Governor

Will attend a St. Jude Children’s Hospital research benefit dinner Saturday in Century City.

Declared September to be “Seat Belt Awareness Month,” urging motorists to buckle up to save lives and prevent injuries.

Assembly Floor Action:

Birth Defect Testing: Defeated by a 42-32 vote a bill (AB 1846) by Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) to require that all pregnant women be offered equal access to obtain neural tube birth defect tests. Fifty-four votes, a two-thirds majority, were required for passage. Neural tube defects are deformities of the brain or spinal column, which can cause disabilities ranging from weakness of the legs to severe mental retardation and death. Proponents argued that some victims can be treated and rehabilitated. Opponents insisted that the tests are used to identify fetuses for abortion.

Free Speech Day: Approved on a 41-34 vote a resolution (SCR 7) by Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland) to designate Oct. 1 of this year and each year thereafter as “Free Speech Day” in commemoration of the beginning of the Free Speech Movement on the UC Berkeley campus in 1964. The resolution previously passed the upper house by a 23-11 vote. It now returns to the Senate for concurrence in Assembly amendments, which specifically repudiate the violence that also resulted from the student protest movement.

Senate Floor Action:

Child Day Care Center Insurance: Approved and sent to the Assembly on a 32-0 vote a bill (SB 1474) by Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) to create a temporary pool to guarantee that insurance is available to day-care centers that have had difficulty obtaining insurance because of the recent rash of child molestation cases. There are 40,000 day-care centers serving 400,000 children in California.

Committee Action: Peace Day: The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill (AB 1294) by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) to require the governor to declare Aug. 6 as “Peace Day” and appoint a 12-member commission to award 10 peace prizes of $5,000 each. It now goes to the Senate floor. The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The governor vetoed a similar bill last year.