Caucus News

Please note: The campus location of this event has been changed to the larger Performing Arts Center.

NAPA – Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa will host a town hall meeting Nov. 19 in Napa to discuss continued concern over wildfire safety and recent widespread electric power shutoffs by Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

“We must keep our communities safe, and the way PG&E has responded is unacceptable,” said Sen. Dodd. “I’m calling for fundamental change to the governance, control and oversight of the troubled utility.”

SELMA, CA – State Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), representing the 14th Senate District in California, which includes cities in Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, hosted a water roundtable discussion with state and local leaders on Tuesday, November 12 in Selma, California. Attended by more than 65 partners, community members presented a southern Central Valley perspective on the impacts of limited access to clean drinking water and water supplies utilized for irrigation purposes.

Senator Jerry Hill, as chair of the Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee, will hold an informational hearing on the impacts of legalized cannabis for adults on employment and the workplace. Stakeholders from the cannabis industry, labor and the employer community have been invited to participate.

State Senator Jerry Hill, as chair of the Subcommittee on Gas, Electric and Transportation Safety, and Senator Steven Glazer, as chair of the Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development, will hold a hearing in the Capitol on Friday on progress made by the California Underground Facilities Safe Excavation Board, better known as the Dig Safe Board, as it approaches its third year in operation.

SACRAMENTO – Responding to calls on Governor Gavin Newsom to convene the Legislature in an effort to address the current wildfire and utility power shut offs, Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) issued the following statement:

ORANGE COUNTY — Today, during National Veterans and Military Families Month, Senator Thomas J. Umberg, sent a letter to University of California, Berkeley Professor of Law John Yoo, requesting that the professor retract and apologize for defamatory comments made regarding U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Alex Vindman mad last week.

SACRAMENTO – California Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) issued the following statement following the announcement today that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement:

FREMONT – State Senator Bob Wieckowski, who attended the 2015 COP 21 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, today released the following statement after the Trump administration announced it was officially withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.  The decision makes the United States, the world’s second-largest emitter, the only country to abandon the Agreement. 

San Jose, Calif.  -- State Senator Jim Beall (D-15) and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo met today to discuss new state resources available to the City of San Jose to support its Public Safety Public Shutoff (PSPS) emergency response. The City incurred major costs while implementing imperative public safety and outreach efforts to ensure the security of residents during the initial and corresponding PSPS events. Now, $500,000 in state funds are available to reimburse the City of San Jose for these expenses.

SACRAMENTO –Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins issued the following statement in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement today regarding wildfires, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and public safety power shutoffs: