By Drew Sandsor

Updated 4:45 p.m.

For the first time, every eligible voter in California will get a mail-in ballot, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday during his daily coronavirus briefing. 

Newsom signed the executive order Friday, saying it was a matter of voter safety.

"Not to feel like they have to go into a concentrated, dense environment where their health may be at risk, we'll provide an additional asset, an additional resource, by way of voting by mail," Newsom said.

Newsom said there will be physical voting sites as well with safety measures put in place to protect against the spread of COVID-19. Newsom's executive order is solely for the November general election.

Voting by mail has been steadily increasing. During California's March statewide primary, a record 72 percent of the ballots cast were mail-in.

Newsom held his daily briefing at a Sacramento florist shop that reopened Friday under the state's next phase of economic recovery. It allows non-essential retailers to offer curbside service.

In his remarks, Newsom said the 14.7% national unemployment rate doesn't represent the true number of those out of work. The jobless figure released Friday is the highest since the Great Depression. He said that 4.3 million people have applied for unemployment in California alone since mid-March, and that's on top of those who were already out of work.

"When you add 4.3 million people to a workforce that's north of 18 million … do the math," he said. "We're not at 14.7%. The state of California is north of 20% right now."

While President Trump has continually praised Newsom's handling of the pandemic he criticized the governor Friday. Trump said he thinks the state can move a little quicker on reopening and that people may force the issue. 

By Ezra David Romero

As the state slowly begins to reopen there’s a lot of mixed messages about what it means for Californians because counties, cities and the state are opening at different paces. 

CapRadio recently asked our audience about what concerns them about the reopening beginning to take place. We heard everything from California is opening prematurely so officials should take more caution to relief that some people can go back to work. 

There was an air of anxiety in their responses like this: “I think it is too early, and people just need to calm down. We need more testing before we start making plans to reopen so we can know what we are dealing with.”

Our listeners noted that they’re concerned because there are new transmissions and deaths from COVID-19 almost daily in the state. As of May 6 there were 60,614 cases in the state and 2,504 deaths. 

But how do we move forward? CapRadio’s region encompasses many counties and two states all with different rules. Imagine living in one county with a strict stay-at-home order and working in another where restrictions are limited. That’s the reality for many of our listeners and it’s producing anxiety for some.

We reached out to experts to find out how to meander through all the noise, news and changing guidelines.

What we looked into:

• How to find meaning within this crisis and how to fight off anxiety
• Precautions moving forward
• How do vulnerable communities move ahead? 
• Is it safe to go out into the natural world?

(United States Second Circuit) - Revived a proposed class action alleging that a company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending doctors unsolicited fax advertisements. The company attempted to moot the case by paying the named plaintiff's claim in full. Vacated a dismissal and remanded for further proceedings.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that the Federal Trade Commission Act could support an order compelling an online payday lender to pay more than $1 billion in monetary relief for unfair business practices. Two of the judges on the Ninth Circuit panel filed a concurring opinion to suggest that the court should rehear the case en banc to reconsider relevant circuit precedent.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Reinstated a borrower's Truth in Lending Act lawsuit seeking to rescind a loan for which the lender allegedly made improper disclosures. Held that the suit was not time-barred because the borrower had brought it within six years, which was the most analogous state statute of limitations. Reversed a dismissal.

(United States Second Circuit) - Revived a consumer lawsuit alleging that Cheez‐It crackers are misleadingly labeled as being whole grain. Held that the proposed class action complaint plausibly alleged that the labeling is deceptive.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Held that a bank was not vicariously liable, as a matter of law, for its loan servicer's alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Affirmed dismissal of a complaint brought by a borrower who took out a home equity loan.

(United States Second Circuit) - Held that a consumer could not proceed with a claim that a debt collection letter unlawfully failed to inform him of certain information. Affirmed the dismissal of his proposed class action lawsuit against the debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

(United States Second Circuit) - Held that tribal sovereign immunity did not bar borrowers from pursuing legal relief against an online lending business owned by an Indian tribe. The borrowers contended that the loans had unlawfully high interest rates. Affirmed the denial of a motion to dismiss on grounds of sovereign immunity.

(United States Second Circuit) - Held that recipients of unsolicited spam text messages had legal standing to bring a lawsuit against the company that sent them. Affirmed a ruling in a class action suit under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's structure is constitutionally permissible. A law firm raised the argument in contending that it was not required to comply with the bureau's investigative demand to respond to interrogatories about its debt relief services and marketing. The Ninth Circuit rejected the law firm's position.

(United States Seventh Circuit) - Seventh Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court when it found defendant violated the Consumer Product Safety Act and entered a permanent injunction.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Revived a tenant's lawsuit against a company that screens prospective tenants. He brought the suit after being denied housing due to criminal history disclosures appearing in his tenant screening report. Reversed the dismissal of his claims under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and several California statutes.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that a car purchaser did not raise a triable issue that a dealership failed to provide customers promised add-ons. Also addressed an issue under the Class Action Fairness Act relating to removal jurisdiction. Affirmed the decision below.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In an en-banc decision, affirmed the approval of a class action settlement in a multidistrict litigation brought against two automobile manufacturers, which had been accused of making misrepresentations about their vehicles' fuel economy. Also upheld attorney fee awards, rejecting objectors' challenges.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a car purchaser's successful lemon law suit, held that the trial court used an improper method to determine reasonable attorney fees. Remanded for a recalculation of the fee award.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. Plaintiff brought class action suit against Defendant, Coca-Cola Company alleging misleading naming and marketing of “Diet Coke”. District court dismissed all claims under Federal Rule 12(b)(6). Appeals court that the adjective “diet” referred to caloric content and carries a relative meaning and not an absolute meaning.

(United States Seventh Circuit) - Vacating a dismissal and remanding. A student loan borrower's complaints about a loan provider's statements that they needn't seek advice about their borrowing was not expressly preempted because she alleged affirmative misrepresentations, not failures to disclose.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed Defendant’s summary judgment against Plaintiff, holding that the Fair Credit Reporting Act did not require Defendant to initiate a reinvestigation of incorrect credit report items because Plaintiff did not directly notify Defendant of disputed items.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant in an action under the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits the use and disclosure of personal information derived from Department of Motor Vehicles records.

(United States Seventh Circuit) - Reversed. The court reversed the dismissal of a class action consumer fraud and deceptive business case involving cat food labeled prescription cat food that was not materially different from regular cat food. The fraud claim was sufficiently pled and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act's safe harbor didn't apply.

(California Court of Appeal) - Affirmed. Plaintiff brought a qui tam action alleging that Defendant violated the False Claims Act in its billings to Medi-Cal. The trial court sustained a demurrer and entered a judgment of dismissal of the complaint. The appeals court held that Defendant did not violate any requirement under law as to its billings to Medi-Cal.

What I learned about sex, my body, and the rhythms of life.

As this series on contraception comes to a close, Emily Heady offers a Protestant perspective on Natural Family Planning.

When my husband and I married in 2001, we were graduate students with tiny salaries, tiny living quarters, and gargantuan workloads. It was not a good time for a baby. So a few months before our wedding, I showed up at Indiana University’s student health center and said I needed birth control. The nurse practitioner asked me if it was an emergency or if I needed a police referral. “No,” I said. “I’m getting married in a few months, and I want to be used to it by then.”

Although born and raised in church, I had a very anemic theology of conception. We just didn’t talk about it. I had been taught that sex before marriage was bad, but that was about it. Marital sexuality simply wasn’t discussed; neither was birth control or any other blush-worthy subject. As a pro-life evangelical, I hadn’t expected the student health center at the Big Secular School to serve as a complete and reliable guide to human sexuality, but I needed answers, and that was my best hope.

To her credit, the nurse practitioner heard my questions about the mechanisms various drugs used in controlling for birth, then recommended Depo-Provera. If it shut down my cycles altogether, she explained, that would mean that there was no egg to fertilize; if it didn’t, well, we could talk further. It turned out we didn’t have to: Depo did just what she had predicted.

The first time I engaged theologically with questions about married sexuality was as part of the requisite premarital counseling my Catholic spouse and I completed. The eminently practical priest explained that, ...

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A compilation of the past three weeks of posts about contraception.

I've been interested in the topic of contraception and faith for quite some time, both in light of my own unwillingness to think about contraception in theological terms in the early years of my marriage (an unwillingness I have observed in others as well), and also in the way decisions about contraception spill into the public square. As the series comes to a close, I wanted to recap the series of posts that provide personal stories and comprehensive views on contraception

Are Christians Afraid to Talk about Contraception?

As I wrote in this introdution to this series, "I hope that this range of voices and perspectives will aid us in thinking through these decisions in a way that brings God into the conversation. I hope they will provoke civil disagreement and growth. I hope they will expose our fears and open us up to life-giving possibilities."

Contraception Saves Lives, Rachel Marie Stone

Here, Rachel's experiences as a doula in Malawi prompted her to take a second look at Margaret Sanger, and, more importantly, to consider the social good of providing contraception for women who want to be able to limit the number of children they conceive.

Questioning Margaret Sanger, Amy Julia Becker

Rachel's post set off a storm of internet disagreement. I responded to the storm with both an apology for the confusion the post provoked as well as a plea to consider the central claim that contraception can save lives.

A Doctor's View on Hormonal Contraception, Dr. Emily Gibson

Many Christians worry that hormonal contraceptive methods work as abortifacients. Dr. Emily Gibson considers the ethical and personal questions that arise with the advent of hormonal contraceptive methods.

Why I Have Seven Children, ...

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Love always requires sacrifice.

“Mindfulness” is a buzzword these days. As a recent article in the Sunday New York Times points out:

. . . mindfulness has come to comprise a dizzying range of meanings for popular audiences. It’s an intimately attentive frame of mind. It’s a relaxed-alert frame of mind. It’s equanimity. It’s a form of the rigorous Buddhist meditation called vipassana(“insight”), or a form of another kind of Buddhist meditation known asanapanasmrti (“awareness of the breath”). It’s M.B.S.R. therapy (mindfulness-based stress reduction). It’s just kind of stopping to smell the roses. And last, it’s a lifestyle trend, a social movement and — as a Time magazine cover had it last year — a revolution.

Many Christians will be skeptical of mindfulness simply due to its Buddhist roots, and yet at first glance, there’s something attractive about it. In the midst of an overworked, consumerist culture or production and competition, couldn’t mindfulness offer us all something true and good? Awareness of the present moment—my own emotions, the states of being of those around me, the possibilities inherent in right now—aren’t those all good?

At a glance, sure. And yet, as the author (Virginia Heffernan) of the Times’ piece goes on to note, our current fad of mindfulness is often employed in service of the same work-fueled consumerist values. It will make us, and our children, more productive and less anxious, right?

I think back to my own attempt at greater mindfulness during an exercise “challenge” I committed to with a few friends last year. I pledged to write down everything I was eating and drinking, ...

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Giving thanks for God’s work throughout the church universal.

I hope that if I counted myself as a member of a “liberal” denomination, I would be writing a post about my gratitude for the contributions of evangelicals to proclaiming God’s glory in the church and in the world. Instead, as an evangelical, I am here to say thank you to the Catholics and Episcopalians, to the feminist theologians and the pastors focused on social justice, to the whole host of people past and present who witness to the breadth and depth of God’s character and glory.

Here’s a bit of the backstory: I sometimes say that I am “denominationally confused.” I was baptized Episcopalian, confirmed Presbyterian, and married in the Congregational church I attended through college. Over the fifteen years of our marriage (which has included moving to four different towns), my husband and I have worshiped in an Episcopal church, a non-denominational church, a Vineyard church, and a Covenant church. Each of these churches has offered distinct gifts to us—the lofty liturgy of an Episcopal cathedral, the emphasis on global missions at the non-denominational church, the healing prayer at the Vineyard, the solid preaching and welcoming community at the Covenant. It would be easy to critique any of these churches, but overall I am grateful for them each in their own way, and I’m grateful for their variety. It has shown me so much more about the diversity of God’s healing work in the world.

Perhaps I’m so willing to move from denomination to denomination because of the role para-church ministries played in my growth as a Christian. I first experienced the power of the Holy Spirit at a Young Life camp, and I grew even more through ministries on my high ...

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Rachael Sage Has Released A New Single, “Bravery’s On Fire" After Revealing Cancer Diagnosis; All Proceeds From Single And Charity Shows To Benefit Women's Cancer Research.

The Critically-Acclaimed Group Netted The #4 Most Added Spot On The Billboard Mainstream Indicator Chart & Was The #1 Most Added On The Foundations Chart Week

NJ Rock Band Triple Addiction Scores A Guitar Endorsement And Books Some Big Shows.

Thick Smoke Clouds The Air As Thunderous Booms Shake The Ground.

Montreal Hip-hop Collective Triple-R Has Signed With Squash Comp And Released Their Debut Album “Red Rum Records”

#62ndGrammyAwards #GrammyAwards #GrammyNominations #MelissaB

Rising Country Artist, Stephanie Ryann, Has Released Her First Music Video For The Song "Whiskey Regret" Off Of Her Debut, Self-titled EP To Commemorate The Anniversary Of Its Release Last October

Lynch Welcomed Steel Guitar Hall Of Famers Chubby Howard, Joe Wright, Lyn Owsley, Billy Robinson And Russ Hicks To Keepin’ It Country Farm In Ohio.

Today’s CapChat looks at three current issues. 

First, with horse death investigations underway at Santa Anita Park, three more deaths have occurred in recent days. Since December 2018, there have been a total of 42 deaths at the park. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law in June of 2019 allowing the state to suspend horse racing at tracks with dangerous conditions. That has, as yet, not happened at Santa Anita.

Next, in a new pilot program, Uber is giving some of its driving contractors more control by letting them set their own rates. Drivers at the Sacramento, Palm Springs and Santa Barbara airports can increase rates in ten percent increments, with a cap. Depending on results, Uber could expand this to other airports. This is an effort to clarify that Uber drivers are independent, not employees, since the implementation of AB 5 on Jan. 1, 2020.

Third, with the impeachment trial underway in the U.S. Senate, the date of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union somewhat uncertain, Newsom has yet to set a date for his own annual State of the State address. 

Guests

• CapRadio State Government Reporter Scott Rodd

Recently, I’ve had a lot of customers asking me about creating a theme translation file for some of my themes. What I always assumed was a straightforward process actually has…

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One-woman Show Featuring Salish Tribal Member Julie Cajune Draws From Life Experiences And True Stories Of Generations Of Native American Women

Return Performances In The Central California Coast And Sierra Nevada Celebrating 40 Years Of World Fusion

The Single Will Be Available Digitally, CD Single And Limited Edition 7-inch Vinyl

BELEAF, Which Releases In Stores And Online Worldwide August 16, 2019, Is A 14-track Powerhouse That Promises To Be Their Strongest, Clearest, And Most Authentic Work Yet.

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