Legislation California

The Senate voted 33 to 1 Thursday to approve a bill that would give it power to remove any public appointee who falsifies qualifications during confirmation hearings. The bill was introduced by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) after The Times revealed in December that California State University Chairwoman Marianthi Lansdale of Huntington Beach falsely claimed during her nomination process to have earned an associate of arts degree in 1959 from Long Beach City College.

SACRAMENTO - A group of Republican state lawmakers Wednesday proposed allowing school districts to spend education funds to train teachers, administrators and janitors in gun use. Responding to last month's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the lawmakers said arming school personnel would help protect campuses against violent intruders. "The idea is to create essentially an invisible line of defense around our kids," said Assemblyman and tea party adherent Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino.

With no votes to spare, the state Senate on Tuesday approved legislation requiring all bicycle riders in California under the age of 18 to wear crash helmets or pay a fine of $25. A 21-13 vote, the precise majority required, sent the proposal back to the Assembly, which narrowly approved it two months ago. If it wins Assembly passage again, as expected, it will go to an uncertain future at the hands of Gov. Pete Wilson.

SACRAMENTO - With just three days left in this year's legislative session, state lawmakers got a dose of the strong emotions swirling through the Capitol for and against a plan to overhaul California's century-old workers' compensation insurance program. The bill formally introduced Friday seeks to increase benefits for injured workers while cutting medical and legal costs to avoid an estimated 12.6% hike in premiums facing employers in January. At issue is a 170-page bill to revise the $17-billion system to protect injured workers that is only now beginning a fast and furious trip through the Legislature.

An old show business adage is that everyone wants to get in on the act, which is what's happening in Sacramento as legislators scramble to propose bills to give tax breaks to Hollywood to keep and develop entertainment jobs in California.

Gov. Pete Wilson signed major environmental protection legislation Thursday empowering the California Coastal Commission to bypass the courts and order a swift halt to prohibited development. The commission sought the additional authority in part because it was unable under existing law to step in quickly enough to prevent developer damage in the exclusive Sweetwater Canyon area of Malibu and up the coast at Big Sur.

Responding to the murder of a 7-year-old girl in a Nevada casino bathroom, legislators in California and Nevada said Friday that they are considering legislation to make it a crime to keep quiet after witnessing an assault on a child. State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) and Nevada Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins (D-Henderson) said they hope to introduce legislation soon in response to the 1997 slaying of Sherrice Iverson of South Los Angeles.

In the wake of two recent accidents at California theme parks, including one in which a board flew from a Knott's Berry Farm ride Monday and struck five people in the head, a state Senate committee voted to require statewide inspections of all amusement park rides. Though the committee members did not discuss Sunday's tragedy--a 12-year-old boy fell to his death at a Bay Area amusement park--Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) said the incident added momentum to support for the bill.

In one of the largest gay rallies in Orange County history, 17 people were arrested after an estimated 1,000 demonstrators marched down Garden Grove Boulevard, chanting and cheering to protest Gov. Pete Wilson's recent veto of a homosexual rights bill. Drowned in shouts of "Gay rights now!" 16 demonstrators were led away one by one to be arrested by police after they linked themselves arm-in-arm and refused to leave the center of a major intersection.

When it comes to talking about Mexico and its economy, few can match an Orange County financial consultant with the decidedly Anglo name of Samuel Copeland Palmer IV. He knows the number of Mexicans who read comic books each week (85 million), as well as the availability of telephones (three for every 100 people).

As doubts grow about the survival of the federal healthcare law, state officials are considering ways to keep key elements of the legislation alive in California. Skepticism of the Affordable Care Act by conservative Supreme Court justices during oral arguments last week has raised the possibility the court will strike the individual mandate to purchase health coverage or throw out the entire law as unconstitutional. Even if the whole law is scrapped nationally, many of its consumer protections, such as guaranteed coverage for children, are expected to survive in California.

Investors may not be willing to back the state's bullet train project until after it begins operating, the California High-Speed Rail Authority said in a letter to key legislators, an acknowledgment that again raises serious questions about how the $43-billion construction cost will be paid over the next decade. The letter gives a preview of the authority's upcoming business plan, a critical document that is supposed to address long-standing concerns that it lacks a credible blueprint for building and operating the system.

President Obama predicted travails ahead for the struggle to pass healthcare reform but offered a hopeful outlook for passage of legislation providing access to insurance coverage for all, saying that "the stars may be aligned" for a deal on a goal that eluded the last Democratic president. In a C-SPAN interview that aired Saturday, Obama said he was "absolutely committed" to moving forward with a healthcare plan and promised he would announce his Supreme Court nomination soon.

Gov. Gray Davis' proposal to let state and local police obtain roving wiretaps on suspected criminals was dropped from the legislation containing it Tuesday after the legislative counsel's office concluded that it was illegal. The proposal, a centerpiece of Davis' State of the State address last week, had been welcomed by some law enforcement leaders but criticized by civil libertarians and some liberals.

In an aggressive step by state officials to combat runaway film production, Gov. Gray Davis plans to propose California's first sizable tax credit today in an effort to discourage film and TV shows from fleeing to cheaper locales such as Canada. The Davis plan is being proposed to start in 2004 and is projected to save producers $50 million the first year, $80 million the second and $100 million by the third year, far more than any state program in the past.

Gov. Gray Davis is calling for expanded authority to wiretap Californians' phones and e-mail in the name of protecting against terrorism. As outlined Monday by his top security advisor, former FBI agent George Vinson, the legislation Davis seeks is similar to the Patriot Act signed into law by President Bush in October. The governor's aides said New York has adopted a similar statute, and proposals are pending in Arizona and Washington state.

A bill inspired by the murder of a local 7-year-old girl in a Nevada casino was signed into law Monday by Gov. Gray Davis. The legislation, authored by Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), makes it a crime to witness the sexual assault of a minor without notifying police. The bill became known as the Sherrice Iverson Good Samaritan Law because it was inspired by the 1997 slaying of the girl at a casino in Primm, Nev.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and the father of murder victim Polly Klaas called on Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature on Thursday to put an alternative "three strikes and you're out" proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot. But Wilson, who in March signed legislation identical to the "three strikes" ballot initiative that has already qualified, promptly announced that he would veto any such bill.

An increase in state jobless benefits that was hailed as a safety net for Californians thrown out of work after Sept. 11 won't apply to hundreds of thousands of workers already drawing benefits or laid off in the wake of the attacks. The increase, the first in a decade, has been touted by Gov. Gray Davis and other politicians as a way to help workers hurt economically by the tragedy. But it applies only to new claims filed after Jan. 6.

Every afternoon, the Salesian Boys and Girls Club in City Terrace sends out vans to nearby campuses, to shuttle kids to the club's popular tutoring program. Operated by a Roman Catholic religious order founded in Italy in the 19th century, the club charges little or nothing for its services. And the need is great. Sometimes as many as 80 kids vie for the attention of the club's three tutors. But help, in the form of a cash infusion from the federal government, may be on the way.