In California: Could a state prescription drug label help us save on healthcare?
It's Arlene Martínez, back from the East Coast to the Best Coast with Thursday's news.
But first, spotted off Dana Point, a baby whale doo doo doo doo doo doo swims next to his mommy whale doo doo doo doo doo doo.
In California is a roundup of stories from newsrooms across the Paste BN Network and beyond. Sign up for M-F delivery here!
Tell us about the women who inspire you
Farmworker organizer Dolores Huerta. Painter and furniture designer Ray Eames. Astronaut and engineer Ellen Ochoa. The designer of the 405/10 interchange, Marilyn Jorgenson Reece.
Those are some of the countless Golden State women who have blazed trails throughout California and across the globe. Making sure we don't miss all of the others is where you come in.
Throughout 2020, the Paste BN Network's 260 newsrooms will celebrate a milestone that changed the country a century ago: Women got the right to vote. Our project – Women of the Century – will go beyond history and, we hope, inspire women, girls and their allies to work toward a better America.
There will be interviews, live events designed to empower and enfranchise, stories that cover the movement’s victories and shortcomings, augmented reality experiences that bring alive the suffragists in their struggles and triumphs, and much more.
We'll use your input and the help of historians, scholars and other experts to highlight more than 500 women who have inspired us over the past 100 years. Nominate someone at usatoday.com/womenofthecentury.
I can't wait to hear about the women who have changed your lives.
A decade in housing ... will 2020 be different?
The decade in (no) housing: So little supply, because that's how people want it.
Ronald Reagan was president the last time a major project came to the Ventura Harbor. Be a part of it (albeit at 580 square feet a small part) for just $2,205 per month.
(OPINION) California spent the decade soaring — has it flown out of reach?
The green scooter company not seeing green
Remember when e-scooters were seemingly everywhere, plopping onto streets and sidewalks overnight? Like, literally, that's what happened. Now, the companies are dropping something else — employees.
On Thursday, Lime became the latest mobility device company to announce it would lay off 100 employees, or 14% of its workforce, Axios reported. That followed job cuts at Bird, Scoot, Lyft and Skip. Hurting them are challenges including regulation (like outright bans), expensive capital costs and competition in a saturated market.
Lime is leaving 12 markets, including San Diego, where residents quickly organized to sharply curtail the presence of all e-scooters.
But before you go breathing a sigh of relief they're gone (if you're in that camp), you better hold off on popping the cork. "We’re very confident that in 2020, Lime will be the first next-generation mobility company to be profitable," Lime President Joe Kraus told Axios.
What else we're talking about
Watch (possibly live!) for a bald eagle egg to become Big Bear Lake's newest resident.
San Francisco swears in Paul Miyamoto as the first Asian-American sheriff in California history.
"Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" star saves a drowning man. No, not with a raft.
Ho, ho, ho, Green Giant: A Salinas company acquires the rights to GG's fresh veggies line.
As Australia's blazes rage, one NorCal firefighter is helping in the effort.
California's very own prescription drug label
The Golden State could create its own prescription drug label to help drive down rising healthcare costs under a proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to release as part of his state budget. It if happens, California would be the first state to have its own generic drug label.
The proposal could boost competition, which would lower prices for everyone, the governor's office said.
"Prescription drug prices are too high. I’m proposing that California become the first state in the nation to establish its own generic drug label," Newsom tweeted on Thursday. "It’s time to take the power out of the hands of greedy pharmaceutical companies."
In recent years, the price of some generic drugs has soared. A month supply of clomipramine, an antidepressant, recently spiked 2,075%.
Healthcare costs have shot up in general. Today, a typical family of four spent as much annually on health coverage as the cost of buying a Harley-Davidson, a recent analysis of rising health care costs found.
Premiums and out-of-pocket costs reached $7,726 in 2018 for those with employer-provided coverage.
That'll do it for today. Don't forget to nominate the Golden State trailblazer who has inspired you to do and be who you are today!
In California is a roundup of news from across Paste BN Network newsrooms. Also contributing: CNN, Axios, Los Angeles Times.