The California Board of Registered Nursing is tasked with protecting the health and safety of Californians by licensing and regulating the practice of nursing in the state. One way it does this is by using voluntarily provided reports of alleged violations of the Nursing Practice Act. This report, as required by Senate Bill 799 (Hill, 2017), reviews the different forms of reporting systems used in California and other states, the barriers to reporting alleged violations that can occur, and provides policy options for the state to consider. In addition to voluntary reports, 32 other states require mandatory reporting in certain situations, such as when an employer fires or suspends a registered nurse. Information from other states and literature on the topic are mixed, however, and demonstrate challenges with both the voluntary and mandatory reporting systems.
Californians voted in 100 Assembly and Senate races in the November 2018 election. New members were elected to the Legislature, shifting the demographics of both bodies. Continuing the increase resulting from recent special elections, the number of female legislators appears to have increased by 5, matching the increase in recent special elections and approaching the previous high in 2005-06. The Assembly remains majority-minority (52 percent) and the Senate's minority-share increased to 27 percent. Notably, the number of Latina members has increased to 15 from 5 in 2015.
Nearly 130,000 active duty military personnel and an additional 56,000 reservists and National Guard are stationed across California’s 30 military installations, the largest concentration of American military in any state or country in the world. An additional 115,000 civilian national security personnel are employed in California and $47 billion are spent in the state on national security-related procurement, grants and Veteran Affairs benefits. This report estimated the impact of national security spending in California, totaling $156.3 billion in economic activity and 767,000 full-time equivalent employment in 2016.
Six new state legislators have been voted into office during the 2017-18 term. Six men left office, with voters choosing to replace five with women. Pending state Senator-elect Vanessa Delgado assuming office, the number of women in the Legislature would increase to 31, recovering losses in the 2016 election. The Assembly remains majority-minority (54 percent) and the Senate would increase to 25 percent (currently at 23 percent).
Since 1998, the California Unlawful Detainer Pilot Program has authorized city attorneys in select jurisdictions to initiate nuisance eviction cases against tenants arrested for controlled substances and illegal firearms. This 2018 update is the eighth public report to evaluate the merits of the program. Program use has been steady during the past three years, but still well below peak use a decade ago. The majority of arrested tenants voluntary vacate their residences when informed of pending evictions, and most tenants are Latino or African-American.
Assembly Bill 60 (2013) allowed undocumented residents of California to apply for and receive driver's licenses since January 1, 2015. Because federal law required the AB 60 driving-only license to be distinguishable from standard driver's licenses, possession of an AB 60 license implies the undocumented status of the license holder. AB 60 thus contained provisions prohibiting discrimination against AB 60 licensees and mandated this report to review any such incidents.
This publication is an update of a 2004 report that identified California government activities related to issues of common interest and concern to California and Mexico. The survey describes over 100 programs operated by dozens of California state departments, agencies, boards and commissions.
Three experts discuss the impact of rapid technological change on California's economy and jobs, as well as the opportunities, challenges and risks awaiting California policymakers. Anne Neville, director of the California Research Bureau, moderates a thought-provoking discussion with Nicholas Davis, head of Society and Innovation at the World Economic Forum in Geneva; Rachel Hatch, research director of the 10-Year Forecast at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto; and California's chief economist, Irena Asmundson. (1:18:05)
California enacted Assembly Bill 2494 (2014) to expand the legal remedies available against frivolous litigation. Specifically, the statute revived California Code of Civil Procedure section 128.5, which allows parties in lawsuits to file motions requesting sanctions against bad faith legal actions. This report, mandated by AB 2494, examines the statute's impact in the first two years after passage on the frequency of requests for sanctions.
The Medical Board of California protects the health of Californians by ensuring that practicing physicians in the state are licensed and regulated. Conducted at the request of the Medical Board, this report looked at 10 years of disciplinary data to see if there was any relationship between physician race and disciplinary outcomes. Latino/a and Black physicians were both more likely to receive complaints and more likely to see those complaints escalate to investigations. Latino/a physicians were also more likely to see those investigations result in discipline. Asian physicians had a reduced likelihood of receiving complaints, or of those complaints escalating to investigations.
