By Oakland Post Staff

Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson announced a $3.15 million settlement with Terminix International Inc. and Rentokil North America Inc. over allegations that the pest control companies illegally disposed of pesticides and hazardous waste and mishandled confidential customer records.

The settlement was reached by Jones Dickson, 28 other California district attorneys and the Los Angeles city attorney. The companies are collectively identified as Terminix in the settlement.

District attorney investigators examining Terminix facilities throughout California between 2021 and 2024 found hundreds of pesticides and other hazardous-waste items that had allegedly been disposed of unlawfully, according to Jones Dickson’s office.

The investigation also found instances in which Terminix allegedly failed to properly manage and dispose of private customer records, violating California laws intended to protect confidential consumer information.

Terminix cooperated with prosecutors after being notified of the alleged violations, the district attorney’s office said. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to strengthen its policies and procedures governing the handling and disposal of pesticides, hazardous materials and customer records.

The new requirements are intended to prevent prohibited waste from being placed in ordinary trash receptacles or sent to facilities not authorized to receive it. Terminix must also improve safeguards for confidential customer information before records are discarded.

Terminix operates five Alameda County locations under the Terminix and Western Exterminator Company names. The facilities are located in Hayward, Pleasanton and Union City.

Alameda County will receive $160,000 from the statewide settlement for civil penalties and reimbursement of investigative costs.

The agreement resolves the prosecutors’ claims against the companies and requires Terminix to maintain stronger waste-management and privacy protections at its California operations.

Jones Dickson announced the settlement Sept. 4.

By Bo Tefu California Black Media

Local housing capacity, behavioral health services and criminal justice policies are playing a role in California’s homelessness and drug crises, according to a new report examining how policy decisions have affected outcomes across the state.

The report compiled by the Public Policy Institute of California found that counties that added more permanent housing beds per capita saw larger decreases in homelessness, while areas with larger declines in incarceration following Proposition 47 saw greater increases in homelessness.

“Places that saw larger increases in permanent housing beds per capita saw larger decreases in the homelessness rate,” researchers Magnus Lofstrom, Shannon McConville, and Sean Cremin stated in the report.

California’s homelessness rate has increased more than 60% since 2014, with unsheltered homelessness driving most of the growth. The state had the sixth-highest overall homelessness rate and the second-highest unsheltered homelessness rate among states in 2025.

Researchers found that counties with higher rents tended to have higher homelessness rates. But they did not find a statistically significant relationship between changes in homelessness and changes in local housing markets, poverty or unemployment.

The report also examined Proposition 47, the 2014 ballot measure that reclassified some drug and property offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. Researchers estimate that the law contributed to a roughly 10% increase in California’s unsheltered homelessness rate, equivalent to about 7,000 additional people experiencing unsheltered homelessness between 2015 and 2019.

The researchers also estimated that Prop. 47 was associated with a 7% to 8% increase in serious drug use, measured through overdose deaths, hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Drug treatment admissions fell by roughly 20%, largely because of fewer referrals from courts and criminal justice agencies.

“Our findings suggest that Prop 47 likely did contribute to rising rates of homelessness and drug overdoses, as well as declines in drug treatment,” the researchers stated.

The report cautions that the relationship between homelessness, drug use and criminal justice policy is complex. Researchers found no consistent evidence that California’s 2011 public safety realignment or pandemic-era reductions in incarceration affected homelessness or drug use.

They also emphasized the role of the criminal justice system in connecting vulnerable people with services.

“Jails and prisons serve as sources of shelter for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness,” the researchers stated in the report. They added that courts and criminal justice agencies can help connect people with the drug treatment they need.

California has made major investments in housing and behavioral health services in recent years. The researchers said state and local agencies should continue evaluating whether those investments are reaching people most at risk and whether newer policies, including Proposition 36, are effectively connecting people with treatment.

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

A California rule requiring an unrelated adult man living with a family receiving welfare benefits to contribute financially to the household could be repealed if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs Senate Bill (SB) 1030 into law.

Authored by Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles), SB 1030 would eliminate the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) “Unrelated Adult Male,” or UAM, rule. Smallwood-Cuevas called the policy “outdated” and “harmful,” saying it relies on gender stereotypes and subjects families to intrusive surveillance.

The Assembly approved the bill 77-0 on Aug. 19, followed by a 40-0 Senate concurrence vote five days later. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the measure.

“This is a law that helped divide our families. This is a rule that separated us from our mothers, fathers, and restricted men’s access to their families mainly because of the discriminatory practices of public housing systems back in the 1960s and 1970s,” said Smallwood-Cuevas, a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC).

Under Section 11351.5 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, an unrelated adult man living with a family applying for or receiving CalWORKs must make a financial contribution based on his income and expenses. He and the mother must disclose their household expense-sharing arrangement under penalty of perjury. Benefits may be discontinued if either person knowingly refuses to cooperate.

SB 1030 would repeal those requirements beginning July 1, 2027, or later if the state’s welfare computer system is not ready to implement the change.

Smallwood-Cuevas, a veteran journalist who has written about families relying on public assistance, said the law should be modernized as low-income households confront rising housing and food costs and broader economic uncertainty.

“We wanted to take that law off the books that limited men from being in the home with their families. We recognize Donald Trump is in the White House, and he will use all of the racist tools of the past to discriminate and surveil,” Smallwood-Cuevas told California Black Media (CBM).

Smallwood-Cuevas also told the Assembly Human Services Committee that SB 1030 was a priority of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.

“Historically, the man in the house rule was disproportionately applied to Black women, women of color, reflecting a broader racialized system of surveillance and negative stereotypes and narratives. We know that was embedded in some of our early welfare policies,” Smallwood-Cuevas said.

“Man-in-the-house” policies emerged from state welfare programs during the early and mid-20th century. They were later applied under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a federal assistance program established by the Social Security Act of 1935.

For decades, some state welfare agencies denied assistance to low-income families if an able-bodied man lived in or regularly visited the home, treating him as a substitute father whether he was legally or financially responsible for the children or not.

Smallwood-Cuevas compared the rule’s effect on Black families to the welfare policies depicted in the 1974 film “Claudine”, starring Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones.

“In this environment with unemployment rates, shutting down of industries that employ, particularly men in our communities, sometimes men can’t contribute financially, but that doesn’t mean they don’t contribute to our families,” she said. “These laws shouldn’t divide and separate our families, and this is what this rule has done for so many years.”

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

A California rule requiring an unrelated adult man living with a family receiving welfare benefits to contribute financially to the household could be repealed if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs Senate Bill (SB) 1030 into law.

Authored by Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles), SB 1030 would eliminate the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) “Unrelated Adult Male,” or UAM, rule. Smallwood-Cuevas called the policy “outdated” and “harmful,” saying it relies on gender stereotypes and subjects families to intrusive surveillance.

The Assembly approved the bill 77-0 on Aug. 19, followed by a 40-0 Senate concurrence vote five days later. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the measure.

“This is a law that helped divide our families. This is a rule that separated us from our mothers, fathers, and restricted men’s access to their families mainly because of the discriminatory practices of public housing systems back in the 1960s and 1970s,” said Smallwood-Cuevas, a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC).

Under Section 11351.5 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, an unrelated adult man living with a family applying for or receiving CalWORKs must make a financial contribution based on his income and expenses. He and the mother must disclose their household expense-sharing arrangement under penalty of perjury. Benefits may be discontinued if either person knowingly refuses to cooperate.

SB 1030 would repeal those requirements beginning July 1, 2027, or later if the state’s welfare computer system is not ready to implement the change.

Smallwood-Cuevas, a veteran journalist who has written about families relying on public assistance, said the law should be modernized as low-income households confront rising housing and food costs and broader economic uncertainty.

“We wanted to take that law off the books that limited men from being in the home with their families. We recognize Donald Trump is in the White House, and he will use all of the racist tools of the past to discriminate and surveil,” Smallwood-Cuevas told California Black Media (CBM).

Smallwood-Cuevas also told the Assembly Human Services Committee that SB 1030 was a priority of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.

“Historically, the man in the house rule was disproportionately applied to Black women, women of color, reflecting a broader racialized system of surveillance and negative stereotypes and narratives. We know that was embedded in some of our early welfare policies,” Smallwood-Cuevas said.

“Man-in-the-house” policies emerged from state welfare programs during the early and mid-20th century. They were later applied under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a federal assistance program established by the Social Security Act of 1935.

For decades, some state welfare agencies denied assistance to low-income families if an able-bodied man lived in or regularly visited the home, treating him as a substitute father whether he was legally or financially responsible for the children or not.

Smallwood-Cuevas compared the rule’s effect on Black families to the welfare policies depicted in the 1974 film “Claudine”, starring Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones.

“In this environment with unemployment rates, shutting down of industries that employ, particularly men in our communities, sometimes men can’t contribute financially, but that doesn’t mean they don’t contribute to our families,” she said. “These laws shouldn’t divide and separate our families, and this is what this rule has done for so many years.”

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California Legislature has sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a package of 15 bills authored by state Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, D-San Diego. The measures address health care, education, patient safety and consumer protections.

More specifically, they include legislation focused on early math intervention, health care costs, artificial intelligence, nutrition information and physician accountability. The measures now await Newsom’s signature.

“This package represents the kind of change I came to Sacramento to fight for, change that improves people’s lives in real and tangible ways,” said Weber Pierson. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and I’m ready to see these bills become law.”

Among the measures is SB 1067, which would require annual math assessments for students in kindergarten through second grade to identify learning difficulties early and provide evidence-based interventions. The bill passed both chambers unanimously.

SB 869 would require chain restaurants with at least 20 locations to display a clear warning next to beverages with high levels of added sugar, including on drive-through menus. SB 977 would require those restaurants to offer at least one children’s meal that meets expert nutrition standards if they already offer a kids’ menu.

The package also includes SB 503, which would require developers and deployers of clinical decision-support systems to identify and mitigate risks of biased impacts in health care artificial intelligence tools and monitor the systems after deployment.

Other measures would strengthen protections for patients and consumers. SB 849 would restrict physicians from seeking reinstatement of a surrendered medical license in certain sexual misconduct cases involving patients. SB 950 would seek to ensure timely access to FDA-approved treatments for Californians with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

The remaining bills address Medi-Cal behavioral health treatment, CPR and automated external defibrillator education, the consideration of increased building heights under state environmental law, health insurance rate transparency, medical claims, biosimilar drugs and other state policies.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California Legislature has sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a package of 15 bills authored by state Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, D-San Diego. The measures address health care, education, patient safety and consumer protections.

More specifically, they include legislation focused on early math intervention, health care costs, artificial intelligence, nutrition information and physician accountability. The measures now await Newsom’s signature.

“This package represents the kind of change I came to Sacramento to fight for, change that improves people’s lives in real and tangible ways,” said Weber Pierson. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and I’m ready to see these bills become law.”

Among the measures is SB 1067, which would require annual math assessments for students in kindergarten through second grade to identify learning difficulties early and provide evidence-based interventions. The bill passed both chambers unanimously.

SB 869 would require chain restaurants with at least 20 locations to display a clear warning next to beverages with high levels of added sugar, including on drive-through menus. SB 977 would require those restaurants to offer at least one children’s meal that meets expert nutrition standards if they already offer a kids’ menu.

The package also includes SB 503, which would require developers and deployers of clinical decision-support systems to identify and mitigate risks of biased impacts in health care artificial intelligence tools and monitor the systems after deployment.

Other measures would strengthen protections for patients and consumers. SB 849 would restrict physicians from seeking reinstatement of a surrendered medical license in certain sexual misconduct cases involving patients. SB 950 would seek to ensure timely access to FDA-approved treatments for Californians with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

The remaining bills address Medi-Cal behavioral health treatment, CPR and automated external defibrillator education, the consideration of increased building heights under state environmental law, health insurance rate transparency, medical claims, biosimilar drugs and other state policies.