Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/339581
ByJudyLin The Associated Press SACRAMENTO California's minimum wage will rise to $9 an hour when a new law takes effect on Tuesday and provides workers with the first such increase since 2008. That amount will in- crease again to $10 an hour starting on Jan. 1, 2016, un- der AB10, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last fall. "This first modest in- crease will help put more money in the pockets of hardworking Californians to provide food, clothes and housing for their families," Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, said in a state- ment. AB10 is one of several laws that take effect in July. Oth- ers will provide additional protections to victims of do- mestic violence, expand the state's paid family leave pro- gram, and give tax breaks to manufacturers. California's minimum wage increase comes amid a national debate about low-wage workers who have seen their purchas- ing power decline in recent years. President Barack Obama has pushed Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, but the proposal hasn't gained much traction. Instead, he has encouraged cities and states to raise those wages on their own. New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Okla- homa City are among the municipalities debating minimum wage increases. In early June, the Seat- tle City Council voted to raise the minimum wage within the city to $15 an hour, starting next April and phasing in over sev- eral years. Currently, the high- est minimum wage in the country is in SeaTac, a Washington state town of about 25,000 that is home to Seattle-Tacoma Interna- tional Airport. The $15-an- hour minimum wage ap- proved by voters took ef- fect in January for workers at major hotels and parking lots, and the state Supreme Court will decide whether it also applies to workers at the airport, which is run by a separate authority. Washington has the highest minimum wage of any state at $9.32 an hour. In California, a bill that would have raised the state's minimum wage even higher and tied it to infla- tion failed in the Legisla- ture this year. Other bills that take ef- fect Tuesday include: • AB93 and SB90 allow manufacturers and certain researchers and develop- ers to obtain a partial ex- emption of sales and use tax equal to 4.2 percent on some manufacturing and equipment purchases through July 1, 2022. The measures were authored by Sens. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, and Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres. • AB161 permits a court, when issuing a domestic violence restraining order, to restrain one party from changing insurance cover- age. It was authored by As- semblywoman Nora Cam- pos, D-San Jose. • AB176 by Assembly- woman Nora Campos, D- San Jose, gives domestic abuse victims greater pro- tection by having police fol- low the toughest protective order when there are mul- tiple or conflicting orders. • AB218 says state and local government agencies must determine a job ap- plicant's minimum quali- fications before obtaining and considering informa- tion regarding the appli- cant's conviction history. It was authored by Assembly- man Roger Dickinson, D- Sacramento. • AB1121 by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D- San Diego, will help trans- gender people change their names by eliminating the requirement that people an- nounce the name change in a newspaper before seeking a court order for it. • SB652 by Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, re- quires property sellers to disclose to homebuyers all pre-litigation claims pre- sented to the builder. • SB770 broadens the definition of family under Family Paid Leave to allow workers to receive partial wage replacement benefits while taking care of seri- ously ill siblings, grandpar- ents, grandchildren and parents-in-law. The bill was authored by Sens. Hannah- Beth Jackson, D-Santa Bar- bara, and Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord. NEW LAWS Californiaminimumwagegoesto$9anhourtoday By Lisa Leff The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for enforce- ment of a first-of-its-kind California law that bars psychological counseling aimed at turning gay mi- nors straight. The justices turned aside a legal challenge brought by supporters of so-called con- version or reparative ther- apy. Without comment, they let stand an August 2013 appeals court ruling that said the ban covered pro- fessional activities that are within the state's authority to regulate and doesn't vio- late the free speech rights of licensed counselors and patients seeking treatment. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that California law- makers properly showed that therapies designed to change sexual orientation for those under the age of 18 were outside the scien- tific mainstream and have been disavowed by most major medical groups as unproven and potentially dangerous. "The Supreme Court has cement shut any possible opening to allow further psychological child abuse in California," state Sen. Ted Lieu, the law's sponsor, said Monday. "The Court's refusal to accept the ap- peal of extreme ideological therapists who practice the quackery of gay conversion therapy is a victory for child welfare, science and basic humane principles." The law says profes- sional therapists and coun- selors who use treatments designed to eliminate or re- duce same-sex attractions in their patients would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to dis- cipline by state licensing boards. It does not cover the actions of pastors and lay counselors who are un- licensed but provide such therapy through church programs. Liberty Counsel, a Chris- tian legal aid group, had challenged the law, as did other supporters of the therapy. They argue that lawmakers have no scien- tific proof the therapy does harm. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill outlawing the practice in his state last year and Lib- erty Counsel has been fight- ing that law as well. "I am deeply saddened for the families we repre- sent and for the thousands of children that our profes- sional clients counsel," Lib- erty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement Monday. "The minors we represent do not want to act on same-sex attractions, nor do they want to engage in such behavior." California's law was sup- posed to take effect last year, but it has been on hold while a pair of lawsuits seeking to overturn it made their way to the Supreme Court. SCOTUS Supreme Court clears ban on gay conversion therapy By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO California prison officials on Monday asked for a two-month de- lay in meeting their first court-ordered target for reducing the state's inmate population, after federal judges changed the rules at the last minute. Monday was the dead- line for the state to re- duce the population of its 34 adult prisons to an in- terim amount set by the court. The state missed the mark by 216 inmates. Prison officials had ex- pected to meet the goal until last week. That's when a panel of three fed- eral judges ruled that they could count only part of the capacity of the state's new- est prison, a medical and mental health hospital in Stockton that is designed to hold 2,950 inmates. The state would have been ahead of the bench- mark had the court not ruled as it did, said Jeffrey Callison, a spokesman for the Department of Correc- tions and Rehabilitation. The judges invited the state to seek the two-month ex- tension, acknowledging that their ruling just a week be- fore the deadline left prison officials little time to adjust. While the Stockton med- ical complex opened a year ago,thefederaloverseerwho runs the prison medical sys- tem abruptly halted admis- sionsinlateJanuarybecause of problems in providing ba- sic necessities and care. Prison medical receiver J. Clark Kelso said the hos- pital did not have enough staff and cited problems with the food service, ac- commodating disabled in- mates and providing basic medical and personal hy- giene products. The judges ruled that until admissions resume, the state can count only those beds that were occu- pied at the time Kelso shut down medical admissions. Prison officials said in their filing Monday that they expect Kelso to allow admissions to begin again no later than Aug. 25. That would let them count the facility's full capacity by the time the two-month ex- tension expires on Aug. 31. Monday's benchmark was the first in a series of targets the state is sup- posed to meet over the next two years to reduce the population of its major prisons, which currently is 116,200 inmates. The three judges ordered the state to reduce over- crowding as the key way to improve inmate medical and mental health care, a decision that has been up- held twice by the U.S. Su- preme Court. Had the judges not in- vited California to seek the extension, the state faced the prospect that a court- appointed compliance offi- cer would have begun re- leasing inmates based on their potential risk to pub- lic safety and other factors. The prisons will re- main overcrowded even if the state meets the federal judges' ultimate inmate population target, which says the system can be no more than 137 percent of its designed capacity. CALIFORNIA Prison officials seek delay of inmate deadline By Don Babwin The Associated Press ST. LOUIS An evacua- tion slide inflated inside a United Airlines plane as it flew from Chicago to Southern California, fill- ing part of the cabin and prompting the pilot to make an emergency land- ing in Kansas. Passenger Mike Schro- eder said he was sitting in the front row of the plane bound for Orange County, California, late Sunday when he heard a hiss and pop behind him. Schroeder, 58, turned around and saw the Boe- ing 737-700's evacuation slide inflating. The slide — which would normally in- flate outside the plane in an emergency — filled the galley. "I thought to myself, 'I hope there is no one in the restroom because if they are they're not coming out for a long time,'" he said in a telephone interview. United Airlines officials said in a statement that no one aboard Flight 1463 was injured. United said the plane would be flown without passengers to a larger air- port for a complete inspec- tion to determine how and why the slide accidentally deployed. Spokeswoman Christen David said she had no details about whether the incident would trigger additional inspec- tions or whether similar incidents had occurred on other United aircraft. Fed- eral aviation officials were investigating. In November, a JetBlue flight from Florida to Bos- ton had to be diverted when a slide partially de- ployed toward the aircraft's galley. A message was left Monday with JetBlue seek- ing the results of its in- vestigation. And in 2008, a plane carrying Barack Obama, the then-Demo- cratic presidential candi- date, made an unsched- uled stop after the emer- gency slide located in the aircraft's tail cone deployed during a flight. "There is no lever or but- ton to push to directly de- ploy the slide," said Patrick Smith, a longtime commer- cial pilot, host of a website, AskThePilot.com, and au- thor of "Cockpit Confiden- tial: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel." That, he said, all but rules out "any sort of prank or in- tentional act." He said if there is an emergency landing or an- other emergency that re- quires a quick evacuation, opening the doors will cause the slide to deploy outside the plane so pas- sengers and crew can slide down. He said occasionally in a non-emergency situa- tion a crew member will forget to disarm the mech- anism that triggers deploy- ment of the slide, causing it to inflate as the door is opened. But because there is no way to open a door while a plane is in flight, he sus- pects a mechanical mal- function caused the latest incident. Smith said the slide in- flating in such a small area could be harmful to anyone in the immediate vicinity, but that the slide does not inflate with enough force to "push through the side of the cabin." FLIGHT United plane's evacuation slide deploys mid-flight MICHAELSCHROEDER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS This Sunday shows an emergency chute a er it inflated inside a United Airlines plane as it flew from Chicago to California, filling part of the cabin and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in Kansas. 13540 Trinity Ave, Red Bluff (530) 527-8262 • (530) 528-8261 IFNOANSWERCALL529-7400 www.garysautobodyandtowing.com AUTO BODY REPAIR WEBILLALL MAJOR INSURANCE COMPANIES • ECO-FRIENDLY&DRUGFREE • COLLISION REPAIR APPROVED BY ALL MAJOR INSURANCE COMPANIES • LIFETIME WARRANTY • STATE-OF-THE-ART DOWN DRAFT SPRAY BOOTH • NATIONAL AWARD WINNING RESTORATION • AUTO & RV REPAIRS • ECO-FRIENDLY & DRUG FREE • FAST! COURTEOUS SERVICE • CLEAN AIR CONDITIONED TRUCKS • REASONABLE RATES • LOCAL & LONG DISTANCE • FORK LIFT SERVICE • ANTIQUE & LUXURY CAR TOWING • ON & OFF ROAD RECOVER • MOTOR HOMES & RV'S TOWED • AUTO & RV REPAIRS • INSURANCE WORK • 5TH WHEEL TOWING • AUTO BODY WORK Full Auto Detailing Available Free with collision repair GARY'S AUTO BODY & 24 HOUR TOWING, INC. 24 HOUR TOWING 530-366-3166 www.redbluffdodge.com 545 Adobe Rd., Red Bluff, CA $36,495 NEW2014 RAM 2500 CREW CAB Vin#1213092, Stk# 11234 All offers for a limited time. Not all buyers will qualify for individual programs. See Red Bluff Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram for complete details and vehicle qualifications for all currently running programs. 0% and 1.9% APR financing are not applicable on these new selected models. All prices plus government fees and taxes, any finance charge, any dealer document, preparation charge, and any emission charge. Subject to prior sales & credit approval. Some vehicle images in this ad are for illustration purposes only and may vary from actual vehicle. Cummins Diesel 4x2 Whoa! 5th Wheel/ Godseneck Touring Prep. Package, Popular Equip Group, 6-Speed Manual Transmission, Spray-in Bed Liner, Power Heated Trailer Tow Mirrors, Power Windows & Locks, Cruise, Tilt & Lots More! MSRP...............................$44,880 Benny's Big Discount........-$5,385 $39,495 Factory Rebate ............... -$3,000 Smog Check (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. starting at $ 29 95 + $ 8 25 certificate SERVICESATLOWERPRICES All makes and models. We perform dealer recommened 30K, 60K, 90K MembersWelcome STOVEJUNCTION The TheNorthState'spremiersupplierofstoves 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Over 25 years of experience Tues-Sat9am-5pm• ClosedSun&Mon Now Carrying! GreenMountainGrills & Accessories Serving Butte, Glenn & Tehama Counties Deli-TastyBurgers-Wraps NewTo-GoSection Thursday,Friday&Saturday Lunch&DinnerBuffet Happy Hour with Cocktails, Food & Entertainment Saigon Bistro 723 Walnut St. Red Bluff 528-9670 RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA. LIC#829089 PLEASE BE ADVISED That the present owners of Gibbs Auto Body are in NO WAY related to Rex Gibbs, the original owner | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2014 8 A