Lawmakers want to ban e-bikes for kids
Tomo Chien
February 14, 2024
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m looking at this handy California voter guide with key election dates and information about every ballot measure and candidate for U.S. Congress and the state Legislature. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
California lawmakers want to ban kids from riding e-bikes. Two separate bills take different approaches: One would bar anybody under 12 from operating an e-bike and require people without a drivers license to pass a safety course, while the other would set an age minimum of 16 to operate a bike capable of going over 20 mph. Kids dying in e-bike crashes have made headlines in the past, but the data shows that they’re actually less likely to get into crashes than adults. “Before we get to the state of saying who can ride an e-bike or not, we need to be sure this is a real problem,” said one advocate who opposes both bills.
2.
If you’re planning to DoorDash a romantic meal or take a Lyft to your date tonight, make sure you have a backup plan. Some drivers for Uber, Lyft and DoorDash plan to stage a multi-city work stoppage today to demand higher compensation and more pay transparency. The gig workers, of course, aren’t unionized, so it’s not entirely clear how disruptive the walkout will be. An Uber spokesperson said previous stoppages haven’t impacted services at all, and last year’s Valentine’s Day strike actually saw an increase in trips.
3.
Donald Trump launched into an online diatribe against Rep. Adam Schiff, the leading candidate for California’s U.S. Senate seat, calling him a “SLIMEBALL,” “PENCIL NECK” and “LOWLIFE” who’ll screw over California after winning what he implied will be a fraudulent election. Good for him. But Trump notably still hasn’t endorsed Steve Garvey, the former LA Dodgers star who’s the only Republican in the race. It might have something to do with the fact that Garvey has been cagey about whether he’ll vote for Trump a third time come November — he called it a “personal” decision when pressed in the first Senate debate — and it’s not even clear whether he’d accept such an endorsement.
4.
Police safely recovered the 4-year-old boy whose abduction was broadcast on an AMBER Alert last night, but the suspect is still at large. The boy, Justin Chan, was in the backseat of his father’s car, which he left running while dropping off a DoorDash delivery in Long Beach. The suspect then hopped into the driver’s seat and drove off, later being spotted by two good Samaritans who phoned the authorities. By the time officers found the car, the suspect had fled and Chan was unharmed.
5.
The FBI is seeking “any and all documents” from Napa County related to some of the region’s most famous wineries, but it’s not clear why. The one notable connection that the 40 individuals and businesses share is that they have ties to embattled county supervisor Alfredo Pedroza, who was at the center of a yearslong controversy when he voted to approve a vineyard that could’ve benefited his father-in-law’s adjacent property without disclosing the conflict of interest. One vintner said he was “baffled” and “mad as hell” that his name is listed in connection with an FBI investigation — “unless I’ve done something wrong that I don’t know about.”