(NBC Bay Area) - There's new hope for California homeowners facing rising insurance costs: Lawmakers are considering a new bill to boost protections.
State Sen. Josh Becker, a Democrat from Menlo Park, has introduced a bill that would force insurance companies to consider the billions of dollars the state has spent on wildfire mitigation and all the work homeowners have done to protect their homes from wildfires such as creating defensible space around their property.
Homeowners have been stung with massive increases in premiums — if not stripped of coverage altogether
(The Mercury News) - Insurers in California have sounded the alarm: A warming climate has dramatically raised the risk of devastating wildfires, and with it the cost of providing coverage. But now a Peninsula lawmaker says those insurance companies should credit the state and homeowners for the work done to reduce our vulnerability to wildfires.
(Canary Media) - California state Senator Josh Becker is worried that the Golden State is undermining a pillar of its clean energy transition: distributed solar power.
(The Sacramento Bee) - A California lawmaker wants insurance companies in the state to change how they come up with prices for home coverage.
Insurance trade groups aren’t happy.
Senate Bill 1060 would require insurers to take vegetation management, home protection, and other work meant to reduce wildfires into account when determining the risk of covering a property. Its author, Sen. Josh Becker, said the state is spending billions of dollars to prevent and lessen the effect of fires.
Shohei Ohtani has found three unique ways to make finance-related news in the past four months. First, he signed a record-shattering contract that sent shockwaves throughout the sports world. Then, he found himself embroiled in a gambling scandal that grows more complicated by the day. And now he's in the crosshairs of California lawmakers.
Shohei Ohtani will avoid paying an estimated $90 million in California state income taxes as a result of deferring nearly all of his record-setting $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now California lawmakers are pushing to change the federal tax code to prevent Ohtani’s contract structure from becoming standardized among high earners in baseball and beyond.
Read more here.
On Tuesday, California State Senator Josh Becker spoke with FOX 11. The senator has been working on legislation targeting artificial intelligence and how he's working to prevent children from getting AI tools.
"It’s very hard," said Becker. "A lot of these are open source, they’re widely available. If kids really want to find a way, they can."
The “FRESH Act,” introduced by California State Senator Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) this month, is designed to reduce recidivism by allowing and aiding formerly incarcerated individuals to have the opportunity to pre-apply for CalFresh benefits 90 days after their release date, ensuring a smoother reentry into society.