Assembly : Floor Action:

Animals: Passed and sent to the Senate on a 49-1 vote a bill (AB 4023) by Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae) to make animal cruelty violations possible felonies punishable by up to a $20,000 fine and/or one year in state prison.

Name Change: Passed and sent to the Senate on a 63-6 vote a bill (AB 3182) by Assemblyman Trice Harvey (R-Bakersfield) to change the official job titles of “sanitarian” and “health inspector” to “environmental health specialist” and to require these specialists to take more training courses.

Committee Action:

Pesticides: The Assembly Agriculture Committee rejected a bill (AB 4097) by Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento) to establish a state program to test and monitor the level of cancer-causing pesticides in canned and packaged foods. There was no motion made to approve the bill. A between-sessions study of the subject matter is scheduled.

State Dance: The Assembly Governmental Organization Committee approved a bill (SB 2460) by Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco) to designate the West Coast swing dance, a jitterbug step popular in the 1940s, as the official state dance. A 10-4 vote sent the bill to the Assembly floor.

Senate

Floor Action:

High-Speed Train: Passed and returned to the Assembly for concurrence in amendments on a 33-0 vote a bill (AB 671) by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) to speed creation of a state commission to study the feasibility of building and operating a $2.5-billion “gamblers’ special” train between Southern California and Las Vegas.

Committee Action:

Offshore Oil: The Senate Governmental Organization Committee approved a bill (AB 284) by Assemblyman Dan Hauser (D-Arcata) to prohibit the state from leasing any tidelands and submerged lands in Mendocino and Humboldt counties within the 3-mile limit to the federal government for offshore oil drilling purposes. A 6-2 vote sent the bill to the Natural Resources Committee.

Drugs: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill (AB 2502) by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) to make it a crime to knowingly possess large sums in cash or money orders gained through illegal drug activity. Currently, the law requires officers to seize both the money and the drugs at the same time, and dealers are able to avoid prosecution by exchanging drugs in one location and cash in another. A 6-1 vote sent the bill to the Appropriations Committee.

Miscellany

Brown Papers Compromise: Secretary of State March Fong Eu has decided to drop her lawsuit to force former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. to keep his official papers in the state archives instead of the USC library. A compromise has been reached that provides that USC gets to keep all of the papers but requires the university to give Eu copies of the documents. And, after Gov. George Deukmejian leaves office, future chief executives would be required under pending legislation to give their official papers to the Secretary of State.