California passes law requiring companies to post salary ranges on job listings
The law will also require California-based companies with more than 100 employees to show their median gender and racial pay gaps — a first for a U.S. state.
California
California is home to some of the nation’s most ambitious climate, housing, and social policy experiments. This archive tracks the progress stories and milestones emerging from the state — from clean energy breakthroughs to community health wins.
San Francisco decriminalizes psychedelics
City lawmakers have unanimously approved a measure calling for the decriminalization of psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca.
California passes first sweeping US law to reduce single-use plastic
California’s single-use plastic law sets a binding target to cut throwaway plastic 25% by 2032, and it puts the bill where it belongs: on the companies making the stuff. A new producer-led organization will run recycling programs and pay $500 million a year into a fund that helps clean up the mess and address its health impacts. That’s a real shift, because for decades the cost of plastic pollution has fallen on cities and taxpayers, not the businesses profiting from it. As the largest U.S. state, California tends to pull markets and other states along with it — making this a hopeful template for tackling plastic pollution far beyond its borders.
Google to automatically delete abortion clinic visits from users’ history
Activists have said decisions like these could be important if the government begins seeking personal information in order to charge people who’ve had, sought or facilitated abortions.
California set to become first state to provide free health care to all low-income immigrants
California is doing something no state has done before — guaranteeing free health care to every low-income adult, regardless of immigration status. An estimated 764,000 people stand to gain Medi-Cal coverage, funded entirely by California since the federal government doesn’t pay for undocumented residents. For families like Beatriz Hernandez’s — whose mother has never had health insurance in the U.S. — this is the change they’ve waited over a decade for. One health policy leader called it the biggest coverage expansion since the Affordable Care Act, and advocates are already watching to see which state steps up next.
Zero-emissions hydrogen cargo airship prototype planned for 2025
H2 Clipper claims it’ll cost a quarter of what today’s air freight services cost per ton-mile, making it an economically disruptive way to move bulk cargo as well as an opportunity to decarbonize trans-continental logistics operations.
Many U.S. states now allow mental health absences for students
At least nine states now allow students to take mental health days. Other states using less expensive solutions like in-class mediation, mindfulness exercises, and social-emotional training.
Stanford University researchers invent groundbreaking solar panels that work at night
The setup is inexpensive and, in principle, could be incorporated within existing solar cells. It is also simple, so construction in remote locations with limited resources is feasible.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. pledges to plant 6 million trees across the U.S., Brazil, India, and Indonesia
Through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and Teen, West Elm, and others will plant one tree for every piece of indoor wood furniture sold.
Judge restores protections for gray wolves across much of U.S.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to show wolf populations could be sustained in the Midwest and portions of the West without protection under the Endangered Species Act.