As of July 1, several new California laws are now in effect, ushering in changes that touch on everything from consumer rights and student mental health to workplace protections and gas taxes. 

Easier Subscription Cancellations

Consumers will now find it simpler to cancel subscription services thanks to Assembly Bill 2863, which requires businesses to offer the same cancellation method used to initiate the subscription. The law aims to reduce frustration over hard-to-navigate cancellation systems, a common complaint among Californians.

Short-Term Rental Fee Transparency

For those booking vacation homes, AB 2202 now mandates that platforms like Airbnb disclose all cleaning fees and penalties before a reservation is made. Hosts must also clearly list cleaning tasks expected of guests, ensuring greater transparency and fewer surprise charges.

Mental Health Resources for Students

Under Senate Bill 1063, all public schools serving grades 7 through 12 must print the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and a QR code linking to county-specific mental health resources on student ID cards. This change is part of a broader effort to support youth mental health and prevent suicide.

CARE Act Transparency

New updates to the CARE Act, which provides court-ordered treatment for individuals struggling with mental health, require courts to keep petitioners informed about the individual’s treatment progress. The law, originally passed in 2022, seeks to provide compassionate care while maintaining accountability and oversight.

Retail Theft and Online Marketplaces

Cracking down on retail theft, AB 2943 and SB 905 increase penalties for crimes like vehicle break-ins when items are intended for resale. Additionally, online marketplaces must now verify the identity of third-party sellers and report suspicious activity to law enforcement, a response to growing concerns over stolen goods being sold online.

Bar Safety Enhancements

Bars across the state must now offer drink lids upon request and post signage warning patrons of drink spiking. Signs must read:

“Don’t get roofied! Drink lids and drink spiking drug test kits available here. Ask a staff member for details.”

New Protections for Domestic Workers

With the passage of SB 1350, domestic workers — such as nannies and house cleaners hired through agencies — are now covered under Cal/OSHA workplace protections. However, the law does not apply to individuals who hire household help directly for personal use.

Gas and Cannabis Tax Adjustments

The state’s gas tax has increased from 59.6 cents to 61.2 cents per gallon, part of an annual inflation adjustment. Cannabis taxes have also been adjusted, though specifics vary by locality.

Minimum Wage Hikes in Select Cities

Several California cities, including Los Angeles, have raised their minimum wage as of July 1. Local rates now exceed the state minimum, which remains at $16 per hour, depending on the size of the business.

Other Key Changes:

• Pet Insurance Transparency: Insurers must now explain premium increases and reductions in coverage to policyholders.
• Fertility Treatment Coverage: Most insurance plans are now required to cover fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization (IVF).
• Food Delivery ID Requirements: Delivery platforms must provide customers with a photo and the first name of their delivery person.
• Bounty Hunter Licensing: AB 2043 mandates that all bail fugitive recovery agents — commonly known as bounty hunters — must be licensed in California.

For full details on how these laws may impact you, visit the California Legislature’s website or contact your local city or county government.

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Economist, Solvang Chamber of Commerce

Most spending by tourists in California originates in other states and countries. The graph shows that about six dollars in ten came from outside the state in 2018. 

Spending by California residents was $51.9 billion, or 40.6 percent of the total. Visitors from other parts of the U.S. spent $47.7 billion here, or 37.3 percent of total spending. International visitors spent $28.3 billion (22.1 percent). 

Together these visitors from other places in the U. S. and elsewhere in the world spent $76.0 billion at destinations in California, or 59.4 percent of total visitor spending. 

California residents spent 40.6 percent of the $127.9 billion total.

Spending here by international visitors counts as exports from the United States. Tourism in California produces more export value for the United States ($28 billion a year) than do California’s agricultural exports ($21 billion a year). 

Solvang welcomes visitors from California, other places in the U. S., and other countries. Visitors to Solvang find a wide range of appealing goods and services from which to choose.

Go online to Visit California, “California Travel Impacts 2010-2018,” page 5, for details of destination spending in California. Agricultural exports are reported online by California Department of Food and Agriculture, “California Agricultural Statistics Review 2017-2018,” page 105.

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Central Coast native and former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is being considered for Secretary of Agriculture, replacing Secretary Tom Vilsack as he left the Agriculture Department a week before his tenure ends and before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Vilsack, who has led USDA for eight years and was President Barack Obama’s longest-serving Cabinet secretary, told employees in an email that Friday is his final day. The email did not say why he was leaving early. He has said he wants to remain involved with agriculture after leaving government, but has not detailed those plans.

As Vilsack leaves the department, some in farm country are worried that agriculture may be a low priority for the new administration. It is the only Cabinet position Trump has not moved to fill, yet rural voters were key to delivering him the presidency.

Farm-state lawmakers in Congress say they are eagerly awaiting the decision.

“We brought him home,” Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Thursday of delivering on Trump’s win. “Farmers, ranchers and small town America brought him home. So obviously they’d like to see a secretary of Agriculture that would be their champion. That hasn’t occurred yet. So we hope it will.”

According to exit polls conducted for AP and television networks by Edison Research, about 17 percent of voters in this year’s election were from small cities or rural areas, and 62 percent of them said they voted for Trump. But Trump has little agricultural history, and spoke rarely about farm issues on the campaign trail.

“People don’t know what he stands for in agriculture and everyone’s waiting for the secretary to be named so you can get some clues,” said Roger Johnson, head of the National Farmers Union. Johnson said there is a “growing, intense frustration” that a secretary hasn’t been named.

Trump and his team have interviewed several candidates, including Maldonado, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and they have also talked to potential candidates from Texas and Indiana, home state of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, was at Trump Tower on Thursday.

Incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, in a daily briefing call with reporters on Friday, played down any talk of a delay with the agriculture selection, saying that the president-elect had given it the same amount of attention and consideration as his other Cabinet picks.

Spicer said Trump had met with “several” qualified candidates and would make a decision in the near future.

Vilsack is one of the nation’s longest-serving agriculture secretaries and has remained generally popular in farm country as he worked to balance the needs of high-dollar production agriculture with other growing parts of the industry, including organics. During his tenure, he also focused on rebuilding rural communities, making school meals healthier and resolving civil rights claims against the department.

As for his next steps, he said in a statement that “I intend to be involved in promotion of agriculture and rural America, I hope to be connected to a university and work with young people, and I want to spend time with my family in Iowa.”

Michael Scuse, undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, will be acting secretary until Trump is inaugurated.

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Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump claimed his place Wednesday as America’s 45th president, an astonishing victory for the celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters’ economic anxieties, took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White House.

Trump’s triumph over Hillary Clinton, not declared until well after midnight, will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House. He’ll govern with Congress fully under Republican control and lead a country deeply divided by his rancorous campaign against Clinton. He faces fractures within his own party, too, given the numerous Republicans who either tepidly supported his nomination or never backed him at all.

As he claimed victory, Trump urged Americans to “come together as one united people.”

Clinton, who had hoped to become the first woman to be elected president, called her Republican rival to concede but did not plan to speak publicly until Wednesday morning.

She was leading the nationwide popular vote, though some states were still counting ballots.

Global stock markets and U.S. stock futures plunged early Wednesday, but later recovered, reflecting investor concern over what a Trump presidency might mean. The Dow Jones industrial average was flat after trading opened Wednesday.

President Barack Obama called Trump to congratulate him and invited the Republican to a meeting at the White House Thursday to discuss transition. Obama also called Clinton to convey his admiration for the “strong campaign she waged throughout the country,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Obama planned a televised statement Wednesday on “what steps we can take as a country to come together after this hard-fought election season,” the White House said.

Trump, who spent much of the campaign urging his supporters on as they chanted “lock her up,” said the nation owed Clinton “a major debt of gratitude” for her years of public service. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Obama and Trump had “a very nice talk” when the President called him.

The Republican blasted through Democratic strongholds of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that hadn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s. He needed to win nearly all of the competitive battleground states, and he did just that, including Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and others.

GOP Senate candidates fended off Democratic challengers in key states, including North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin. Republicans also maintained their grip on the House.

Senate control means Trump will have great leeway in appointing Supreme Court justices, which could shift the bench to the right for decades.

Trump upended years of political convention on his way to the White House, leveling harshly personal insults against his rivals, deeming Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, and vowing to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration to the U.S. He never released his tax returns, breaking with decades of campaign tradition, and eschewed the kind of robust data and field efforts that helped Obama win two terms in the White House, relying instead on his large, free-wheeling rallies to energize supporters. His campaign was frequently in chaos, and he cycled through three campaign managers.

Conway, his final campaign manager, touted the team’s accomplishments as the final results rolled in, writing on Twitter that “rally crowds matter” and “we expanded the map.”

Clinton spent months warning voters that Trump was unfit and unqualified to be president. But the former senator and secretary of state never sold the nation on her own candidacy.

She faced persistent questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. Those troubles flared anew late in the race, when FBI Director James Comey announced a review of new emails from her tenure at the State Department. Just two days before Election Day, Comey said there was nothing in the material to warrant criminal charges against Clinton.

Trump will inherit an anxious nation, deeply divided by economic and educational opportunities, race and culture.

Exit polls underscored the fractures: Women nationwide supported Clinton by a double-digit margin, while men were significantly more likely to back Trump. More than half of white voters backed the Republican, while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and two-thirds of Hispanics voted for the Democrat.

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Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey, Jonathan Lemire, Lisa Lerer and Jill Colvin and AP Polling Director Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

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California voters approved a ballot measure Tuesday allowing recreational marijuana in the nation’s most populous state, handing the legalization movement its biggest victory yet. Voters in eight other states also considered proposals Tuesday to expand legal access to the drug, which is still forbidden by the federal government.

A preliminary exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research showed the measure passed handily.

Proposition 63 was winning with 63 percent of the 3.5 million votes cast.

California’s vote makes the use and sale of recreational cannabis legal along the entire West Coast, giving the legalization movement powerful momentum. That could spark similar efforts in other states and put pressure on federal authorities to ease longstanding rules that classify marijuana as a dangerously addictive drug with no medical benefits.

In addition, Massachusetts voters also legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

California was the first state to approve medical marijuana two decades ago. It was among five states weighing whether to permit pot for adults for recreational purposes. The other states were Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada.

Florida and North Dakota earlier approved medical marijuana measures Tuesday. Arkansas was considering a similar measure and Montana voted on whether to ease restrictions on an existing medical marijuana law.

The other controversial measure was Measure 63, the ammunition restrictions with voters leaning toward expanding some of the nation’s toughest gun control by banning large-capacity ammunition magazines, requiring background checks for ammunition sales and speeding the seizure of firearms from owners who are no longer allowed to own them.

In more measures it looks as though California voters approved proposition giving California prison officials more say in release of prisoners, repeal nearly two-decade-old law limiting bilingual education in schools.

A preliminary exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research found Harris easily defeated her fellow Democrat, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, to win the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Hillary Clinton also was a big winner in the state, according to the poll, extending to seven the string of Democratic presidential victories in the state that started with her husband in 1992.

More election results will be posted as they come in.

Associated Press writers David Crary in New York and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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Caltrans needs your input on the California State Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan questionnaire by November 6, 2016.

This visionary and comprehensive plan will focus on improving safety and access for everyone across all modes, particularly bicycle and pedestrian.

The public is encouraged to visit: www.cabikepedplan.org, to participate in an online (5-10 minute) questionnaire and sign up for email updates about new project information and outreach activities.

Public participation is critical to developing a Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan that strengthens bicycling and pedestrian safety and increases opportunities across the state. Caltrans is engaging a broad range of stakeholders through targeted outreach activities statewide to achieve wide participation.

When completed, the plan will provide a framework to guide the planning and development of non-motorized transportation on state facilities and maximize the use of future investments. It will also lead to improved connections between the state’s bicycle and pedestrian facilities with the existing network and other modes of transportation, as well as help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicles miles traveled. This plan will not replace existing policies and implementation plans at the regional and local levels.

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