Maria Elena Durazo Archives

Newsom Taps Johns Hopkins Senior Advisor Natalie Palugyai For Labor Secretary

July 15, 2021 10:53 am

Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that Natalie Palugyai, currently the Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has been appointed as the next Secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA). Pulugyai will replace...

Bill To Seal Felony Convictions Of Ex-Felons Passes Senate

June 3, 2021 2:35 amAugust 4, 2021 2:11 pm

Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper. A bill to create a new way to seal felony convictions and arrest records of formerly incarcerated Californians was passed by the Senate on Wednesday. Senate Bill...

Domestic Worker Cal/OSHA Protection Expansion Bill Set For Assembly Hearings

July 14, 2020 9:23 pmJuly 14, 2020 7:50 pm

This week, both supporters and opponents of a bill that would add Cal/OSHA protections for household domestic workers built up their cases during legislative recess before an expected Assembly Labor and Employment Committee hearing to be held in the coming...

Garment Workers Would Receive Expanded Worker Rights Under New Bill

May 19, 2020 2:05 pmMay 19, 2020 2:05 pm

On Monday, the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement confirmed that a law expanding wage theft liability to garment workers had been passed last week. Possible big changes to the garment industry in California Senate Bill 1399, written...

Feliz Navidad for Ex-Con Esteban Nunez

December 16, 2019 11:28 amDecember 17, 2019 10:22 am

The non-profit #cut50 bills itself as “a bipartisan effort to cut crime and incarceration across all 50 states.” The California State Policy Director for #cut50 is Esteban Nunez, working to “change the narrative of what it means to be formerly...

Democrats’ Budget is Making Poverty in California More Tolerable

June 18, 2019 6:55 amJune 18, 2019 6:58 am

You can’t be irrelevant and responsible at the same time “Republicans need to change their product. Californians aren’t buying it,” says the headline on the George Skelton column Monday in the Los Angeles Times. “California voters have not been...