Thursday Must Reads: 49 Nurses Get Fired at Alameda County Jails; Legalized Pot Could Generate $1 Billion in Tax Revenues

Stories you shouldn’t miss:

1. Corizon, the private health care provider at Alameda County’s jails, has fired 49 nurses at facilities in Oakland and Dublin, forcing the remaining nurses to work double shifts and scramble to provide proper care to inmates, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. “According to the nurses in the jails, it’s a disaster,” Dennis Dugan, an organizer for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, told the newspaper. Corizon has come under intense fire for providing inadequate care at the jails and was blamed for at least two in custody deaths.

2. Legalizing marijuana in California for adult recreational use could generate $1 billion in tax revenues for the state and local governments, the AP reports (via KQED), citing new estimates by the Legislative Analyst’s Office and the state’s finance director.

3. The US Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that a widely used pesticide is threatening honey bee populations nationwide, the LA Times$ reports. The EPA’s determination could result in a ban on imidacloprid, a pesticide made by Bayer CropScience that is used on wine grapes, tomatoes, oranges, and cotton. Honeybee colonies have collapsed throughout the country in recent years.


[jump] 4. About 605,000 undocumented immigrants in California obtained driver’s licenses under the state’s new law, the SacBee$ reports, citing new data from the DMV.

5. Yellow Cab Coop, the largest taxi company in San Francisco, may file for bankruptcy, the Chron$ reports. Yellow Cab has been rocked by unregulated ride companies like Uber and Lyft and was hit by a $8 million jury award last year to a passenger who suffered brain damage in a crash.

6. And advocates for creating the new “State of Jefferson” filed petitions from fifteen rural counties to secede from the State of California, the SacBee$ reports. Jefferson backers are angry about state environmental laws that have restricted logging and mining.