California Update for Friday, March 16, 2018

Karen, a San Diego immigration activist who declined to give her last name because she is a DACA recipient, speaks at a news conference calling for universal health care in California at the state Capitol on Thursday, March 15, 2018.

Credit Ben Adler / Capital Public Radio

• California isn’t moving to a single-payer health care system anytime soon. So a coalition of liberal advocacy groups is calling for policy actions this year to achieve statewide universal coverage under California’s current health care system.

Two lawmakers, Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland introduced a bill this week to cut taxes on legal cannabis.

Credit Ezra David Romero / Capital Public Radio

• Lawmakers think the underground pot market is growing. That’s why a new bill would eliminate taxes on cultivating cannabis and drop the excise tax from 15 to 11 percent for three years.

Today's reporting by Ban Adler and Ezra David Romero.