Caucus News

Sacramento, CA:  Last week, 25th District State Senator Anthony J. Portantino personally delivered to Governor Brown thousands of signatures on the No 710 Tunnel petition, rolling out an impressive scroll of signatures that activists opposed to the freeway tunnel have been collecting for several years. 

SACRAMENTO – State Senator Henry Stern’s SB 756, which will provide restitution for mental health services to young sexual abuse victims, has been signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown after receiving unanimous approval from members of both the State Assembly and Senate. SB 756 is the freshman Senator’s first measure sent to the Governor and signed into law.

Sacramento – Sen. Bob Wieckowski’s (D-Fremont) bill to provide more transit-oriented developments and affordable housing near BART stations was signed today by Governor Jerry Brown. Senate Bill 680 is supported by affordable housing advocates throughout the Bay Area.

SB 680 extends the boundaries where BART can pursue commercial, residential or mixed-use development from a quarter mile to a half-mile of its stations.  The move is consistent with policies for other transit village developments in California.

SACRAMENTO - Today, Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 621 into law. Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) introduced SB 621 to make certain that part-time teachers in private schools receive their justly-deserved compensation at the same rate as full-time teachers.

“I am pleased that California teachers working part-time for private schools will receive fair pay,” said Bradford.

Sacramento, CA — Authored by Senator Anthony J.

LOS ANGELES (July 15, 2017) -- Sen. Holly J. Mitchell gets things rolling as she takes a turn or two (or three) in the rolling hamster cage, one of several activities offered during last weekend's Christmas in July event. For more, click HERE: (Photo by Charles Steward; video by Ray Sotero).

Sacramento, CA – The  State Senate voted unanimously today to adopt Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 55, authored by Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), to commemorate August 7, 2017 as “Purple Heart Day” in the state of California. “Purple Heart Day” honors the brave men and women who have been wounded or killed in battle. SCR 55 was adopted in the Senate with enthusiastic bipartisan support.

SACRAMENTO – Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, commended U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., for introducing federal legislation today aimed at encouraging states to replace money bail with pretrial risk assessments, as he has proposed in SB 10.

SACRAMENTO - Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management, will hold an informational hearing tomorrow titled: “California’s Next Mega-Quake: Assessing the State’s Preparedness and Response Strategy,” in the State Capitol, Room 3191, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The hearing is the first of a two-part series on mega-quakes – infrequent, large-magnitude earthquakes -- as well as state, regional, and local efforts to prepare and respond to such a quake.

Sacramento –  Today the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) to protect immigrants from irrelevant disclosures of their immigration status in open court. SB 785 requires that any discussion or questioning about the immigration status of any witness, victim, or defendant first be deemed by a judge to be relevant to the subject of the litigation.