Santa Clara County supervisors have passed a ban on plastic bags that will go into effect Jan. 1 in unincorporated areas of the county.
The ban is the fifth to be passed in the United States this year.
The board said the measure will affect 56 retailers who hand out an estimated 32,000 plastic bags annually. There is an exemption for plastic newspaper bags and for restaurants, non-profit groups and social organizations that hand out plastic bags. The ban also will require that retailers charge at least 15 cents for paper bags in an effort to influence shoppers to use reusable bags.
The ban was passed by a 4-1 vote with board member Mike Wasserman — the former mayor of Los Gates — dissenting. There was no opposition to the bill at the April 26 hearing.
In Oregon, a bill that would ban plastic bags and require retailers to charge five cents for paper bags is currently stalled in the Senate Rules Committee after passing out of the Senate Environmental and Natural Resources Committee last week.
Earlier this month, Newport Beach declined to enact a bag on plastic bags, citing potential litigation issues.
Twenty U.S. communities in the U.S. have plastic bag bans, and Washington, D.C., has a 5-cent fee on paper and plastic carryout bags.
Christie's auction house says Wednesday the boxy black leather Asprey bag will be sold on June 27 at an auction hosted by author Jeffrey Archer.
The bag was on Thatcher's arm during Cold War negotiations with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The former Conservative leader was famously responsible as the origins of the word "handbagging," which referred to her uncompromising style.
The auction house says Thatcher has selected to donate the proceeds of the sale to a British charity working with people with a genetic skin condition.
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