On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1418 by Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), a bill that directly improves defenses against election interference in California. SB 1418 builds on Senate Bill 73, which the Governor signed into law earlier this year, by extending many of the chain-of-custody protections for voted ballots in that bill to other forms of election records. To provide these protections for the November midterm elections, SB 1418 includes an urgency clause that allows its provisions to take effect immediately. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sponsored the bill.

Senator Jesse Arreguin celebrates the approval of vital funding after campaigning to convert the former horse racetrack into a regional park

Senator Wiener authored legislation requiring kill switches in 2024 and worked with the Governor to pass SB 53, the nation’s first AI safety law, in 2025.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Governor Newsom issued an executive order to strengthen the state’s response to recent rogue AI attacks, including the Hugging Face attack. The executive order advances, among other things, a proposal to require AI companies to build “kill switches,” or emergency shutdowns, into advanced AI models in case something goes wrong.

SACRAMENTO – Thousands of licensed mental health professionals have signed a letter (attached) urging Governor Gavin Newsom to sign Senate Bill (SB) 903, authored by Senator Steve Padilla. This bill would protect individuals seeking therapy or psychotherapy services by prohibiting the advertisement of AI chatbots as “therapy” and setting common sense guardrails for AI use in mental health treatment. SB 903 passed the Senate unanimously and the Assembly with bipartisan support by a vote of 71 to 4 and now awaits Governor Newsom’s signature into law.

Sacramento, California — (September 16, 2026) — Governor Gavin Newsom has signed SB 1322, authored by State Senator Laura Richardson (D South Bay), into law, marking a significant expansion of California’s tribal housing grant program and opening new pathways for sovereign tribal nations to secure critical housing resources.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Senate Bill 1276, the End Child Exploitation Act, authored by Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), legislation to protect children from sexual exploitation by clarifying that it is a crime to knowingly watch a livestream of a sexually exploited minor. SB 1276 closes a loophole that allowed predators to evade accountability for knowingly viewing the sexual exploitation of children through livestreaming platforms.

Senator Maria Elena Durazo, Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez, & Mayor Bass are calling on Governor Newsom to sign AB 817 and SB 716, holding corporations accountable.

SB 1048 earns bipartisan support, heads to Governor’s desk

Bores, Didech and Wiener propose independently verified agreement to pace frontier AI development
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The lawmakers behind the country’s three strongest state-level frontier AI safety laws—Senator Scott Wiener (CA), Assemblymember. Alex Bores (NY), and Rep. Daniel Didech (IL)—today called on leading AI companies to establish an independently verified agreement to pace the development of increasingly powerful models until safety research catches up.

Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) announced the launch of the Historic South LA Black Cultural District’s Featured Destinations program with a culinary crawl held this week in the Windsor Hills neighborhood of South Los Angeles. The new program spotlights local businesses, artists, organizations and cultural spaces—creating new opportunities for residents and visitors to discover, experience and support the people and places that make the Black Cultural District unique.