In today's newscast:
Help for landscapers
Two years after California banned the sale of gas-powered lawn equipment, a new bill would require many local air districts to help landscapers switch to electric.
Jose David Alonso is a landscaper from Altadena. He recently attended a Senate committee hearing to express concerns around a local ban on gas powered equipment.
He said, in Spanish, he was recently insulted for using his gas-powered leaf blower while working. Someone told him that he was going to report him to the city.
Alonso says that’s why he went to Sacramento, representing his landscaping colleagues going through the same problem.
Buying electric equipment to replace his gear is difficult, Alonso says, as many of the homes he used to work at were destroyed by the Eaton fire.
Daniela Gonzalez, with bill sponsor California Immigrant Policy Center, says current incentive programs don’t consider the needs of the many immigrants who do the work.
"Without meaningful support for the transition, local bans on gas-powered equipment could also, and do, push hardworking families into debt through fines and penalties," Gonzalez said.
Opponents argue creating and administering the voucher programs could cost more than the incentives themselves.
That reporting from our partner, CapRadio.
Changes at the top for education
A new law overhauls the role of the state superintendent of schools.
Instead of heading the California Department of Education, the superintendent will act as more of a public advocate for the school system.
That includes plans for conducting independent evaluations of statewide education programs.
As for the state Education Department, the next governor will appoint a new commissioner to head it.
Earlier this year, LAist reported that the state spent billions on a new grade for 4 year olds called transitional kindergarten—without a plan to evaluate it.
Details about the new superintendent role still need to be hashed out.
That reporting from our partner, LAist.