2016 Election Year Update New PAC Reporting and Disclaimer Requirements By Diane M. Fishburn, Lacey E. Keys and Emily A. Andrews Olson, Hagel & Fishburn LLP Time for a […] Read More
The Real Story: AB 953 and AB 71 Explained
Aaron Read and Randy Perry Legislative Advocates Aaron Read & Associates, LLC Tensions brought forth by high-profile incidents throughout the country have many groups calling for changes to the […] Read More
Reed/DeMaio Initiative Cleared for Signature Gathering
Aaron Read and Randy Perry Legislative Advocates Aaron Read & Associates, LLC Picture it. Decisions about your retirement future and security made by a disillusioned and misinformed electorate. Employer contributions […] Read More
Governor Takes Action on Hundreds of Bills
Aaron Read and Randy Perry Legislative Advocates Aaron Read & Associates, LLC The first half of the 2015-16 legislative session drew to a close at midnight on October 11, […] Read More
Legislature Recesses for 2015
After midnight on Friday, September 11, the Legislature wrapped up its work for the first half of the 2015-16 legislative session. As usual, both houses saved the most hotly debated […] Read More
Gov. Brown, veto these 5 bills!
The Legislature sent a pile of bills to Gov. Jerry Brown for his blessing this month, when it wrapped up its regular session for the year. If history is any guide, Brown will sign most of them, reserving his veto for only a few stinkers. These five bills ought to be among the rejects because they could cause real harm to the state and its inhabitants: Read More
New initiative would end California death penalty
The proposal would strike death as a possible punishment from the state’s Penal Code, substituting life imprisonment without parole where state law currently allows for the death penalty. Its proponent, actor Mike Farrell, would have 180 days from when the secretary of state’s office enters the measure into circulation to collect 365,880 signatures. Read More
California lawmakers approve bills to track racial profiling, police use of force
California lawmakers on Wednesday approved measures intended to shine a light on racial profiling and the use of force by police officers, a response to recent deadly, racially charged incidents in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo.
One proposal would require police officers to collect data on the people they stop, including perceived race and ethnicity.
“The time has come to have a clear conversation with law enforcement about what we as a society will no longer accept — and that’s racial profiling by those who indeed take an oath to protect and serve all of us fairly and equally,” said state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), who presented the bill in the Senate. Read More
Legislature Returns From Summer Recess
Aaron Read and Randy Perry Legislative Advocates Aaron Read & Associates, LLC On Monday, August 17, legislators returned from the summer recess and after a month off, they are […] Read More
Death of San Francisco woman leads to bill on deporting felons
Republican state lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation to restrict local law enforcement agencies from seeking custody of accused criminals scheduled for deportation, a response to the death of San Francisco woman allegedly killed by Mexican national who had been deported five times.
The measure, by Sen. Bob Huff (R- Diamond Bar) and Sen. Shannon Runner (R-Antelope Valley), would require a local enforcement agency to have an outstanding felony warrant for an individual before it could seek custody from federal immigration officials. The local agency also would be required to confirm that either the district attorney or attorney general planned to prosecute. Read More
Reed’s state pension reform measure would be financial disaster
Backers of an effort to slash the retirement of public servants got a stiff dose of reality this month when leaders of the state’s top public investment funds raised red flags about the plan that could be headed for the 2016 ballot.
They said the latest proposal on public pensions from former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio and former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed would undermine decades of labor law and collective bargaining precedent and threaten retirement security for tens of thousands of working families. Read More
Bill gives domestic violence victims control of cellphone
Speaker Toni Atkins, joining a San Diego protest in July of a meeting of the conservative American
Victims of domestic violence could have their wireless telephone service providers transfer their accounts from their abusers under a bill sent to the governor.
Assembly Bill 1407 by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would authorize family-law courts to issue orders requiring wireless telephone service providers to transfer the billing responsibility and telephone number to the victim. Read More
AM Alert: Hundreds of bills face life-or-death decisions
The Senate and Assembly appropriations committees will act on hundreds of bills Thursday, deciding whether or not to move costly measures to the house floors by a legislative deadline.
The bills have already passed their house of origin and have been sitting in the committees’ suspense files because they would cost the state a significant amount of money to implement. The hearings will be held after each house’s floor session. Read More
Officer Review of Body-Camera Footage Debated in the Assembly
April and May are typically two of the busiest months of the year for the California Legislature. Every bill must go through a policy committee (Public Safety, Judiciary or Health Committee, for example) before being heard in Appropriations Committee (if the bill has a price tag), and is then debated on the floor of its respective house. Read More