,” Hill said in a statement at the time.

When the bill returned, as SB 793, it picked up a raft of political support. Nearly 40 state lawmakers have signed on as co-authors of the bill, and it’s also picked up support from Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.

The bill is also sponsored by The American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network California, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the group Common Sense.

“Flavored tobacco products have created an unprecedented surge in youth nicotine consumption, undoing decades of declines in youth tobacco use and luring our kids onto the path of nicotine addiction. SB 793 will remove this death bait from store shelves,” Hill said in a statement put out this week.

The bill appears before the Senate Health Committee when it meets Wednesday at 9 a.m.

PEOPLE ARE MORE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT RECOVERY

The National Federation of Independent Business is out with a new economic trends report, and it contains “a glimmer of hope”, according to State Director John Kabateck.

Specifically, the one of the 10 index components, “Expect Economy to Improve,” increased by 24 points over the previous month’s finding, according to a NFIB California statement.

“Attitude is the beginning of action,” Kabateck said in a statement.

NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg said of the findings that, “A large percentage of the unemployed expect to be rehired as the economy opens back up, but the picture is further confused by unemployment benefits that for many exceed previous pay. Small business owners are starting to rehire laid-off employees as states lift business restrictions and small business loans are hitting bank accounts.”

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LAWSUIT

Those lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom sure are starting to pile up. On Tuesday, another one was added to the mix.

This one, like many of the legal challenges to Newsom’s pandemic authority, comes from the Center for American Liberty, helmed by conservative attorney and Republican Party official Harmeet Dhillon.

The center’s client in this case is the Professional Beauty Federation of Californian, which is suing to reopen salons in the Golden State (they’ve adopted the hashtag campaign #OpenSalonsNow).

“Governor Newsom is denying over half a million licensed, highly trained professionals, many of whom are immigrants, women, and minorities, their human right to earn a living, and is using the strong arm of the law to punish and grind them into submission,” Dhillon said in prepared remarks.

Dhillon categorized Newsom’s COVID-19 emergency orders as “a growing civil rights crisis,” one that is “increasingly irrational and even cruel.”

Thus far, state and federal judges have largely backed Newsom.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Each milestone of progress is a win. More women running means inching closer to equality in representation. More women in elected office means more role models for young girls to look up to and strive to emulate. Now - let’s get them in office.”

- Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• Now the president has another reason to fume about California water policies: A federal judge in Fresno has blocked his administration’s plan to pump more supplies through the Delta. The judge, siding with Gov. Gavin Newsom, ruled the increased pumping would harm the very fish species President Donald Trump likes to mock, via Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow.

• California cut schools and raised taxes in its last recession. What will Newsom do now?, via Adam Ashton.

• California Democrats want to give tenants who’ve lost their jobs or had wages cut during the coronavirus outbreak a decade to repay late rent, via Hannah Wiley.

• California office employees can now return to work if they need to, as long as their employers adhere to a strict set of modifications, via Andrew Sheeler.