News Articles
Proposals to make financing clean energy production at individual homes and buildings first showed up in 2001 in San Francisco as a voter-approved solar bond program, and in 2005 in the Monterey Bay Regional Energy Plan.
These strategies were seen as a way to help property owners avoid up-front costs to install or retrofit energy-efficient or clean-energy equipment. But a 2010 decision at the federal level has prevented most homeowners from participating.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson’s (D-CA-5) bipartisan Philippines Charitable Giving Assistance Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously this week.
The legislation, H.R. 3771 provides expedited tax relief for Americans making charitable donations in support of Typhoon Haiyan recovery efforts in the Philippines.
President Barack Obama signed a bill Tuesday that allows taxpayers to get expedited tax credit for donations made to the Philippines typhoon recovery effort, Rep. Mike Thompson's office said.
The bill, initially co-sponsored by Thompson, D-St. Helena, and three other congressmen, allows taxpayers to claim a charitable deduction on their 2013 tax returns for donations made by April 15.
Taxpayers usually must wait until the following year to claim any deduction for charitable donations.
By Donna Beth Weilenman
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson has introduced alternative drought relief legislation that would provide $255 million in emergency appropriations and counters the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act that calls for pumping water south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Thompson’s bill, co-authored by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, is designed to help farmers, ranchers, businesses and communities affected by the drought in California and other Western states, Benicia’s representative said.
If you're old enough to remember 50-cents-a-gallon fuel, you probably recognize this advertising slogan: You can pay me now, or you can me later.
Cheap gas may be a thing of the past, but there's still a lot to be said for investing a little up front to avoid big expenses down the line.
Our subject today isn't advertising jingles or oil filters. It's the crushing social and monetary cost of incarceration and the comparatively small expense of breaking the cradle-to-prison pipeline.
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) on Thursday introduced comprehensive drought relief legislation he co-authored with Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-2) that will provide assistance to farmers and ranchers, businesses, and communities suffering from the record drought in California and other Western states.
Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman are urging President Barack Obama not to eliminate geothermal royalty payments totaling nearly $2 million a year to Sonoma and Lake counties.
Four other congressmen, including two Republicans, joined the call to preserve the payments, which amount to $2.2 million for eight California counties involved in steam power production.
With a stroke of his pen — six pens, actually — President Barack Obama turned a remote piece of the Mendocino Coast into a national destination Tuesday in an Oval Office ceremony that locals in attendance described as something right out of a dream.
By Donna Beth Weilenman
An auditorium packed Monday morning with Vallejo students of Jesse Bethel High School’s law academy, Advanced Placement government class and senior humanities class heard national and local officials say, “We need you.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, the Democrat who represents Benicia and Vallejo in California’s 5th U.S. House of Representatives district, introduced them to U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who has written the Youth Prison Reduction Through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education (Youth PROMISE) Act.
Rather than throwing the book at them if they commit crimes in their formative years, youth need to be steered into learning, instead, and into a path leading to college rather than prison.
Two congressmen voiced that sentiment Monday during a Town Hall forum held at Jesse Bethel High School. Attended by about 100 teens and other community members, the forum also touched on local violence and crime.