Bills that got the ax included a handful of high-profile crime measures:
Sexual violence: A bill by Senate GOP leader Brian Jones of San Diego would have ensured that public safety is a priority for the State Department of State Hospitals when considering the conditional release of sexually violent predators. After it was nixed, Jones said that Assembly Democratic leaders are “now complicit in helping the Newsom Administration protect these predators over families.”
After the appropriations committees finished, more than 500 bills are still alive. But these measures still must get final legislative approval by Aug. 31 to head to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Among the proposals that did survive:
Reparations: Three bills, including Senate Bill 1403 to create the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency, which would supervise state reparations programs.
Youth treatment: Expands reporting requirements for state-run facilities that treat young adults over the use of restraints and “seclusion rooms.” In response to its passage out of the appropriations committee, media personality Paris Hilton, a proponent of the bill , says it is critical “to hold these facilities accountable and increase transparency.”
A couple of bills were also pulled by legislators before the hearings even began:
Ethnic studies: A bill to expand disclosure requirements for school districts when implementing ethnic studies courses was held by the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California. The organizations said the bill was narrowed so much that it couldn’t ensure antisemitic and anti-Israel content would not appear in ethnic studies curricula. The groups plan on introducing “something stronger next year.”
Metal shredding: Establishes more streamlined regulations by the Department of Toxic Substances Control for metal shredding facilities , which are critical for recycling the material. Democratic Sen. Ben Allen of El Segundo shelved his bill because it “would benefit from more time to hear more from all interested parties.”
Newsom is directing the California Energy Commission to require companies to keep a minimum stock of fuel inventory after a watchdog division found that as supplies drop when refineries shut down for maintenance, prices and company profits increase.
Newsom , in a statement : “Price spikes at the pump are profit spikes for Big Oil. Refiners should be required to plan ahead … instead of playing games to earn even more profits.”
The commission could impose fines for companies that do not draft resupply plans or maintain enough fuel inventory. The governor estimates that if this rule had been in place last year, Californians would have saved at least $650 million at the pump.
But Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president and chief executive officers of the Western States Petroleum Association, says Newsom’s plan shows “an utter lack of understanding about our industry” and that to impose new operational rules based on “such falsehoods is regulatory malpractice.”
The proposal also won’t make pump prices go down any time soon, since it will need to be negotiated with the Legislature first. The energy commission will then embark on a formal rulemaking process involving public feedback to iron out the details. This can take several months, though a commission spokesperson said it is “committed to working as quickly as possible to put the rules in place to help protect consumers from price spikes.”
Speaking of oil companies: A 2022 law on where oil and gas wells can go has not been implemented yet. And it may be delayed as long as four more years due to a last-minute bill , writes CalMatters environmental reporter Julie Cart .
The law bans new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of residential areas, and requires safety measures at existing wells, including leak detection. After it passed, oil companies poured millions into a ballot measure to overturn it, essentially blocking the law during that period. The industry withdrew the measure in June , but due to cost, the trailer bill could still delay oil industry deadlines to comply with some regulations for 12 to 54 months.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez , a Long Beach Democrat and author of the original law, said the new proposal was very frustrating: “There has been so much work put into this. We owe it to these communities to stick to our word.”
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey (left) and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff. Photos by NewsNation and Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff’s support has solidified over Republican Steve Garvey in California’s U.S. Senate race as the Democratic majority takes hold.
That’s according to a new poll out Thursday from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Los Angeles Times. Schiff leads 53% to 33% among likely voters, compared to 53% to 38% before the March primary, which also included two other high-profile Democrats.
There’s a deep partisan divide: Schiff leads 84% to 5% among Democrats, while Garvey leads 88% to 3% among the fewer number of Republicans. Reminder: Of the 22.1 million registered voters , 46% are Democrats, 25% are Republicans and 22% are listed as “no party preference.”
Looking back to 2020: California wasn’t immune from election denial. But on Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the November 2020 results and seeking to declare the state’s vote-by-mail system to be unconstitutional. The Election Integrity Project unsuccessfully claimed that some voters were harmed because some invalid mail ballots were counted.
The ruling: “A vote dilution claim requires a showing of disproportionate voting power for some voters over others, and plaintiffs have not made — and could not make—that showing based on the facts alleged.”
Two views of Prop. 5 , the November ballot measure that would lower the voting threshold for local borrowing for affordable housing and infrastructure:
Prop. 5 would essentially allow local governments to increase property taxes whenever they want, writes Susan Shelley , vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Prop. 5 will remove some barriers faced by local governments when borrowing money for housing projects to make California more affordable, writes Jesse Arreguin , the mayor of Berkeley.
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