Caucus News

Sacramento, CA – Two State Senators who chair the key committees focused on housing and housing financing legislation in the Senate are partnering on two critically important legislative hearings this fall.

Senator Jim Beall, Chair of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee and Senator Mike McGuire, Chair of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee will hold the first of two hearings this Tuesday, in the Capitol.

SACRAMENTO – California will become the first state in the nation to give small business owners the same protections that Truth in Lending laws have given consumer borrowers for more than half a century, under legislation signed Sunday by Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Senate Bill 1235 by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, will require lenders and other finance companies to provide clear and consistent disclosures to small business owners when they offer them financing and when they close a deal.

State Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, members of the Surfrider Foundation and their attorneys hold a news conference on a key victory in the fight to restore public access to Martins Beach: The U.S. Supreme Court this morning declined to hear the case of the Silicon Valley billionaire who wants to keep Martins Beach to himself.

Governor Brown signed legislation Sunday night by state Senator Jerry Hill to require that an automated external defibrillator – the emergency device better known as an AED – is installed in high-occupancy structures that undergo significant modifications, renovations or tenant improvements.

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Brown today signed research-based criminal justice reforms to improve rehabilitation and reduce the odds of re-offending.

Senate Bill 1391 prohibits 14- and 15-year-olds from being tried as adults in criminal court and subsequently sent to adult prison. The bill reverses laws passed in the 1990s that allowed for sentencing the youngest teens to the adult criminal justice system.

Sacramento, CA — Today Governor Brown signed SB 1437, Senator Nancy Skinner’s (D-Berkeley) historic fix to California’s felony murder rule. SB 1437 narrows the definition of felony murder so that individuals are charged appropriately for the crime they actually commit.

Sacramento, CA — Today Governor Brown signed SB 1421, Senator Nancy Skinner’s (D-Berkeley) legislation that will, for the first time in 40 years, lift the block California has had in place denying public access to any and all police records. SB 1421 opens access to a limited set of investigatory records related to law enforcement use of serious force, on-the-job sexual assault, and dishonesty.

SACRAMENTO – Earlier today, Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) issued the following statement after Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB 1449:

SACRAMENTO – Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) issued the following statement after Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB 320 earlier today:

SACRAMENTO – Today, Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1152, authored by Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., (D-West Covina), which will provide statewide policy to ensure for a more humane process for discharging homeless patients after their hospital stay.