Bonta appeals Purdue bankruptcy plan + Climate protest planned + Poverty in California
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
AG BONTA APPEALS PURDUE BANKRUPTCY RULING
On Sept. 17, a federal bankruptcy judge in New York cleared the way for Purdue Pharma — maker of Oxycontin — to reorganize in such a way that the Sackler family, who owned the company, is granted lifetime immunity from any future civil liability related to the opioid crisis.
On Friday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he is appealing that decision.
“We’re appealing the bankruptcy plan because the Sackler family must be held accountable for its role in creating and fueling the devastating opioid crisis,” Bonta said in a statement. “Too many California communities have unfairly paid the price for their willful misconduct, and this bankruptcy plan falls short of the accountability that families impacted by this epidemic deserve. My office remains committed to holding the Sacklers accountable and bringing much-needed relief to our communities.”
According to the California Department of Public Health, opioid overdoses killed more than 5,300 Californians in 2020.
CAPITOL CLIMATE PROTEST PLANNED
On Tuesday, climate activists and public health professionals will take to the north steps of the Capitol to bring attention to the climate change crisis “with a visually-driven demonstration,” according to a statement announcing the event.
The activists are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to end fossil fuel extraction in California. They say a package of climate change spending bills he signed last week falls short of the crisis they see.
“Gov. Newsom’s $15 billion dollar climate package announced yesterday failed to address fossil fuels directly. Communities are witnessing firsthand the ‘code red’ climate emergency that UN scientists warned of earlier this summer. Yet, the continued extraction and burning of California oil is locking in climate damage that is setting the stage for more historic fires like the Dixie and Caldor Fires,” the statement said. “The recall is over. Our climate fight isn’t.”
The protest is set to take place on the north steps of the Capitol at noon on Tuesday. Visuals will include inflatable oil derricks and “vibrant posters” demanding an end to the issuance of oil and gas permits in the state.
The protest is organized by Last Chance Alliance, a coalition of more than 750 organizations with the goal of getting Gov. Newsom to stop new fossil fuel permits, drop existing oil drilling and roll out health and safety buffers separating oil wells from communities, according to a spokesperson for the event.
ALLEVIATING POVERTY IN CALIFORNIA
Though California’s poverty rate remains higher than the nationwide rate, the state saw a dip — from 16.2% to 12.3% — between 2019 and 2020, according to a recent blog post from the Public Policy Institute of California.
“In California, federal stimulus payments (also known as economic impact payments) and key expansions to unemployment insurance (UI) helped millions make ends meet,” according to the post.
The decline in poverty underlines the ability of government action to alleviate poverty, according to the blog post.
“In California, federal stimulus payments kept 1.58 million Californians out of poverty, and unemployment insurance helped 940,000 Californians stay out of poverty. These two programs played important roles across racial/ethnic groups—but had larger effects for Latino, Asian American, and Black Californians,” according to the PPIC. “Disparities in poverty between Latinos and whites narrowed markedly—in 2019, Latinos were 2.3 times more likely to be in poverty than whites, compared to 1.8 times more likely in 2020. Black-white disparities and Asian-white disparities also narrowed slightly during this time frame.”
However, there continues to be stark racial and ethnic disparities in poverty, according to the PPIC, with food insecurity rising among households with children and for Black families, while dropping for white families.
Housing costs continue to play a role in stymieing efforts to alleviate poverty, the PPIC said.
Given how effective those pandemic-era relief programs were in alleviating poverty, state and federal lawmakers may well reassess the role of longstanding safety net programs going forward, according to the PPIC. An example of that in California would include the state’s efforts to expand school meal programs and broaden eligibility for earned income tax credits regardless of immigration status, the PPIC said.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Eternal political rule: if you lose an election, it’s always because of the media/money, never because of what the voters think.”
- Politico reporter (and Capitol Bureau alum) Jeremy B. White, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
Newly unsealed court files in Devin Nunes’ family farm lawsuit target workers’ citizenship, via Gillian Brassil
California is banning state-funded travel to Ohio over the state’s new law allowing doctors to decline medical services to people on moral or religious grounds, via Wes Venteicher.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law on Friday that would replace a former statue of a controversial Catholic missionary on the grounds of Sacramento’s Capitol Park with a new monument that honors the region’s Native American tribes, via Kim Bojórquez.
California farm workers are heading to a winery owned by the company Gov. Gavin Newsom founded as they continue to protest his veto of a bill that would have made it easier to vote in union elections, via Kim Bojórquez.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 4:55 AM.