Napa Valley tech summit: Lawmakers, lobbyists gather

Blockchain and cryptocurrency. Artificial intelligence. Facial recognition expertise. Health care innovation. The power trade. Building tech economies in “underestimated” cities reminiscent of Fresno. Understanding the advantages of distant work. Helping small companies thrive on-line.

Those are among the many subjects that state lawmakers and tech trade lobbyists are set to debate at present on the luxurious four-star Carneros Resort and Spa in Napa Valley as a part of an occasion dubbed the Technology Policy Summit, in keeping with a draft copy of the agenda I obtained.

The two-day convention — which, in keeping with the draft agenda, started Thursday night time with a panel on how 5G expertise may help handle local weather change and was adopted by a reception and dinner — comes precisely per week earlier than lawmakers are set to make do-or-die choices on a slate of controversial tech payments, together with proposals to significantly expand kids’ privacy rights online, permit public prosecutors to maintain social media corporations responsible for deliberately addicting youth, and regulate the cryptocurrency industry.

Those payments are all on the suspense file, an opaque, twice-annual process through which lawmakers rattle by means of a listing of a whole bunch of proposals at breakneck pace, passing or killing them and not using a phrase of clarification.

Specifically, they’re all on the suspense file within the Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino of Glendale, who’s attending the tech coverage summit, his workplace confirmed Thursday.

• Lerna Shirinian, Portantino’s communications director, mentioned in an announcement: “Senator Portantino has the reputation as being one of the most hardworking and accessible representatives in California, as he tries to meet with as many stakeholders as possible — both in the district and in the Capitol. Conference attendance doesn’t have an impact on who he meets with, nor does it impact his decisions. For the Senator, listening to a panel discussion on a topic is no different than tuning into a podcast.”

Also attending the occasion is Democratic Assemblymember Robert Rivas of Salinas, who’s angling to develop into the following speaker of the state Assembly, his workplace confirmed. Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Van Nuys Democrat authoring a high-profile bill to drive social media corporations to be extra clear about their phrases of service, instructed me final month he additionally plans to attend.

Reached by cellphone Thursday, Ian Calderon confirmed he’s additionally attending. Calderon, a former state Assemblymember who was co-chairperson of the California Legislative Technology and Innovation Caucus with its present co-chairperson, Democratic Assemblymember Evan Low of Cupertino, is now principal at a firm called Majority Advisors. State information present Majority Advisors is registered as a lobbying firm whose sole consumer is the Crypto Council for Innovation.

According to Calderon’s company bio, he authored as a lawmaker payments associated to blockchain and cryptocurrency and in 2015 was named Legislator of the Year by TechInternet, a robust lobbying agency that counts among its members Meta — the guardian firm of Facebook and Instagram — AT&T, Apple, Google and Amazon.com.

Representatives of TechInternet’s member corporations had been invited to the summit, Dylan Hoffman, the group’s govt director for California, instructed me. Hoffman declined to touch upon whether or not they deliberate to attend. Last month, Hoffman instructed me that TechInternet plans “to pursue every legislative avenue to try to stop” the social media legal responsibility invoice.

The annual summit is hosted by the Foundation for California’s Technology and Innovation Economy, which incorporates Low’s chief of workers on its board of administrators. Lobbyists might attend for a minimal donation of $10,000, converse on a panel for $20,000, and transient lawmakers on a selected subject for $35,000, according to the Los Angeles Times. Low is at the moment below state investigation for having stopped disclosing donations made to the inspiration at his request.

• Low mentioned in an announcement: “Educational policy summits play a key role in educating legislators on many issues facing our state. Some may mischaracterize this as a one-sided conversation, but this is about policymakers partnering with the innovation economy on how to make California a state that supports growth for future generations to come.”

It’s unclear precisely what number of lawmakers will probably be in attendance this 12 months. But 18 legislators in 2021 — 15 Assemblymembers and three senators, all Democrats — reported having obtained presents from the Foundation for California’s Technology and Innovation Economy on the time of final 12 months’s convention, in keeping with state information analyzed by CalMatters knowledge journalist Jeremia Kimelman. Almost all reported presents of about $1,250.

Some have criticized the summit for being shrouded in secrecy. On Thursday, a cellular billboard truck urging lawmakers to assist the youth on-line privateness invoice was parked on the entrance to Carneros Resort and Spa — till it was ordered off the premises, resort personnel instructed CalMatters assistant picture editor Martin do Nascimento. The truck, employed by youth advocates and nonprofit company accountability group SumOfUs, later parked throughout the road.

• Aliza Kopans, founding father of Tech(nically) Politics and Emma Lembke, founding father of Log Off Movement, mentioned in an announcement: “Instead of listening to tech lobbyists, we’re asking California lawmakers to listen to us — the young people hurt by technology’s most damaging effects.”

The coronavirus backside line: As of Monday, California had 9,983,370 confirmed circumstances (+0.6% from earlier day) and 92,889 deaths (+0.1% from earlier day), in keeping with state data now up to date simply twice per week on Tuesdays and Fridays. CalMatters can also be monitoring coronavirus hospitalizations by county.

California has administered 78,762,612 vaccine doses, and 71.7% of eligible Californians are fully vaccinated.

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1
Jerry Brown on California local weather points

Even in the case of addressing local weather change — which to former Gov. Jerry Brown is “the No. 1 existential threat to the world” — you may’t escape the realities of politics, or the realities of individuals’s day-to-day lives. That was one of many key takeaways from a climate-focused interview with Brown revealed Thursday in the Los Angeles Times. Brown — who served as governor whereas present Gov. Gavin Newsom was lieutenant governor, and has a fancy relationship along with his successor that at occasions has veered into veiled criticism — weighed in on a few of California’s present local weather controversies, together with Newsom’s contentious plan to stabilize the state’s fragile power grid by prolonging using some fossil-fuel-powered crops and probably prolong the working lifetime of Diablo Canyon, its final nuclear energy plant.

Here are some key takeaways from Brown’s interview:

• On dealmaking: “Like sausage, you don’t want to look too closely at how it’s made. When I got the gas tax bill in California, to get the one Republican vote that I got in the state Senate — that senator got $500 million in transportation programs for his district. That is the nature of the legislative process.”
• On whether or not California and the nation are doing sufficient on local weather: “This is good what we’re doing — but no, it’s not enough. Even California is not doing enough. The country and state are doing all they can politically, and they’ll do more. But the resistance is huge.”
• On setting achievable local weather objectives: “How many vehicles do we have on the road, and how long are they going to last? If you want to get serious, you could say, ‘OK, in two years we’ll take away all the gas cars, we’ll buy them from you. And you’ll get an electric car in return.’ That’s not feasible. We’re still a fossil fuel civilization. … If you want to win victories, you’re going to have some more oil leases” with a view to additionally get assist for extra climate-friendly insurance policies.
• On Newsom’s controversial power legislation: “If you want to get more gas-fired plants, the best thing to do is to shut them all down now. And then when the massive blackouts come, the politics will be so powerful that you’ll get even more gas plants than if you make sure that the lights don’t go out in the meantime. If you push too far, there’s a backlash. … So if you maybe try to move slower, you end up moving faster.”
• On whether or not California ought to maintain Diablo Canyon open: “I’m not going to weigh in on that one. There are a lot of people who have their views. I know some people who think it should not stay open. Other friends of mine, equally intelligent, say, ‘No, keep it open for a while.’”

2
Feuer proposes personal proper of motion invoice

Private proper of motion laws is having a second. On Thursday — about two weeks after Newsom signed into law a invoice modeled on Texas’ abortion ban permitting personal Californians to sue anybody who makes, sells or distributes sure unlawful firearms and win damages of as a lot as $10,000 per weapon — Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer unveiled draft legislation that might permit ladies to sue being pregnant service facilities for deceptive promoting. Feuer mentioned in a press launch the proposal is geared toward so-called disaster being pregnant facilities, which, in keeping with a consumer alert Attorney General Rob Bonta issued in June, “attempt to discourage people facing unintended pregnancies from accessing abortion care. While crisis pregnancy centers may advertise a full range of reproductive health services, they do not provide abortion or abortion referrals, and usually do not provide birth control or other forms of contraceptives.”

• Feuer mentioned in an announcement: “With the Supreme Court’s radical decision overturning Roe v. Wade, thousands of women under great stress will travel to Los Angeles for abortion care from states where abortion is outlawed. … For these women, time is of the essence. And they face great peril if they are misled by those to whom they turn for help. Pregnancy centers are entitled to express their opinions. They are not entitled to misrepresent their services, with women suffering the consequences.”
• There are 179 disaster being pregnant facilities in California, in comparison with 144 clinics providing abortions, according to a report from the progressive policy organization The Alliance: State Advocates for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.

3
San Bernardino County to contemplate secession

Goodbye San Bernardino County, howdy the state of Empire? San Bernardino County voters will resolve in November whether or not to probably secede from California after the board of supervisors voted Wednesday to put the measure on the poll, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. The initiative, the newest in a protracted line of secession makes an attempt, must be authorised by each the state Legislature and U.S. Congress to enter impact, which looks like a protracted shot.

But precise secession might not be the purpose. “Do you want to spend our taxpayer dollars to do a study of what we are or are not getting as a county, and then fight for that, in a way we haven’t done before?” Curt Hagman, chairperson of the board of supervisors, requested his colleagues earlier than the vote. Although San Bernardino County had nearly 2.2 million residents as of July 2021 and is the biggest county by space within the contiguous U.S. — it’s bodily bigger than 9 states, together with Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island mixed, according to the Press-Enterprise — it’s typically missed by the state and federal governments, mentioned Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren.

• Warren: “We cannot continue to beg and crawl and (grovel) to get resources for our county.”

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