Laws

A watered-down resolution calling for Congress to "repair" the nation's "historically broken" immigration laws won bipartisan support by the state Senate on Monday. The Senate voted 32 to 0 to support Senate Joint Resolution 8 by Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana). The measure originally called for illegal immigrants to have access to "a logical and streamlined path to citizenship," but it was changed to provide that path for "individuals after they gain legal status. " The resolution also originally said: "This reform should also include a way to help families remain together throughout the lengthy bureaucratic process," but that provision was removed.

WASHINGTON - While Congress debates proposals for tighter gun regulation, the Supreme Court is weighing whether to consider striking down state laws that strictly limit who can carry a gun in public. When the justices ruled in 2008 and 2010 that the 2nd Amendment gave people a right to keep firearms in their homes, it did not address whether they had a right to carry weapons outside the home. Gun rights advocates have asked the court to strike down New York's law allowing officials to deny "concealed carry" permits to gun owners unless they can show a "special need for self-protection.

HOUSTON -- Authorities in North Texas searched the homes of a former justice of the peace and his relatives Friday in connection with the killings of a local district attorney, his wife and a top prosecutor. Eric Williams, a former justice of the peace in Kaufman County, was convicted last year of stealing county equipment in a case prosecuted by slain Kaufman County Dist. Atty. Mike McLelland and Assistant Dist. Atty. Mark Hasse. Williams is appealing the conviction. McLelland, 63, was found shot to death at his home near Forney, Texas, about 20 miles east of Dallas on March 30 along with his wife Cynthia, 65. Hasse, 57, was shot and killed on his way to work outside the county courthouse Jan. 31 in Kaufman, about 30 miles southeast of Dallas.

California needs to strengthen regulation of hydraulic fracturing, according to a UC Berkeley Law School report that identified a number of shortcomings in state oversight of the controversial practice. Although not new to California, fracking has come under increasing scrutiny recently as states such as Pennsylvania and New York experience a boom in the technique, which involves the high-pressure injection of chemical-laced fluids into the ground to crack rock formations and extract oil and gas. Environmental concerns center on potential groundwater contamination from fracking fluids and disposal of saline wastewater.

The family of a Bay Area 15-year-old who killed herself after photos circulated of her alleged sexual assault hope to bring about tougher legislation on cyberbullying, their attorney said Friday. "Audrie's Law" would also seek to strengthen laws on sexual assault to ensure adolescent suspects are tried as adults, attorney Robert Allard told The Times. "Her parents really want something positive to come from something like this," Allard said. On Thursday, authorities announced that three 16-year-old boys had been arrested on suspicion of sexually battering Audrie Pott, a Saratoga Union High School sophomore, according to reports.

Who knew that being a smoggy place might be good for business? Gov. Jerry Brown is in China, and one of the things he's pitching is California's expertise in dealing with smog. Because if there's one thing we have in common with the Chinese, it's air pollution. Now, some of what Brown is doing is, well, kind of squishy. As my colleague Anthony York reported : On Wednesday, he held a private meeting with Environmental Protection Minister Zhou Shengxian. They signed a nonbinding agreement "to enhance cooperation on reducing air pollution," the first such accord between China's government and a U.S. state and one of several Brown is scheduled to secure while here.

WASHINGTON - In a lopsided vote, the Senate launched a debate Thursday over the most significant gun legislation in more than a decade, setting up a contest that could last weeks between reinvigorated advocates for stricter laws and conservatives who oppose them as a violation of the 2nd Amendment. The bipartisan 68-31 vote, which saw 16 Republicans join 52 Democrats and independents to begin consideration of gun legislation, was a setback for gun rights advocates who had threatened to block it. The bill includes provisions to spend more on school security and to increase penalties for selling guns to felons and others banned from ownership.

Janice Bellucci is a mother of two, the wife of a pastor and a former Girl Scout leader active in volunteer work. She lives in a gated community an hour's drive north of Santa Barbara, with needlepoint pillows on the sofa and a vegetable garden in the backyard. She is also the public face of an organization advocating for the closest thing to an untouchable caste in our society: California's 88,000 registered sex offenders. A former aerospace lawyer, Bellucci is the president of the California chapter of Reform Sex Offender Laws, a national group of offenders, family members, psychologists and attorneys registered as a nonprofit.

MEXICO CITY - Debate is intensifying over armed vigilante patrols that have sprung up in crime-plagued sections of rural Mexico, particularly in the state of Guerrero, where some patrols joined forces this week with a radical teachers union that has been wreaking havoc with massive protests, vandalism and violent confrontations with police. The two groups, on the surface, would appear to have little in common. The vigilante patrols, typically made up of masked campesinos , are among dozens that have emerged in the countryside in recent months, purporting to protect their communities from the depredations of the drug cartels.

As I've noted before, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in  December, most Times readers who write letters on gun control favor strong action by Congress. But the coincidence this week of a mass knife attack in Texas and a compromise in the Senate on expanded background checks for firearms buyers has emboldened pro-gun rights readers. Their point: Passing a law that in any way restricts the sale of guns to Americans (via background checks, waiting periods or any other "infringement")