Appeals Court Rejects Law Aimed At Raising Money For Cleaning Up Hazardous Spills, Saying It’s ‘Unfair’
The judges sided with the railroads who said that the law that charges trains for bringing oil into the state unfairly singles them out, while truckers bring in just as much and are exempt from the law.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Court Throws Out California Law Raising Money For Hazardous Cleanup
Rejecting a 2015 state law, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that California cannot charge railroads a $45-per-car fee for carrying crude oil, gasoline and other hazardous materials into the state to help pay for cleanup costs resulting from environmental accidents. The fee, part of a companion bill to the state budget, was intended to raise up to $10 million a year to pay for state and local emergency-response programs for spills of hazardous substances. (Egelko, 9/13)
In other news from the courts —
San Francisco Chronicle:
Daly City Family Sues Police In Death Of Man Held Down, Tased By Police In His Home
Family members of a 34-year-old man who died after getting tased by a police officer inside his home filed a civil suit Thursday against the Daly City Police Department, months after officers were cleared of wrongdoing, according to court records. Warren Ragudo, of Daly City, died in January from cardiopulmonary arrest roughly an hour after Officer Bruce Perdomo deployed his Taser to Ragudo’s lower back as two officers pressed him down with their weight, making it difficult for the already-handcuffed Ragudo to breathe, his family said in the suit. (Hernandez, 9/13)