Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) on Monday introduced a bill that would make it a form of rape to remove or tamper with a condom during sex without consent.

Garcia said the legislation is necessary because it is unclear whether the practice of "stealthing" is illegal under current law. To introduce the bill, she used the "gut and amend" process, stripping the contents of a previously introduced proposal that sought to allow people between ages 18 and 21 to work in gambling businesses, as long they did not perform jobs that involved playing a game.

Toughening repercussions for rape and sex crimes was at the center of legislative debate last year after the notorious sex assault cases of  former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner and comedian Bill Cosby. The stealthing bill follows another proposal by Garcia to expand the legal definition of rape that became law this year. 

Despite swirling speculation, California's U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris said she’s not giving “any consideration” to running for president in 2020.

Harris was appearing at the annual Code Conference hosted by the tech news site Recode in Rancho Palos Verdes on Wednesday night when site co-founder Kara Swisher asked if she had eyes on the White House.

“I’m not giving that any consideration. I’ve got to stay focused,” said Harris, a Democrat who was elected to the Senate in November after serving as California's attorney general. After she won the seat vacated by former Sen. Barbara Boxer, Harris quickly gained a reputation as a potential presidential candidate in 2020.

Legislation to require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns in order to gain a spot on California's presidential primary ballot won passage in the state Senate on Wednesday, but only after a tense debate that largely centered on President Trump.

Senate Bill 149 was approved on a strict party-line vote, 27-13. The bill now moves to the state Assembly, and was one of the last bills debated during a marathon session at the state Capitol to consider bills before a Friday deadline for action.

The bill would require presidential candidates to file copies of their income tax returns with state elections officials for the five most recent taxable years. Failure to do so would mean their name wouldn't appear on California's presidential primary ballot. The legislation was introduced in December, in the wake of Trump's refusal to disclose his tax returns during the 2016 campaign. The president has continued to reject calls for the information.

The state Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would expand and reshape the agency that oversees mass transit in Los Angeles County.

Opponents of the measure include Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the city and county of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

The bill by Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) was sent to the Assembly for consideration after squeaking by with a 22-11 vote in the Senate.

Almost two of every three Californians in a new statewide poll said they like the idea of a single-payer, government healthcare system, but far fewer support the idea if it includes a tax increase.

The poll released Wednesday night by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 65% of adults surveyed support the creation of a single-payer state healthcare program to cover all of the state's residents, and 56% of likely voters approved of the idea. Opinion was sharply divided between Democrats (75% support) and Republicans (66% oppose) who were surveyed.

The single-payer proposal under consideration in the state Capitol, Senate Bill 562, assumes at least $50 billion in new taxes to fund the healthcare system. Asked about taxes, support drops to 42% of the adults surveyed and 43% of likely voters. While a majority of Democrats in the PPIC poll continued to support the idea if it means more taxes, support drops substantially among unaffiliated "independent" voters.

The state Senate on Wednesday voted to no longer make it a felony for someone infected with HIV to knowingly expose others to the disease by having unprotected sex without telling his or her partner about the infection.

The crime would be downgraded to a misdemeanor, and the bill would also apply to people who donate blood or semen without telling the blood or semen bank that they have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, or have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the precursor to AIDS.

The measure, which next goes to the Assembly for consideration, was introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who said it is unfair to make HIV/AIDS the only communicable disease given such harsh treatment by prosecutors.

Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that she has no plans to run for office again, but she plans to remain involved in civic life, particularly helping the Democrats' efforts to regain control of the House in 2018.

“I'm not going anywhere,” Clinton said at the annual Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes. “I have a big stake in what happens in this country. I am very unbowed and unbroken about what happened because I don’t want it to happen to anybody else. I don't want it to happen to the values and the institutions I care about in America.

“And I think we’re at a really pivotal point,” she said. “And therefore I'm going to keep writing and keep talking and keep supporting people who are on the front lines of the resistance."

A state senator from Santa Barbara is taking another shot at establishing statewide regulations for the use of drones after the budding industry thwarted her efforts to pass similar legislation last year.

Senate Bill 347, introduced by Democratic Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, would limit disruptive drone use near private property and prohibit the weaponization and reckless operation of the unmanned aerial vehicles. It also would require pilots to obtain insurance and to license, register and mark the aircrafts per federal regulations.

The bill moved out of the Senate on Wednesday with a 26-13 vote. It heads to the Assembly for consideration.

Bakersfield lawyer Emilio Huerta came more than 13 percentage points short of winning California's 21st Congressional District seat in 2016, but he plans to try again in 2018.

Huerta, 59, blames his loss to Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) on inexperience and a rash of negative ads at the end of the campaign.

“We learned a lot in the last campaign. As a first-time candidate there was certainly a lot to learn and I think we did a good job,” Huerta said Wednesday.

Gov. Jerry Brown warned Wednesday that a decision by President Trump to withdraw the United States from a 2015 global climate change agreement could be "tragic," and vowed to keep California's ambitious efforts in place and on track.

"Here we are, in 2017, going backwards," Brown said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "It cannot stand, it's not right and California will do everything it can to not only stay the course, but to build more support — in other states, in other provinces, in other countries."

The governor also criticized efforts to the president to dismantle climate change initiatives launched by former President Barack Obama.

The majority of calls into Rep. Lou Correa's Orange County congressional office are about immigration worries and what the Trump administration's enforcement policies mean for Correa's many Latino constituents.

“There’s a lot of fear in my district,” he said.

So the freshman Democrat has held seven town halls, all focused on immigration and explaining immigrants' rights. They've been peaceful, with representatives from groups such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles and the Mexican Consulate invited to help Correa answer questions.