http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/us/california-today-plastic-bags-voters.html 2016-09-23 13:56:39 California Today: Should We Ban Plastic Bags? Friday: Settling the plastic bag issue, a leaning tower in San Francisco, and the best place to raise a family in the state. === Good morning. Welcome to California Today, a Tell us about the Want to receive California Today by email? The plastic bag wars, after years in the trenches, are now coming to a head. Voters will get the final word in November on making California the first state to prohibit the bags at grocery checkout lines. Two ballot measures, both But the law was delayed before it could be enacted in 2015, when a group of bag manufacturers gathered signatures to put Proposition 67, an up-or-down referendum, on the ballot. “Yes” keeps the ban. “No” kills it. Ban supporters say the billions of plastic bags used by Californians are a menace, clogging sewers and polluting habitats. They are the fourth most common item collected during the California Coastal Commission’s annual cleanup events. Still, opponents of the ban argue that plastic bags account for Among their other arguments: the paper bag fee hurts the poor, and jobs would be killed by a sudden evaporation of bag sales. “Not only is it affecting jobs, it’s over junk science,” said Phil Rozenski, policy chairman for the American Progressive Bag Alliance. Then there’s Proposition 65, which would divert revenue from the 10-cent bag fees to an environmental fund. You might think many green groups would like that. They don’t. Critics say it is a maneuver intended to discredit the statewide ban by portraying the fees as a windfall for supermarkets. According to the The outcome in November will depend in part on shifting public attitudes. At least 150 California communities have taken steps to limit plastic bags since 2007, when Many shoppers, who may have bristled at first, have grown used to the idea of reusable bags, advocates say. “People are realizing we never needed so many bags in the first place,” said Mark Murray, the executive director of See more reporting in The Times on the November ballot: To dig deeper, check out analyses of the measures by the • In San Francisco, the • • A food critic chose the 30 most important • Facing a wave of Haitian migrants at the • A report shows how • Sunnyvale-based Yahoo said account information of • A man who • Half of • A report described a “toxic” working environment at • A mother’s Alzheimer’s has redefined baseball glory for her • Wallethub, a personal finance site, ranked the • Meet the San Francisco is putting a lot of hope in This year, the mayor appointed Mr. Kositsky, 50, to lead a new homelessness department to help the nearly 7,000 people living on the city’s streets. On Thursday, he made Some of the highlights: On On On what the On See more of the conversation California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley