Why CalPERS is being pushed to divest from Tesla

Elon Musk, the tech mogul who runs Tesla, mentioned in December that range, fairness and inclusion efforts “must die.” Now, two civil rights teams are calling for the nation’s largest public pension fund to divest from the electrical automobile maker.

On Wednesday, LatinoJustice and the Nationwide Institute for Staff’ Rights despatched a letter to State Controller Malia Cohen pushing for the California Public Staff’ Retirement System to do away with its Tesla holdings, arguing that the corporate’s values are “misaligned,” and that Musk’s claims that selling range is as morally mistaken as racism is “indefensible.” Cohen is a board member of CalPERS, which had $530 billion in property as of Tuesday.

• The letter: “In the face of continued occupational segregation and wage disparities by race, national origin, and gender, DEI efforts are an economic and social imperative. California’s public sector workforce is incredibly diverse, with 60% of civil service employees in the state being non-white.”

The letter additionally cited Tesla’s $3.2 million March settlement to a Black former worker who accused the corporate of racial discrimination for instance of its “troubling values.” The settlement got here a month after Tesla dropped prior language from its regulatory filings that supported worker useful resource teams and fostering range.

A spokesperson mentioned CalPERS is reviewing the letter.

• The emailed assertion: “These are serious issues. … CalPERS believes that the employees of every company in which we invest have the right to a safe and healthy work environment, one in which their fundamental human rights are respected.”

In June CalPERS voted towards a $46 billion compensation package deal that Tesla finally rewarded Muskcalling it “exorbitant,” whereas agreeing that Musk “is entitled to be well compensated for his work.”

However pushing for the pension fund to divest is a tall ask: CalPERS is considered one of Tesla’s high shareholders. It owned practically 9.2 million Tesla shares as of June, which might be value greater than $2 billion, based mostly on Wednesday’s inventory value.

Different campaigns for divestment have additionally failed. After calls from local weather activists, labor unions and different advocacy teams, the state Legislature thought of a invoice that will have directed CalPERS and the California State Academics’ Retirement System (the second largest public pension fund within the U.S.) to divest from fossil gasoline corporations.

CalPERS efficiently opposed the measurearguing that divesting would do little to cut back greenhouse emissions and that fossil gasoline corporations can merely substitute CalPERS with new traders.

However CalPERS has divested from corporations in Sudan for the nation’s function within the Darfur genocide and in Iran for sponsoring terrorism. It additionally bought off a few of its holdings within the coal and tobacco industries, in addition to the gun business after the Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty mass taking pictures.

Election Day in California is extra like election month — or two months.

Right here’s your reminder why: All 22 million registered voters ought to have obtained their mail ballots final week and early voting websites opened Oct. 7, a few month earlier than Nov. 5.

And it might take so long as a month after Nov. 5 for winners to be declared in some very shut races.

The lengthy wait is a supply of frustration for voters and candidates alikeand has fed conspiracy theories. But it surely’s the product of mail ballots and the additional time allowed for them to be counted and verified (they will arrive as late as Nov. 12, so long as they’re postmarked by Nov. 5).

The deadline for county election officers to certify the election outcomes is Dec. 5. However they’re already reporting what number of early votes have arrived.

As of Wednesday, about 600,000 ballots had been returned, considerably lower than on the similar level in 2020 or 2022, in accordance with the Political Information tracker. Election professional Paul Mitchell cautions, nonetheless, to not learn an excessive amount of into the early numberstogether with what number of by celebration in districts.

He says the early returns shouldn’t be used to foretell winners and losers due to a number of components: The mechanics of how every county processes ballots, modifications in voter attitudes and variations in messaging by Democrats and Republicans about voting by mail.

• Mitchellon social media: “There’s plenty to learn from early vote, but it isn’t meant to predict outcomes … maybe someday all the processes will be standardized and we will have enough elections to compare … but that’s not true today.”

Talking of the election, let’s get into some marketing campaign information:

U.S. Senate money race: CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu writes that for the second quarter in a row, Republican Steve Garvey has outraised Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff in California’s U.S. Senate race, however entered October with much less cash available, the most recent federal filings present.

Garvey — who has largely run a low-key marketing campaign with a deal with fundraising — raised $5.9 million between July and September, in accordance with marketing campaign finance reviews filed Tuesday. His marketing campaign spent a complete $5.4 million throughout the identical interval, together with no less than $1.2 million in promoting and media manufacturing. He additionally paid his son, Ryan Garvey, $22,500 in wages, totaling nearly $50,000 all through the cycle, information reveals.

Schiff, compared, raised $5.5 million and spent $2 million throughout the three-month interval, however entered October with $10 million within the financial institution — nearly 3 times the $3.8 million Garvey had by the top of September. He additionally raised $7 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid and Democrats in different battleground races, his marketing campaign mentioned Wednesday.

Between April 1 and June 30, Garvey outraised Schiff by about $1 million.

Proposition 6 in bother?: Regardless of no formal opposition marketing campaign, the statewide poll measure to restrict pressured jail labor nonetheless might failwrites CalMatters California Native Information Fellow Joe Garcia.

A September ballot by the Public Coverage Institute of California discovered that half of doubtless voters oppose Prop. 6. One purpose could possibly be Prop. 36one other poll measure with broad public help that seeks to extend penalties for sure drug and theft crimes. Assemblymember Lori Wilsonthe Suisun Metropolis Democrat who authored the invoice behind Prop. 6, mentioned Prop. 36 could possibly be influencing folks’s impressions of Prop. 6 and is “messing with the numbers out there.”

Be taught extra about Prop. 6’s struggles in Joe’s story.