California Senate

Legislation aimed at regulating controversial Buy Here Pay Here used-car dealers, which charge steep interest rates and are quick to repossess vehicles, was approved by the state Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee. The bill, by Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), classifies the dealerships, which finance most of their own sales, as state-regulated lenders. "This bill regulates an unregulated industry," Lieu said. The bill cleared the committee on a party-line vote Wednesday, with five Democrats voting aye and two Republicans nay. The proposal now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee and then to the Senate floor.

"Not every human problem deserves a law," Gov. Jerry Brown said when vetoing a bill last year, and while we may take issue with his choices of what to sign and what to reject, we believe he was definitely on to something. California is better off today because of only a handful of smart laws adopted each year; as for the rest — perhaps 2,000 in each two-year session of the Legislature — we could probably do just fine without them. The truckload of bills from lawmakers is in part a result of the state's development over time of an odd political structure.

Republican activists trying to overturn new state Senate districts began filing signed petitions Thursday for a California-wide referendum on the issue. Referendum proponents, calling themselves Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting (FAIR), have until Sunday to file the minimum 504,000 signatures needed to get the matter on the November 2012 ballot. FAIR charges that the maps, drawn for the first time by a citizens commission instead of the Legislature, bear "trademarks of gerrymandering" to favor Democrats.

Under fire for spending $111,316 in taxpayer funds to feed themselves this year, state senators have decided to end the practice. All members of the upper house will be billed $2,000 a year to pay for stocking the coffee room and to cover their meal expenses when sessions extend into the lunch or dinner hour, said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). The five-member Senate Rules Committee, which Steinberg chairs, voted Tuesday to implement the new system.

It was 12:18 a.m. when Joe Simitian took the microphone on the floor of the California Senate, demanding the attention of bleary-eyed fellow lawmakers in the final moments of this year's legislative session. "Members," said the Palo Alto Democrat, "this is a gut and amend. " A few hours earlier, using an obscure parliamentary procedure, the senator had carved the contents out of a bill about local gas taxes and "amended" it into a proposal to warn women about breast cancer risks.

A bill that would allow California officials to regulate health insurance rates for millions of consumers has died in the Legislature after forceful lobbying campaigns by insurers, healthcare providers and other groups. Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) said he is pulling his measure, AB52, because he could not muster a majority of votes in the state Senate, the final stop in a months-long effort to increase state regulators' authority over health insurance premiums. Feuer said he is putting his bill on hold until next year, when it can be taken up again.

The state Senate on Tuesday voted to restrict cities' ability to impound cars driven by people caught at sobriety checkpoints without driver's licenses. The action came as a direct response to the city of Bell, which made it a practice to confiscate vehicles from unlicensed motorists — many of them illegal immigrants — and then charge high impound fees or sell them in order to fill city coffers. Currently, cities can hold cars taken from unlicensed drivers for 30 days, with impound fees accruing each day. If unclaimed, the vehicles may then be auctioned off, something that often happens when fines and fees exceed the car's value.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez will push forward in his bid to disband the city of Vernon despite a loss of support in the state Senate this week, his spokesman said. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) plans to bring the disincorporation bills up for a final vote before the Legislature's session ends Sept. 9, spokesman John Vigna said Friday. The city of about 100 residents has been dogged by a series of corruption scandals and Pérez argues that it lacks an independent electorate. Earlier this week, state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles)

A bill to outlaw shark fin, the main ingredient in a traditional Chinese soup, now moves to the California Senate floor, where a vote is expected within the next few weeks. A bill to outlaw shark fin, the main ingredient in a traditional Chinese soup, cleared a key hurdle Thursday when it passed a state Senate committee. The bill, which would ban the sale, trade and possession of shark fins in the state, has been championed by conservation groups as a way to curb their harvest, a practice that has contributed to the sharp decline of shark populations worldwide.

In a major victory for immigrant advocates, a key state Senate committee cleared the most significant obstacle to a bill that would give college students who are illegal immigrants access to public aid for the first time. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the final part of a two-bill package known as the California Dream Act, which would allow students who qualify for reduced in-state tuition to apply for an estimated $40 million in Cal Grants, community college fee waivers, and other public scholarship and grant programs.