NEWS
September 19, 1993 | CARL INGRAM, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Having scaled daunting obstacles, the drive to break California into three states has progressed further in the Legislature than at any time since separatists got their way in the Gold Rush era. And, if latter-day separatist Assemblyman Stan Statham prevails, Californians next year will vote on his plan to divide the state into three smaller and, theoretically, more manageable pieces.
NEWS
August 19, 1988 | JERRY GILLAM, Times Staff Writer
A Republican assemblyman said Thursday he will resign his committee chairmanship at the end of the 1988 legislative session, saying he had taken too much heat for siding with most Assembly Democrats to block a no-fault automobile insurance bill. Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Oak Run) said he will step down as chairman of the Committee on Governmental Efficiency and Consumer Protection on Aug.
NEWS
November 30, 1988 | LEO C. WOLINSKY, Times Staff Writer
Although Assembly Speaker Willie Brown appeared certain to retain his powerful post after helping Democrats to capture three Republican seats in the Nov. 8 election, there were strong indications Tuesday that the turmoil is far from over and that Brown may hold on to the speakership by only a slim margin.
NEWS
May 30, 1992 | JENIFER WARREN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Would two Californias work better than one? Or should we all stick together as one big semi-happy family? On Tuesday, voters in 31 counties will get the chance to weigh in on this meaty matter, deciding on an advisory plebiscite that asks whether the Golden State should be chopped into two parts. Echoing gripes that first rumbled through California in the mid-1800s, the separatists say the state has grown unmanageably large and is saddled with a government that is unresponsive to the people.
NEWS
January 26, 1988 | JERRY GILLAM and CARL INGRAM, Times Staff Writers
The Assembly on Monday passed a bill to require convicted prostitutes to be tested for the AIDS virus after a coalition of Republicans and dissident Democrats came within one vote of embarrassing Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) by withdrawing a similar measure from a committee.
NEWS
March 22, 1988
A bill designating the banana slug the official state mollusk was narrowly passed by the Assembly. A 42-30 vote sent the measure to an uncertain fate in the Senate. The legislation is sponsored by Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto), who introduced it at the recommendation of a troop of Campfire Girls in his district. Sher told his colleagues that banana slugs eat dead leaves, turning them into nutrients that nourish the state tree, the California redwood.