Assembly Bill Introductions: Child Molestation: AB 326...

Assembly Bill Introductions: Child Molestation: AB 326 by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) would create a commission for the protection of molested children to gather statistics and make annual reports with recommendations to the Legislature.

Video Display Terminals: AB 348 by Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-El Monte) would require a state study on the need for safety standards for video display terminals. Similar legislation has been rejected at previous sessions.

Senate Floor Action: Medi-Cal: Passed and sent to the Assembly on a 35-1 vote a bill (SB 160) by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) to restore a 10% cut in state payments for a variety of Medi-Cal services. The cuts were ordered last month by Gov. George Deukmejian as a way of saving $18.7 million to help cope with an anticipated $280-million Medi-Cal deficit.

Bill Introductions: Marijuana: SB 218 by Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) would increase the penalty for first-time possession of small amounts of marijuana from a $100 fine to a $500 fine or six months in a county jail or both.

Alzheimer’s Disease: SB 214 by Sen. Henry J. Mello (D-Watsonville) would allow state income taxpayers to designate a specified amount of their tax refunds to be placed in an Alzheimer’s disease research fund. The governor endorsed such a concept in his state budget.

Miscellany Reagan Letter Probe: Three Democratic members of the Assembly requested local and federal prosecutors to start criminal investigations to find the people responsible for sending campaign “hit” mailers bearing President Reagan’s signature to voters in the three legislators’ districts. The letters, sent without White House approval just before last fall’s election, attacked Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Hawthorne), Assemblyman Steve Clute (D-Riverside) and Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-El Monte) and endorsed their Republican opponents. All three incumbents nonetheless won reelection. An Assembly GOP spokesman has blamed “human error” for the mailings, but Floyd said: “This is more than a silly misunderstanding. This is criminal fraud.”

New Chairman: William Bagley of San Rafael, a former Republican assemblyman and state public utilities commissioner, had this to say upon his election as chairman of the state Transportation Commission: “Some of the people in Jerry Brown’s Administration thought bicycle paths were the solution to California’s transportation problems. They were wrong.”