Leads:
- Efforts to clean the massive oil spill along the Southern California coastline continue. Amplify Energy President & CEO Martyn Willsher says they're sending more divers to fully understand what's going on underwater. An estimated 144,000 gallons of crude oil leaked, impacting about 25 miles of shoreline near Los Angeles. The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the response and has deployed several miles of containment boom, a tool used to isolate and collect the oil in the ocean.
- Caltrans is removing homeless encampments in Midtown Sacramento this week. This comes after complaints about trash, needles and human waste from Sacramento residents. City Councilmember Jeff Harris says Caltrans has the jurisdiction to remove the encampments under an infrastructure safety hazard law. However, Councilmember Katie Valenzuela says Caltrans has no intention of relocating these people.
- Signed as part of a package of consumer financial protection bills, Assembly Bill 1177 calls for the state to conduct a market analysis of a state-backed program that would give Californians a public option for banking services like debit cards. The study would aim to determine if that service would be viable within six years. Then, the Legislature could decide whether to launch a public banking program. AB 1177's ultimate goal is to make opening or maintaining a bank account easier for Californians who lack access to commercial banks.
Extra Links:
- White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Food and Drug Administration will review data on Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ new Covid oral antiviral “as quickly as they possibly can” in hopes of issuing an emergency use authorization.
- Immigration activists confronted Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema during a class she teaches at Arizona State University, then followed the Democrat and her students into a bathroom. They demanded she pass Biden's social spending bill while Sinema was inside a closed stall. Biden said the protests are "not appropriate," but added they're part of the process.
- South Dakota is joining Bermuda as tax haven for the rich.