GUEST COLUMNS
Friday, May 20, 2022
Every Bay Area community has until January to update its housing plan (city officials call this the "housing element" of the city's general plan, the legal document that guides development).
Thursday, May 19, 2022
This case will set the stage for the Ninth Circuit to clarify how far video games and social media companies can go in profiting off of viral dance moves. Previous cases have been unsuccessful, largely on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked copyright registrations in their dances.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Today, the Bay Area has one of the country's lowest COVID-19 death rates.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Private loans — those from banks and lenders other than the federal government — carry fewer borrower protections than federal loans and tend to be more expensive.
Monday, May 16, 2022
Such policies take two forms: mandates requiring the inclusion of such units (deed-restricted units that must be offered to eligible households at below-market rents, often for 55 years or more) in any new development, or voluntary incentives rewarding the inclusion of such units with increased density allowances (more apartments in a given development), reduced or eliminated parking requirements, and other offsets for the reduced revenue a project can generate when including affordable units.
Friday, May 13, 2022
Research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found people with $500,000 or more in savings at retirement spent down less than 12% of their assets over 20 years.
Assembly Bill 1961, authored by Assembly members Jesse Gabriel of Van Nuys, Evan Low of Cupertino and Buffy Wicks of Oakland, would create such a database, allowing Californians who qualify the chance to apply online for a lower-cost place to live.
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow, ace reporters for my old employer, the Sacramento Bee, describe in great detail how some victims of the wildfire that wiped out the small town of Paradise four years ago have been victimized again by shoddy contractors who promised to rebuild their homes.
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
More than a decade of research shows that starting in a remedial class makes students less likely to earn a degree. Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, a Democrat from Camarillo, seeks to remove this barrier with Assembly Bill 1705.
The program is a significant benefit to "small employers" subject to the CFRA.
Monday, May 9, 2022
The war escalated last year when the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted another law that allows duplexes to be built on lots zoned for single-family homes.
Friday, May 6, 2022
For those of us who are not able to help the people of Ukraine in person but still want to aid in relief efforts, it can be hard to know how best to get involved and make the fullest impact with your support.
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Professors and teachers have confronted the challenge of how to prevent students from cheating on exams.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
High-end shopping centers, trendy restaurants and seven-figure homes abound and those who live and work in the area complained for months about an encampment of about 30 homeless people in a grassy strip of land at the intersection.
Monday, May 2, 2022
One of the oddest involved spouses of doctors who were seeking relief from soaring medical malpractice lawsuit awards that were driving up their liability insurance premiums.
Friday, April 29, 2022
Trump appointed fifty-four federal appellate judges in his four years in office, one short of the fifty-five nominated by former president Barack Obama in eight.
In 2021, the inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, rose by 7.0 percent, the largest annual change in living costs since the early 1980s.
Thursday, April 28, 2022
The lawsuit, filed by The PLS.com LLC, claims the national association is violating federal and state antitrust laws by requiring all listings to be posted on its own multiple listing service within one business day.
"The wrongful retaliatory actions we alleged toward these firefighters, who dedicated their lives to protecting the community, was not only damaging to them, but to the thousands and thousands of people who worked in the buildings the plaintiffs believed were improperly and unsafely inspected," statement by plaintiffs' firm McNicholas & McNicholas read.
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Just last year, the Fifth District Court of Appeal issued a decision in Antelope Valley Groundwater Cases v. Los Angeles County Waterworks District No. 40, et al. That case is notable for several reasons, including the fact that it was filed in 2001, more than 20 years ago. That seems like a long time, but in the world of water law, it is certainly not an outlier.
This month, the state Department of Education reported that for the first time in many years, enrollment had dropped below 6 million.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
"I'm tremendously proud of the fact that the jury saw Jessica Vu as she was, and how an injury like this requires such a high compensation," said plaintiff's attorney Alan L. VanGelder of Greene Broillet & Wheeler LLP.
"I represent Alec in all matters related to "Rust." Aaron Dyer no longer represents Alec. The other producers are represented by various lawyers, not me," confirmed Luke Nikas, partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Sullivan LLP.