PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
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VOL. 33, N0. 29
JULY 19, 2019
SAN MARCOS Independent -NEWS
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contractor bill advances By Steve Horn
— which is now to resume after the agency received a go-ahead from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The utility has loaded 29 canisters thus far. Edison Public Information Officer John Dobken estimated the process could be complete as early as the first quarter of next year. Community members have generally agreed that the spent fuel should
REGION — A bill THE which could reshape independent contract labor, and VISTA the CaliforniaNEWS economy atlarge, advanced on July 10 in the California Senate. The bill, Assembly Bill 5, passed in the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee. It did so with new amended language, including limiting the number of times freelance work journalists, writers and others RANCHO who “provide content” to up to 25 times per year. SFNEWS The amended provision also mandates that those content providers get to pick both the location and hours of their work, while calling for them to receive at least twice the amount of the minimum wage in completing it. Once the 25 pieces of content are complete — with “content” left undefined as a concept — that worker would have to receive at least part-time employee status. The bill’s sponsor, Assembly Appropriations Chair and Latino Caucus Chair Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), attended and spoke at the hearing preceding the AB 5 vote and praised its committee passage. “If you feel like an employee, if you work for a company and do their business, guess what? You’re an employee. Pretty basic, right?” said Gonzalez at a rally with union workers outside the California State Capitol after AB 5’s pas-
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CATCH A WAVE John Luff and his pup, Rocko, dive in June 14 at the first of the Helen Woodward Animal Center Dog Surf Lessons at Del Mar Dog Beach. The series of lessons are set to get beach-loving pups surf-ready for HWAC’s “Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon,” set for Sept. 8. STORY ON PAGE A8. Courtesy photo
Council supports resolutions for spent fuel storage By Lexy Brodt
SOLANA BEACH — After a 2.5-hour discussion among council members and local activists at a July 10 meeting, Solana Beach City Council opted to strengthen a resolution regarding the dry storage of spent fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). With a 4-1 vote, the council voiced its support for loading the waste into thick-walled casks — a storage option that has been debated and disput-
ed among council members and the community at large. The council also supported best storage practices, round-the-clock safety managers on site, improved handling practices, relocating the material away from the shoreline and fault line, and developing a comprehensive evacuation plan. Much of the 3.6 million pounds of spent fuel at San Onofre is currently sitting in cooling pools on the site, awaiting transfer to dry
storage. The site’s operator, Southern California Edison, is in the process of loading the rods into thin-walled canisters to be stored in cement chambers — a storage solution meant to keep the fuel safe until a long-term storage option becomes available further away from the shoreline. After what many have called a “near-miss” accident in August in which a canister become stuck as it was loaded into a cement storage cavity, community members rallied in
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outrage over the loading process. The incident fueled a growing distrust in Edison and the decommissioning process, and drew criticism from local groups such as the Samuel Lawrence Foundation. As Mike Levin described in a recent letter to the chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “these incidents still loom large in the consciousness of my constituents who live near SONGS.” Edison halted loading
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