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California politics archives from April

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Welcome to our archived feed of Essential Politics from April. We covered the California Republican Party convention here.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter for more, or subscribe to our free daily newsletter and the California Politics Podcast.

Federal Election Commission dings Senate, House candidates for failing to file financial reports

The financial reports detailed campaign contributions and spending within the first three months of 2016.

Wyman, a Tehachapi businessman who along with 23 others is running to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer, did not return calls and emails to his campaign Friday.

Picus, a San Francisco teacher challenging House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, said his campaign received a lot of donations right before the filing deadline and had trouble completing the report. He said it would be filed Friday evening.

“We had trouble keeping up with it with our largely volunteer staff,” Picus said.

According to the Commission, both campaigns were notified March 22 of the filing deadline and were sent a notification on April 22 that their reports were not received. It’s up to the commission to decide what happens next — whether to issue fines for missed reports is decided on a case-by-case basis.

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‘We’re there’: Lt. Gov. Newsom says he has enough signatures for gun control initiative

Citing the failure of the state Legislature to act, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he has collected 600,000 signatures of California voters to qualify a gun control initiative for the November ballot.

“We’re there. This is going to be on the November ballot,” Newsom said Thursday. “Over 600,000 registered voters want to take some bold action on gun safety.”

Newsom’s campaign plans to begin delivering signatures tomorrow to county clerks for verification. If at least 365,880 signatures are found to be valid, the measure will qualify for the ballot.

Newsom said most of the proposals in the initiative “have one thing in common, that over the past number of years they have suffered the fate of either being watered down or rejected by the Legislature. We’re hopeful and confident that the voters of California will overwhelmingly support the initiative.”

The broad measure would require background checks for purchasers of ammunition; ban possession of ammunition magazine clips holding more than 10 rounds; provide a process for felons and other disqualified persons to relinquish firearms and require owners to report when their guns are lost or stolen.

The initiative would also address an issue caused by the previous adoption of Proposition 47, which made thefts of guns worth less than $1,000 a misdemeanor. The ballot measure would make all gun thefts a felony.

Last week, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León (D-Los Angeles) said key provisions of the initiative, including the ban on large-capacity magazines, are addressed by legislation this year, but that bills could be harmed by the initiative going forward.

A campaign committee including gun groups and law enforcement is being formed to defeat the initiative, according to one member, Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California. He noted that the measure has already been opposed by the California State Sheriffs’ Assn., which said it would put restrictions on law-abiding people without taking guns from criminals.

“it’s an initiative that carries multiple proposals that were either killed by the Legislature as not workable or vetoed by the governor,” Paredes said. “Newsom has collected failed policy issues from the Legislature and put them up as an initiative. It’s going to be a massive effort to defeat him.”

Paredes said the initiative is a cynical attempt by Newsom to gain higher office.

“We know he’s doing this to pump himself up for his gubernatorial run,” Paredes said.

Newsom said his campaign for governor is secondary to his effort to enact gun safety laws.

He said he has been active in the gun safety movement going back 15 years when he was mayor of San Francisco and a founding member of the group Mayors Against Guns. The National Rifle Assn. was so upset, they protested at his wedding in Montana, he said.

“I expect a good challenge from them,” Newsom said of the NRA. “They have been very aggressive to date. But we are very enthusiastic to be getting to this next phase.”

He cited internal polls indicating more than 70% of California voters support the initiative, and a Field poll that found greater support for provisions of the measure, including the ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines.

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Mayer Hawthorne, Reggie Watts, Holychild to headline ‘Bernie Bash’ show in L.A.

A “Bernie Bash” concert will be held at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom on Sunday. Tickets are $20 and $35. All proceeds will go to Bernie Sanders.

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Members of Congress want fix for Covered California glitch dropping coverage for pregnant women

Rep. Ami Bera and 15 members of the California delegation are pushing the heads of California Health and Human Services and the California Health Benefit Exchange in a letter to address a computer glitch that is terminating Covered California Care for pregnant women.

California Healthline/Kaiser Health News reported April 18 that about 1,900 women across the state have been automatically transferred from the Covered California health insurance exchange to Medi-Cal since October, even though they were supposed to have the option to stay with Covered California. The article appeared in the Sacramento Bee.

Amy Palmer, the agency’s director of communications, told the Bee that the problem was caused by a computer glitch that will not be fixed until September.

Bera and the letter signers say that isn’t acceptable.

“While we appreciate your efforts to ensure women can switch between plans, we remain concerned that until the problem is fixed in late 2016, women will continue to be unenrolled from their Covered California plans and lose access to their current medical providers,” the letter states.

Bera said in an interview that as a doctor he is worried about pregnant women losing healthcare access for any time. Bera practiced medicine in the Sacramento area and was a dean at UC Davis.

“When someone is pregnant, you want them to get continuous prenatal care,” Bera said. “We’re just trying to put a little pressure on Covered California. There’s no reason we should have to wait until September.”

1 p.m. This post has been updated to reflect that the April 18 article was written by California Healthline/Kaiser Health News. It appeared in the Sacramento Bee.

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Assembly approves moratorium on injecting gas into Aliso Canyon wells

Amid concern over the months-long leaking of natural gas in Aliso Canyon near Los Angeles, the Assembly on Thursday formally approved strict rules preventing injection of new gas into old wells until experts determine the operations are safe.

Assembly members approved a bill that sets specific tests that must be conducted before such work can be undertaken.

The move comes in response to the leak that began in October at the Southern California Gas Co. facility in the area.

Residents complained at the time of headaches, nosebleeds and nausea, and about 8,000 families were relocated, including 2,000 who are still away from their homes even though the leak was plugged in February.

“Certainty about safety and energy reliability must be provided to the community and the entire L.A. region,” Assemblyman Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) told his colleagues in arguing for the bill.

Wilk noted that some of the people who have moved back to their homes are still complaining of health issues.

Assemblyman Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) called the bill a “measured response” to the problem.

“This testing regime is proactive and helps make sure that aging wells, some over 80 years old, are safe to use or are shut down,” Williams said during the floor debate. “We can’t afford the risk to the public health or the environment with another uncontrolled leak at Aliso Canyon or somewhere else.”

Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) voiced concern about the possibility of blackouts and brownouts if sufficient natural gas is not available to keep the electric power grid working.

“The potential for significant service interruptions is real,” Patterson told his colleagues.

Wilk said Gov. Jerry Brown retains the power to declare a state of emergency and order use of natural gas wells to avoid electricity interruptions.

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Lawmakers approve emergency election cash

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California billionaire Tom Steyer takes aim at Donald Trump, Ted Cruz in TV ad

Calling Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz “wildly extreme and dangerous,” billionaire activist Tom Steyer is launching a weekend blitz of TV advertising that uses the presidential candidates’ views on climate change as an incentive for voter registration.

“These are two of the most dangerous men in America,” Steyer said in an interview Thursday, as his 30-second commercial hit the airwaves.

The ad, being run on televisions stations around the state, features clips of Cruz and Trump as they have taken aim at the scientific evidence pointing to climate change and those who have called for urgent efforts to combat it.

Both men, along with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, are scheduled to make appearances at this weekend’s California Republican Party convention in Burlingame. Trump arrives in California first, with a rally in Costa Mesa on Thursday night.

Steyer, one of the most prominent wealthy donors to Democratic causes, launched a $25-million campaign earlier this week aimed at increasing the ranks of millennial registered voters. The ad builds on that effort, and the San Francisco activist says it includes those who wish to vote Republican.

“Republican voters agree with us,” Steyer told The Times. “Trump and Cruz are not out of step just with Californians; they are out of step with their own party.”

Steyer, long seen as a potential candidate for office in California, said he will continue to spend money in 2016 on efforts to defeat Trump or Cruz, should they become the GOP nominee.

“We think this is going to be a generation-defining election,” he said.

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Two members of Congress endorse Republican Katcho Achadjian in open congressional race

There are nine candidates running to replace retiring Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara).

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This company spent almost $43,000 to support a candidate but can’t spell his name right

The congressional campaign of state Sen. Isadore Hall (D-Compton) got some help from Long Beach billboard company Bulletin Displays earlier this month.

The company reported an independent expenditure of $42,875 to pay for billboards supporting Hall’s candidacy.

Too bad they misspelled Hall’s name on the federal filing reporting the expense, referring to him as “Isahore.”

It is not the first time the company has put up billboards bearing Hall’s image.

Company President Mark A. Kudler asked the state’s ethics agency for advice in 2011 after his company put up a billboard reading, “Thank You from Assemblymember Isadore Hall to those that help make our community safe!”

Kudler wanted to know if he needed to disclose the costs of the billboard ad to the ethics agency. The agency told Kudler that he did not have to disclose the cost because the advertisement was taken down more than 45 days before an election.

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Internet poker inches closer to legalization in California

After years of gridlock, a bill that would help legalize Internet poker in California advanced out of a legislative committee on Wednesday after its author said there has been “serious progress toward consensus” between many competing interests in the gambling industry.

The measure by Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) would allow Internet poker websites to be operated by Native American tribes that operate casinos in partnerships with card clubs. Federal approval would also be required.

It would give at least $60 million annually to the horse-racing industry to compensate it for being excluded from Internet poker and for losing revenue to tribal gambling casinos. The provision on subsidizing the horse-race industry removes one stumbling block that has prevented an agreement in the past.

Gray estimated that more than one million Californians are playing poker on Internet websites that are run by offshore companies without regulation by U.S authorities.

“These poker players are at the mercy of unscrupulous operators who may cheat them out of their money with absolutely no recourse or protections,” Gray told the committee. “It is time we pass a sensible I-Poker framework in California and allow consumers who want to play to do so in a safe, fair and regulated environment.”

The Assembly Governmental Organization Committee approved the bill on an 18-0 vote, sending it to another panel for fiscal analysis, even though it is not yet supported by a group of six Native American tribes that operate casinos. Those tribes are neutral, but warned they may oppose the bill unless more is done to exclude Internet companies that have operated in the past without legal authority.

“We are allowing [the bill] to go forward to continue negotiations,” said David Quintana, a spokesman for the group that includes the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and Barona Band of Mission Indians.

The bill is backed by another coalition that includes the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Commerce Casino and Bicycle Casino.

The firm Morgan Stanley estimates that California’s online poker market could reach $1.1 billion annually.

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Can the U.S. fight climate change with Treasury bonds?

Care about the effects of climate change? Sen. Barbara Boxer wants you to be able to help get the country ready.

On Wednesday, the senator from California introduced legislation that would allow the Treasury Department to issue up to $200 million annually in “Climate Change Bonds.” Money raised by the bonds would fund infrastructure projects such as desalinization projects and flood control to prepare the country for the results of climate change.

“It gives the people a chance to show us that they really care about this,” Boxer said. “We have to fight to lessen the ravages, and that we’ve been doing through the Clean Air Act, fuel economy, energy efficiency, but we’re still going to have these problems. We’re already seeing that.”

The bonds are modeled after the World War II-era U.S. War Bonds program.

“I think it captures the imagination of the people, it gives them a way to help meet the challenges of climate change,” Boxer said.

Boxer said she remembers as a child looking forward to her $18 war bond maturing in 10 years.

“I remember as a little kid when my mother said ‘Oh, when you’re older you can get these $25 war bonds, you can cash them in,’” Boxer said. “Think if we could get the children very excited.”

An 11-member commission would recommend proposed infrastructure projects to the Commerce Department.

Boxer said she envisions flood control projects in the Gulf States and protection for the East Coast from rising ocean levels. On the West Coast, there could be programs to deal with wildfires and drought, she said.

Locals would have to pitch in 25% of a project’s cost in order to get funding.

“It appeals to patriotism in a way, because if you love this country, and we all do, you have to preserve it. And the way to preserve it is to step up on these issues,” she said.

Boxer said having a dedicated funding source for the large-scale projects would increase their chance of getting built.

“We don’t have enough to take care of just normal infrastructure problems that we have, let alone hardening that infrastructure and making it resilient,” she said. “This might be a way to take it off the budget, but do it in a way that is fiscally responsible and can capture the imaginations of the people.”

The bill is one of many on Boxer’s list of things to accomplish before she leaves Washington in January. She said she’s glad to have Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) as co-sponsor on the bill.

“He’s committed to carry on after I leave,” she said.

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Push to legalize renting cars to drive for Uber and Lyft moves forward

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Assemblymembers wear jeans for a cause

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Support L.A.’s 2024 Olympic bid, California members ask Congress

Members of California’s congressional delegation are asking House colleagues to support Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Democratic Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Janice Hahn, Alan Lowenthal and Adam Schiff announced Wednesday they will file a resolution stating that Congress supports holding the Games in California.

“Los Angeles’ bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a bid for the entire nation, and this resolution reflects that,” Roybal-Allard said in a statement. “Our country knows from experience that hosting the world’s greatest sports event can have profound and positive sporting, social, and economic impact. I urge my congressional colleagues to follow the sun to L.A., and help us bring the Olympic Games back to the City of Angels.”

The LA 2024 Olympic bid committee has been drumming up support for the city’s application for months. Los Angeles is competing with Paris, Rome and Budapest, Hungary. The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to choose a host in September 2017.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman and LA 2024 Vice Chair Janet Evans also attended the Capitol Hill news conference.

Garcetti praised the California members for the resolution.

“L.A. is a city with the Olympics in its DNA, and we are honored to have been selected as the U.S. bid to bring the Games back to our country for the first time in 28 years,” he said in a statement.

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Legislators reject an effort to allow locals to re-order their ballot

A proposal that would have shifted the order of ballot measures in some communities — allowing local proposals to be at the top of the page — was rejected on Wednesday by an Assembly committee.

The bill by Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) reflected the widely held belief that the more prominent the placement of a ballot measure, the better its chances for passage. But California election law requires statewide ballot measures be listed before those proposed by local communities.

Gray’s push for quick passage would have allowed Merced County to place a transportation tax at the top of the Nov. 8 ballot, a local tax measure that would also trigger matching funds from the federal government.

“While your communities have drawn down those federal dollars, my community has not,” Gray said to members of the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee.

And he was quick to point out that legislators re-order statewide ballot measures anytime they like, pointing out how a water bond (Proposition 1) and state budget measure (Proposition 2) were both boosted to the top of the November ballot in 2014.

Committee members rejected the idea, though some suggested a special exemption could have been made for Gray’s Central Valley community.

“There’s so many other folks who also want their stuff at the top” of the ballot, said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), the committee’s chairwoman.

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A proposal to help taxis compete with Uber and Lyft

With the taxi industry withering thanks to the rise of Uber, Lyft and the ride-sharing economy, Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) wants to make it easier for taxis to compete.

He’s proposing legislation to deregulate the taxi industry statewide, allowing taxis to set their own prices among other changes.

Low’s bill falls in line with a growing line of thinking at the Capitol: Rather than add regulations to Uber and Lyft, lower them for taxis.

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Andy Cohen talks with ‘favorite politician’ Gavin Newsom on Bravo’s ‘Watch What Happens Live’

A block of episodes from “The Real Housewives” franchise was the opening act for California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Tuesday night appearance on Bravo TV’s “Watch What Happens Live,” where he appeared alongside “Scandal” actress Bellamy Young for a half-hour of reality TV trivia and saucy questions from callers watching at home.

Newsom, who host Andy Cohen introduced as his “favorite politician,” discussed everything from his tie to “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Girardi — her husband, millionaire plaintiff’s attorney Tom Girardi, “has been extraordinarily generous” to Newsom’s campaign, he said — to whether he has “taken a dip in the man pond.” (The answer is no, said a blushing Newsom: “My gosh, what a question!”)

Newsom played coy about whether he’d accept a call to be vice president if it was offered to him, but fielded several other quick-fire questions on the show that allowed him to tout his work in Sacramento.

When a caller asked Newsom when he thought recreational marijuana use would be legalized, the lieutenant governor pointed out the California ballot initiative he’s backing.

“There is only one statewide Democrat that has come out in support of that ballot initiative and is working to lead the charge,” a grinning Newsom told Cohen as he shrugged and pointed to himself. “This person sitting right here, I’m just saying.”

Newsom also plugged the gun control initiative he hopes to take to the ballot box this fall.

“The idea that we don’t do background checks on ammunition is something in California we’re going to fix this November,” Newsom said.

For more banter, political shop talk and a tribute to Newsom’s “great hair” by an adoring, American flag-waving Cohen, watch clips from the episode and its aftershow.

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California GOP is rethinking term limits -- for the party chairman

Lost in the excitement over the top three GOP presidential candidates dropping by this weekend’s California Republican Party convention in Northern California is a proposed rules change that could have a big impact on the party’s leadership.

Republican delegates will consider proposals to extend or remove the term limits for the post of state party chairman.

If approved, the current chairman, Jim Brulte, would be eligible to serve at least another two-year term.

Brulte, a former state Senate Republican leader from Rancho Cucamonga, took over as chairman in 2013 at a time when the party was in disarray and in massive debt. He is largely credited with helping turn around the party’s finances and plotting a course for the depleted GOP to become relevant again in California. Brulte was reelected as chairman in 2015.

“He’s done an absolutely great job,” said Michael Osborn, chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party. “It’s always been my opinion that the worst reason to get a rid of someone is because they’ve done too good a job for too long.”

Under the party’s current rules, the chairman is limited to two, two-year terms.

The state GOP’s County Chairman’s Assn., which Osborn heads, has proposed scrapping term limits outright. Another party leadership group has another proposal to expand the limit to three terms.

Osborn expects a compromise to be reached, and said a final version come up for a vote Sunday morning.

If Brulte is elected to a third term as chairman, he still has a lot of work to do. California voters have not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006, and Democrats hold a 15-percentage point advantage over the GOP in voter registration.

Still, the GOP managed to prevent the Democrats from winning a powerful supermajority in the state Legislature in 2014, and the party is hoping to build on that in 2016.

“This would give him time to finish what he started,” Osborn said.

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Laura Capps skipped a run for Congress. Now she is seeking a seat on the school board

When Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) announced her retirement last year, all eyes turned to her daughter Laura, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton and aide to Edward M. Kennedy.

But the younger Capps decided against a campaign to succeed her mother in Congress, saying it wasn’t the right time for her and her family, including her young son Oscar.

A year later, with her son ready to start kindergarten, Capps has found a different public office to seek: a seat on the Santa Barbara school board.

Capps announced her candidacy Tuesday with a snazzy video recounting her life story.

“I’m a Santa Barbara kid,” she told the Santa Barbara Independent. “As my (4-year-old) son starts kindergarten in the fall, I want to strengthen our schools for his generation and beyond.”

Capps is something of Santa Barbara political royalty.

Her father, Walter Capps, a UC Santa Barbara religion professor, was elected to Congress in 1996. He died unexpectedly less than a year later, and Lois Capps won a special election for the seat.

Laura Capps and her husband, Bill Burton, both national campaign veterans, moved back from Washington three years ago. Burton was deputy White House Press Secretary during President Obama’s first term.

Capps serves on the boards of a number of local nonprofits and was appointed to Santa Barbara County’s Commission for Women by Supervisor Salud Carbajal, a candidate for the congressional seat who has earned the congresswoman’s blessing.

Should she win the school board seat, the commute will certainly beat the two-flight commute she would have made as a member of Congress. Capps told The Times’ Cathleen Decker last year that the school board’s offices are half a mile from her house.

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Boxer’s chief of staff heads to Clinton campaign

Laura Schiller, chief of staff to Sen. Barbara Boxer, is leaving next week to work for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, the senator’s office confirmed Tuesday.

Schiller has been with Boxer’s staff for more than a decade. Boxer, a longtime Clinton supporter, is retiring in January after more than two decades in Washington.

Politico reported that Schiller will replace Maura Keefe, who has been Clinton’s congressional liaison since November.

Before joining Boxer’s staff, Schiller worked as a special assistant to President Clinton and as a speechwriter for Hillary Clinton when she was first lady.

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Lawmakers agree to extra cash for June election costs, qualifying ballot measures

With Election Day six weeks away, an effort to help counties conduct the statewide primary cleared its first legislative hurdle on Tuesday.

The state Senate’s budget committee approved an extra $16.3 million in election spending, money that will also help defray the costs of validating voter signatures on ballot initiatives that will be submitted over the next few weeks.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla warned lawmakers three weeks ago of the need for more money. Local elections officials are facing a one-two punch of more Californians registering to vote in the June 7 primary and an expected glut of ballot measures seeking a spot on the Nov. 8 statewide ballot.

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On steps of Supreme Court, Sen. Boxer presses Senate to consider Obama’s pick

Sen. Barbara Boxer joined members of California billionaire Tom Steyer’s environmental advocacy group on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, saying environmental issues facing the country are too great to leave up to an evenly divided court.

“What’s at stake here is not just some discussion we’re going to have at a cocktail party or a salon, or with radio talk show hosts .... The fact of the matter is, it’s real stuff to people, it’s the quality of the air, the quality of the water, the quality of the drinking water,” Boxer said.

The California Democrat and other Senate Democrats, along with NextGen Climate and other environmental advocacy groups, want the Senate to consider President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.

Senate Republicans have said they won’t hold confirmation hearings for Garland, saying the next president should fill the seat left empty when Justice Antonin Scalia died in February.

“With their outrageous obstruction of Judge Garland’s nomination, Senate Republicans are playing politics with the future of our families and our climate,” NextGen Climate Vice President Andrea Purse said in a news release.

Boxer’s comments start 18 minutes and 37 seconds into the video below:

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Tracking a year’s worth of free sports tickets for state lawmakers

Being an elected official in California has its perks. Want proof? Consider all the free tickets to sporting events that members of the Legislature accepted last year as gifts from utilities, unions, law firms and other businesses.

Among the top gifts disclosed on annual forms members of the state Assembly and Senate are required to file: Game 5 of the National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

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Fact check: Has Loretta Sanchez missed committee hearings?

Republican candidate George “Duf” Sundheim went after Rep. Loretta Sanchez for her attendance record in Washington, appearing to criticize her based on figures the Los Angeles Times reported in a weekend profile of the congresswoman from Santa Ana.

Sundheim accused Sanchez of not showing up to Homeland Security meetings.

She defended herself as working “that much harder” as one of the higher-ranking Democrats on the panel, and said she stepped up to help when the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee had hip surgery.

Homeland Security meets “at the same time” as Armed Services, Sanchez said. She said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco “wants me in those positions.”

From our profile:

A review of Sanchez’s attendance shows she missed 13 of 18 Homeland Security meetings from January through early November, tied for the second-worst attendance on the committee. She missed the vast majority of her subcommittee meetings and half of the full meetings in the 2013-14 congressional term, when she was not yet running for higher office.

Last year, Sanchez was supposed to co-chair a task force on obstructing terrorist travel and keeping violent extremists from entering the United States.

But two Republicans on the eight-member panel, who said they attended most of at least 16 meetings and briefings over seven months, said they never saw Sanchez there. Democrats serving on the Homeland Security Committee, from which the task force was created, said attendance was not recorded at the private meetings.

Sanchez could not cite any meetings she attended, but said she thought she had attended some.

“I attended the vast majority of them … I did not see her there,” said freshman Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a retired Air Force colonel.

Sanchez has also missed more floor votes in the House — more than one in five — than all but two other members in 2015, according to Congressional Quarterly. That’s a drop from her previous terms in Congress, when she cast votes more than 90% of the time in all but one year.

Sanchez said she doesn’t recall missing many Homeland Security hearings, but added that her responsibilities on the Armed Services committee this year expanded greatly when Smith, the ranking Democrat, was away from Congress because of two hip surgeries.

Sanchez said she also spent more time in California, in part because her father has Alzheimer’s and her elderly mother, though still independent, also needs more care.

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U.S. Senate candidates debate Obama’s foreign policy record

In their Monday night debate in Stockon, five candidates for the U.S. Senate offered pretty different viewpoints of President Obama’s record on foreign policy, except for one almost constant refrain: Some things could have been done better.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana), said she has told Obama he was wrong on occasion during her time in Congress. But she deflected any precise criticism, except to say that the events in Libya could have turned out better. She also took the opportunity to decry those who want more military intervention.

“We have diplomacy and we need to exhaust that tool,” Sanchez said.

Two of the Republicans, Tom Del Beccaro and Duf Sundheim, sounded similar themes of criticism. Sundheim called for a blend of economic, military and political power.

“That kind of combined approach is missing,” Sundheim said.

Del Beccaro suggested words also matter.

“If they are Islamic, or Islamic terrorists, then we should call them that,” he said.

Republican Ron Unz, who several times in the debate staked out a position far apart from his party rivals, took aim not only at Obama but at the previous president.

“The Bush administration was even worse,” said Unz in citing the decision to launch the war with Iraq in 2003.

The president’s most well-known friend on the stage, Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, avoided any direct criticism.

Asked if Obama was on the right track, Harris said, “I think that there are many tracks.” Harris then talked about the need to engage America’s allies and to “lead with our values.”

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Loretta Sanchez on her foreign policy style

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Should college be free?

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U.S. Senate candidates offer ideas on whom to help, and how

One key early question in Monday’s U.S. Senate debate in Stockton: Whom would you help first when it comes to the economy, and why?

The two Democrats on stage, Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, both sounded similar themes. Sanchez talked about an affordable college education. Harris talked about helping working parents.

“We need to have a national commitment to affordable child care,” Harris said.

Considering his political party, perhaps the most unconventional answer came from Republican Ron Unz. Unz, who has backed a higher minimum wage, also lashed out at a familiar target of Democrats.

“I think we have to crack down on Wall Street, just like Bernie Sanders is saying,” said Unz.

His fellow GOP candidate, Tom Del Beccaro, disagreed.

“I’m not at all concerned about Wall Street and the rich,” he said. “Government can’t solve everything.”

Republican Duf Sundheim said he’s opposed to raising the minimum wage. Instead, he advocated for a boost in the earned income tax credit — aimed directly at the lowest-income Americans.

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The crowd is ready...

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Pre-debate jitters for U.S. Senate candidates

As he paced outside the University of the Pacific hall that will host tonight’s U.S. Senate debate, Republican candidate George “Duf” Sundheim compared the experience to the excitement he felt before a football game.

“The adrenaline is really pumping,” said Sundheim, who played ball at Stanford University.

GOP rival Tom Del Beccaro seemed a little calmer. He said he plans to be aggressive onstage, and to play out why he is the true conservative in the race.

Del Beccaro thinks he’ll win over enough Republicans to land a second-place finish in the June primary, which, under the state’s “top-two” primary rules, will be enough to win him a spot on the November general election ballot.

Republican Ron Unz had enough downtime to carbo-load by grabbing a plate of pasta in the debate’s press room.

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Senate candidates told to keep it short

It looks like the rules will be pretty strict in tonight’s U.S. Senate debate in Stockton.

Of course, it will be up to debate moderators -- San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Director John Diaz and KCRA 3 anchor Edie Lambert -- to keep the candidates in line.

  • There will be no opening statements.
  • The order in which candidates will be asked questions was selected randomly.
  • Candidates will have 90 seconds to answer a question, and 30 seconds to answer follow-up questions.
  • Candidates have 90 seconds for their closing statements.
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U.S. Senate candidates all set for Stockton debate

Five candidates, one stage, 90 minutes.

The first of two U.S. Senate candidate debates kicks off at 6 p.m. on the campus of the University of the Pacific. And while Monday night may not seem like a huge TV night for politics, it’s a chance for a campaign that’s been almost invisible to take a little bit of the spotlight across California.

Some of the candidates arrived early. Duf Sundheim, the former chairman of the California Republican Party and first-time contender for elected office, visited with UOP students before the big event.

Tom Del Beccaro, also a former state GOP chairman, made his way to the debate site early for a few handshakes.

Meantime, rival GOP candidate Ron Unz appears to have taken a liking to a quick pre-showtime meal with the press corps.

The 90-minute debate will air on TV and radio stations across California. The only other scheduled debate is on May 10 in San Diego.

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The Senate debate starts soon. Here’s what to watch for.

California’s U.S. Senate race is about to see its first real action as the top candidates descend on the University of the Pacific in Stockton tonight for the first major debate.

Will one of the Republicans emerge from the pack? Will front-runner Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris come under attack?

The two Democrats on stage will be Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana. The three Republicans will be Tom Del Beccaro and George “Duf” Sundheim – two former chairmen of the California Republican Party – and Silicon Valley software developer Ron Unz.

The debate starts at 6 p.m. and we’ll be covering it live here.

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Remembering Prince on the state Senate floor

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Assembly Democrats want more than $1 billion for affordable housing next year

Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) announces a $1.3-billion affordable housing proposal on Monday at the Capitol.
(Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times )

A dozen Assembly Democrats made a pitch Monday for more than $1 billion in state funding for affordable housing programs next year, a move they said would help California’s most vulnerable deal with soaring housing costs, but one that would only be a drop in the bucket in addressing the state’s housing needs.

The plan provides a mixture of tax credits, development subsidies and grants to spur homebuilding for those with the lowest incomes in the state, including farmworkers and the homeless.

“This investment will address poverty among Californians with the lowest 25% of incomes who spent two-thirds of their income on housing,” said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), a co-author of the measure.

Chiu said the package would allow for the building of up to 25,000 new affordable units over time. California’s housing problems, though, are far greater than that. An estimate from the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office says that the state needs to build roughly 110,000 additional units each year to keep pace with rising housing prices. Currently, California’s $459,000 average home price is more than twice the national average.

There is no pending legislation to make it easier to build homes in the state on a broad scale, such as easing environmental requirements or reforming tax policy to incentivize residential development.

Chiu said lawmakers understand the state needs to do more on housing, but can’t ignore the most needy.

“We don’t think the answer is to do nothing,” he said.

Assembly Democrats who attended Monday’s news conference, including Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), say they’re requesting money for the plan in year’s budget. Chiu said the one-time budget allocation would be about a third of the state’s projected budget surplus.

A budget spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown declined to comment on the proposal.

Last year, Brown vetoed a widely supported Chiu bill that would have offered a tax credit for low-income homebuilders, saying the Legislature should make such funding requests during the budget process. Chiu said this plan is a response to Brown’s criticism.

Beyond the low-income tax credit, the Assembly Democrats’ plan would provide grants to local governments to help middle-class families in high-cost areas with downpayment and other home buying assistance as well as provide funding for the construction of new farmworker housing and supportive housing for the homeless.

Assembly Republicans were cold to the measure, responding that the state should emphasize easing regulations on homebuilding rather than subsidies to address affordability.

“I think government intervention is what created the crisis in the first place,” said Marc Steinorth (R-Rancho Cucamonga). “I think government needs to get out of the way and allow the free market to create its own way out of this by really eliminating red tape.”

UPDATE:

5:15 p.m.: This story was updated with more context on the proposal and the GOP response.

This post was originally published at 1:47 p.m.

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Assembly votes to ban tobacco use on all state college campuses

The state Assembly on Monday voted to ban the use of tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, on all campuses of the California State University system and California Community Colleges by 2018.

The proposal by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) follows the lead of the semi-autonomous University of California system, which adopted a tobacco-free policy that took effect in 2014.

McCarty cited findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke can lead to cancer, lung disease and heart disease.

“In essence this measure will promote a safe and healthy environment for students to learn, making campuses a more education-friendly environment and tobacco smoke-free,” McCarty told his colleagues.

The measure passed on a 41-24 vote, with Assemblyman Donald P. Wagner (R-Irvine) arguing that the Legislature should leave it to local community college boards to decide the policy that best fits local values.

“What we have is a system that allows local government agencies, school boards, college boards, to make the laws that are right and appropriate and wanted by their community rather than have us act as a super school board up here and decide what is best,” Wagner said in opposition to the bill, which next goes to the state Senate for consideration.

More than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States are smoking related, according to the national center, which said another 2.5 million people have died from health problems caused by second-hand smoke since 1964.

Although smoking declined from 20.9% to 16.8% between 2005 and 2014, the use of electronic cigarettes and hookahs is increasing among young people, health officials said.

The proposal outraged Robert Best, western regional representative of the Smoker’s Club, an advocacy group.

“It’s another blatant attack on smokers,” Best said. “They are outdoors in a public place. I guess the campuses are no longer public.”

Pablo Garnica, an officer with the California State Student Assn., said each university and its students should develop their smoking policy internally, and the state “should focus on funding the CSU in order to rebuild crumbling infrastructure, grow student success programs, and pay our faculty.”

He said electronic cigarette users try not to disturb those around them.

“Building a community of successful students means being able to accommodate diversity of lifestyles and not banning activities of creative students by the state,” Garnica said.

State law currently bans smoking in public buildings on campuses and within 20 feet of a door or window, but the Legislature in 2011 passed a bill allowing each campus to decide whether it wants to further regulate smoking.

As a result, 18 of the 72 community college districts currently have smoke-free policies, as do a handful of Cal State campuses including Fullerton, San Jose and Northridge.

The new proposal allows campuses to fine violators of the smoking ban up to $100, with the money going to anti-smoking education and cessation programs.

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Elections officials say ballot design is the key to avoiding U.S. Senate race confusion

It will be the longest list of candidates vying for a single race since the historic recall of California’s governor in 2003. And the potential for voter error -- which means invalid ballots -- is very real.

Elections officials across the state have chosen different ways to display the 34 names in the June 7 primary for U.S. Senate. Should a voter mistakenly pick more than one candidate, known as an “overvote,” that ballot won’t be counted.

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Friday tax collections again below expectations

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Hillary Clinton announces California leadership team

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign announced three members of her California leadership team Friday.

Clinton has made fundraising and campaign stops across California ahead of the June 7 primary, which is shaping up to be increasingly more meaningful than past presidential contests.

The leadership team includes:

State Director Buffy Wicks ran state operations for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign in California, Texas and Missouri. Wicks later worked as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and is currently the campaign director for Common Sense Kids Action’s California Kids Campaign.

Political Director Peggy Moore organized a get-out-the-vote campaign for Obama in 2008 as deputy field director for Northern California. She also has worked with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), and for Oakland Mayors Ronald V. Dellums and Libby Schaaf. She was political director at the Organizing for America group that spun off from the Obama campaign.

Communications Director Hilda Marella Delgado has worked on public relations campaigns for Southern California Edison, Coca-Cola Company, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and the Los Angeles Federation of Labor AFL-CIO.

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Gov. Jerry Brown in New York for U.N. climate event

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A fight over gun control at the very top

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom are in a dispute over the best way to enact gun control laws.

Newsom has proposed an initiative, voicing skepticism that the Legislature will act on the issue, while De Leon said the ballot measure could “derail” efforts to pass legislation to control guns.

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California congressman ‘gravely disappointed’ Obama doesn’t recognize Armenian slaughter as genocide

Burbank Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said Friday morning that he was “gravely disappointed” that President Obama didn’t call the century-old massacre of 1.5 million Armenians genocide.

“For a president who knows the history so well, who spoke so passionately about the genocide as a senator and presidential candidate, and who has always championed human rights, the choice of silence and complicity is all the more painfully inexplicable,” Schiff said in a statement.

The White House released a statement from Obama for Armenian Remembrance Day that stopped short of calling it genocide.

“As we look from the past to the future, we continue to underscore the importance of historical remembrance as a tool of prevention, as we call for a full, frank, and just acknowledgment of the facts, which would serve the interests of all concerned. I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed. I have also seen that peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past,” Obama said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Schiff publicly called for Obama to use the word genocide before leaving office.

The U.S. is among the countries that don’t formally recognize as an act of genocide the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923.

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Politics podcast: November tax hike scores well in new poll

When Gov. Jerry Brown was asking voters to raise taxes temporarily in 2012, his plan never polled higher than a bare majority.

And so it may come as some surprise that an effort to extend some of those taxes seems much more popular.

A new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California finds 62% of likely voters favor the effort to keep income taxes for high earners at their current level.

On this week’s California Politics Podcast, we take a closer look at those poll numbers and the path ahead for the tax increase campaign.

We also discuss some of the bills that faced a big deadline this week at the state Capitol, and the awkward disagreement over gun control between the leader of the state Senate and the lieutenant governor.

As always, you can subscribe to the weekly politics podcast either on Soundcloud or iTunes.

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Legislators wield new influence over California’s powerful climate change agency

For the first time, state lawmakers have appointed members to the powerful Air Resources Board, the agency responsible for implementing California’s climate change goals. Before now, the board’s been selected entirely by the governor.

The two new board members are representatives from low-income communities, which often are disproportionately affected by pollution.

Dean Florez, a former state senator from the San Joaquin Valley, and Diane Takvorian, a San Diego environmental health advocate, already plan to push for changes to how the agency does business, including challenging a plan to allow California polluters to offset some of their emissions by protecting rainforests in Brazil.

Expect Florez and Takvorian to keep the Legislature in the loop as well. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) called the pair the Legislature’s “eyes and ears on the CARB board.”

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It’s ‘unlikely’ California will hit its April tax revenue goal, analysts say

The job of crafting a balanced budget for California’s new fiscal year could be getting harder by the day.

On Thursday, the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office cast doubt on hitting Gov. Jerry Brown’s predictions for this month’s income tax collections.

“Based on what we now know, hitting the target seems unlikely,” wrote analysts Jason Sisney and Justin Garosi.

April is a crucial month for collecting personal income taxes from Californians, and Brown’s budget assumes $14.9 billion over the 30-day period.

As of Thursday, the monthly total stood at $10.86 billion. And the analysts said that may mean the final nine days of April will need to see tax revenues of as much as 35% above the same time period in 2015.

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After monthlong wait, tobacco bills are going to governor’s desk Friday

The Legislature plans to send a batch of tobacco control bills to the governor on Friday, more than a month after they were approved, officials say.

The bills approved in early March were held up to hinder a referendum threatened by the tobacco industry to measures raising the smoking age from 18 to 21, and banning electronic cigarettes in restaurants, theaters and other public places where smoking is prohibited.

“We will continue to take these threats seriously and do everything in our power to keep hostile out-of-state interests from subverting and tampering with our cherished democratic initiative process,” Claire Conlon, a spokeswoman for Sen. Kevin De León, said at the time.

Once they land on the governor’s desk, he will have 12 days to act, meaning a final decision could come in May.

A tobacco industry lobbyist had threatened a referendum that would have driven up the cost of collecting signatures for other initiatives to raise the state tobacco tax by $2 a pack; legalize recreational use of marijuana; extend 2012’s Proposition 30 on income tax rates to fund education; and enact Brown’s plan to overhaul the criminal justice system.

Backers of some of those initiatives are expected to turn in their signatures next week, and will not be affected by the threat to drive up petition costs.

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California congressman to Curt Schilling: ‘Sports don’t build character they reveal it’

ESPN announced Wednesday night it had fired outspoken baseball analyst and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling after he reposted a meme widely interpreted as anti-transgender on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

His first social media post after the firing announcement swung back at a tweet by Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose), whose 9-year-old granddaughter is transgender.

It isn’t clear that Schilling knew anything about Honda or his family. The former analyst frequently responds to people who reference him on Twitter.

Honda took issue with the tweet in a statement released by his campaign Thursday afternoon.

“As the proud grandfather of a transgender grandchild, Curt Schilling’s post on social media was personal. The Sportscaster’s booth is no place for such hate filled speech fueled by intolerance and divisiveness,” Honda said in the statement. “Apparently, posting hateful and derisive memes was not enough for Mr. Schilling, who through his Twitter account went on to call me ‘a coward’ for standing with my grandchild and the transgender community.”

Honda founded the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus and is vice chairman of the LGBT Equality Caucus.

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Assemblyman Roger Hernández denies threatening or abusing his wife, will not step down

Assemblyman Roger Hernández (D-West Covina) said in a phone interview with The Times on Thursday he has no plans to take a leave of absence and he denied accusations from his estranged wife that he threatened and abused her.

On Thursday, two leaders of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus called on Hernández to step aside from his duties in Sacramento one week after a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the lawmaker amid domestic violence accusations.

Hernández said the unfounded allegations were made by his estranged wife, Susan Rubio, a Baldwin Park City Council member, “at the tail end of a 16-month divorce process.”

“I’m going to continue to do my job because I have done nothing wrong,” Hernández said. “I plan to continue to do the work for the good people of the 48th Assembly District. I don’t intend on walking away from the responsibility vested in me by the people of the 48th Assembly District.”

The assemblyman said the call for him to take a leave was from two legislators and does not represent the feelings of other members of the Legislative Women’s Caucus.

“They have a right to their opinion, but it’s just that, their opinion,” Hernández said. “I was very pleased and heartened by the support I received from my women colleagues during the floor session today. They said they weren’t asked to give an opinion or vote on an expression by the caucus.”

Hernández said Rubio has sent him emails and left him messages over the past year indicating she loved him, but he said he has not talked to her for 10 months until they met in court two weeks ago.

The judge had encouraged the two to talk and try to work out differences, so Hernández said he approached his wife calmly and offered to talk, but he was rebuffed by her attorney. He denied his approach was made in an aggressive or threatening manner.

“That is completely false,” he said.

“There is something called due process,” he said. “There has been no criminal prosecution, no investigation. There has been no charge.”

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Bill to give ‘gig economy’ workers collective bargaining rights is done for the year

Diane Hohen, with TaskRabbit, delivers a bouquet of flowers in Boston in 2012.
(Boston Globe / Boston Globe via Getty Images)

One of the most talked-about bills in the state Capitol is done for the year.

Tuesday morning, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) pulled her effort to allow Uber, Task Rabbit and other workers in the so-called gig economy to collectively bargain for their pay and benefits. The complicated measure would forge new ground in labor law by creating a class of worker that was neither employee nor independent contractor in an effort to allow gig economy workers to better advocate for themselves while maintaining flexibility.

Gonzalez said in a statement that she will keep working on the issue and plans to take it up again in the next legislative session. As much as 20% of the state’s workforce doesn’t have sufficient job protections because they’re involved in for-hire work, she said.

“The issue is complex,” Gonzalez said. “The law is untested. The challenge is essential.”

The bill cleared its first legislative hurdle at a committee hearing Monday afternoon, but received strong pushback from the California Chamber of Commerce and tech industry advocates. Barry Broad, a Teamsters lobbyist, also raised questions about the difficulty in coordinating bargaining efforts from so many diverse interests.

“Let’s say you took an example of Uber with 180,000 drivers,” Broad said. “You could have 100 unions running after groups of people which would be difficult to distraction for the union and crazy to distraction for hosting platform.”

Gonzalez had long signaled that because of the issue’s complexities she didn’t expect it to pass this year, but she hoped to get something to Gov. Jerry Brown before he leaves office at the end of 2018.

“It’s too new for people,” she said after Monday’s committee hearing.

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Women’s caucus leaders press Assemblyman Roger Hernandez to take a leave of absence

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Leaders of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus are calling on Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) to step aside from his duties in Sacramento one week after a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the lawmaker amid domestic violence accusations.

“Domestic violence is an important issue that this Legislature has worked hard to address through awareness and statewide legislation,” said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) in a written statement.

The two legislators want Hernandez to step down from his chairmanship of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee.

“It’s important that the Legislature send a strong and consistent message to victims about our commitment to confronting domestic violence and demonstrate that we take allegations seriously when they occur among one of our own,” said the statement.

Hernandez’s estranged wife, Susan Rubio, a Baldwin Park City Council member, alleged in court documents that she suffered abuse from the legislator that included “pushing, shoving, hitting and choking.”

Hernandez did not respond immediately for comment. His attorney denied the allegations last week.

Hernandez is challenging incumbent Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk) for her congressional seat.

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Collective bargaining bill for Uber, Lyft and other ‘gig economy’ workers passes first test

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California collects some big bucks on Wednesday

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California congressman urges President Obama: Call Armenian slaughter genocide

On the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) urged President Obama to choose his words wisely and call the century-old massacre of 1.5 million Armenians genocide.

The U.S. is among the countries that don’t formally recognize as an act of genocide the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923. The Turkish government continues to dispute that genocide took place and has poured millions into lobbying efforts to oppose official U.S. recognition.

Despite promising as a candidate to do so, Obama has so far declined to use the word. With the April 24, the 101st anniversary of the start of the genocide, just days away, Schiff is hoping Obama takes the opportunity in his last year as president.

“This is the last opportunity to move this president and this administration to recognize this as genocide,” Schiff said by phone.

Schiff, who is Jewish, says he empathizes with Armenians who are hurt that U.S. officials won’t call the killings genocide.

“I have sat with survivors of the genocide. Men and women, their numbers dwindling year after year, and heard them recall the destruction of their lives and their families and all they had known. As children, they were forced from their homes and saw their families beaten, raped and murdered. They fled across continents and oceans to build lives in our nation,” Schiff said on the House floor. “Mr. President, for them and for their descendants, the word ‘genocide’ is sacred because it means the world has not and will not forget. To deny genocide, on the other hand, is profane.”

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Goodbye, Oakland: Gov. Jerry Brown is moving out

The man whose political comeback began in Oakland is officially packing up and moving out.

Gov. Jerry Brown is selling his Oakland Hills home, making Sacramento his official city of residence rather than commuting back and forth.

A spokesman confirmed Wednesday morning’s story in the East Bay Times that the governor and California First Lady Anne Gust Brown are putting their 4,147-square-foot home on the market this week with an asking price of $2.595 million.

Brown was elected mayor of Oakland in 1998, a rebirth of his political career after a third failed presidential run in 1992. In his return to the governor’s office in 2011, Brown often remarked how much he had learned about the gritty details of governing during his eight years as Oakland mayor.

His first Oakland home was a loft that he had built inside a waterfront district warehouse in 1995, the same building from which he hosted a Bay Area radio talk show before becoming mayor.

The home in the hills has been described as Zen-inspired, which seemed well-suited to the first couple.

Brown rented a loft apartment in downtown Sacramento after winning the governor’s race in 2010, and moved into the renovated governor’s mansion a few months ago. The Brown family also owns rural property in Colusa County, where the governor spends some weekends.

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Gov. Brown signs bills to help clean up neighborhoods near Exide plant

Soil taken from a yard in Commerce near the now-shuttered Exide battery plant is tested in February by a team from the L.A. County Health Department.
( Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed bills that will provide $176.6 million in loans to pay for testing and cleanup of lead contamination in neighborhoods surrounding the closed Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon.

The emergency allocation, to be paid back by Exide, goes toward removing toxic contamination in residential properties, schools, daycare centers and parks within a 1.7-mile radius of the plant, Brown said.

“Children should be able to play in yards free from toxics,” Brown said in a statement.. “With this funding plan, we’re doubling down on efforts to protect the community and hold Exide responsible.”

Twin bills by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) and state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) provided the financing plan proposed by Brown in February, and were put through fast-track approval by the Legislature.

The state is also going through an environmental impact review of the cleanup effort.

The legislation also calls for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to use some of the money for job training for residents of the community so they can participate in the cleanup.

The plant operated for more than three decades and work included recycling lead-bearing scrap materials obtained from spent lead-acid batteries. Inspections found more than 100 violations, including chemical leaks.

“The Exide Technologies facility has been able to pollute my community unabated for more than 33 years, which is entirely inexcusable,” said Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles).

The state suspended operations in 2014 and the facility closed last year as the state approved an initial $7 million emergency fund to begin testing the first 1,500 residential properties around the plan for contamination.

The total cost of the is expected to exceed $500 million, according to Assemblyman Luis A. Alejo (D-Salinas), chairman of the Assembly’s Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.

“Most of the victims are poor, and many are Latino and other minority families,” Alejo said Wednesday, welcoming the governor’s action.

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Evaluating how Congress reacts to gun violence

Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Los Angeles) and more than 100 House Democrats want to change the chamber’s rules to require a congressional hearing each time the chamber stands in silence to recognize gun violence victims.

“This is not about taking away citizens 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms,” Cardenas said at a news conference. “By changing the rules, we are setting a new standard for Congress to act.”

Cardenas said each time the House holds a moment of silence, he hears colleagues mutter their frustrations that more isn’t being done. There were at least a dozen moments of silence in the House to recognize gun violence victims last year.

“We’re not activists, we shouldn’t have to shout out. We have the will of the voters behind us, we have been sent to Congress and empowered to do the will of the people and yet, my colleagues are relegated to just shouting out in frustration, in pain over the fact that this is happening over and over,” Cardenas said.

The rule change, which likely faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House, would require the House Speaker to call for a committee hearing on a shooting the day after the chamber holds a moment of silence. The chairman of the committee would have 10 days to schedule the hearing, or the majority of the committee members could call the hearing themselves.

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Annette Bening testifies in Sacramento about teachers

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Cops will get to view body camera footage before writing reports if bill passes

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California bill seeking to limit surge pricing by Uber and Lyft dies

An effort by a state senator to regulate surge pricing by Uber, Lyft and other ride-sharing companies failed in a Senate committee Tuesday.

State Sen. Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) said that his bill, which would also have beefed up background checks on ride-sharing drivers and increased enforcement of ride-sharing rules, would protect drivers and consumers from predatory pricing and potential harm. He predicted tragedies would occur without more rules.

“The blood is going to be on our hands,” Hueso said.

His argument didn’t sway his colleagues. Multiple members of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing said lawmakers should loosen regulations on the taxi industry rather than increase them on ride-sharing companies.

“We need to help the taxis out rather than doubling down on an increasingly broken strategy,” said Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who was one of four Democrats to abstain from voting on the bill.

Hueso, who has deep family ties in the taxi industry, is one of the largest thorns in the side of ride-sharing companies at the Capitol. He chairs the Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee and has used his power there to delay two widely supported bills to ease ride-sharing regulations on carpooling and license plate rules. He was able to usher his own ride-sharing bill quickly through his own committee before it died Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the ride-sharing industry has kicked up its influence at the Capitol with Uber alone spending millions in lobbying over the last few years.

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FOR THE RECORD

This article originally misstated the number of Democrats who abstained from voting on the bill.

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Tea party will rally during Gov. John Kasich’s California speech

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You could vote on controversial delta water tunnels plan in 2018

An Assembly committee gave its approval Tuesday to legislation that would require California voters approve of Gov. Jerry Brown’s $15-billion water plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

“In times of crisis, we shouldn’t reach for the easiest thing,” Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), the bill’s author, said during the hearing.

Eggman’s AB 1713 would set new criteria for the long-debated water plan when it comes to the impact on the delta community. Most notably, though, it would also subject the project to an up-or-down vote at the next statewide election.

Water agencies, most notably the powerful Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, oppose the bill. So, too, do business groups and some labor unions. The specter of future votes on other big proposals loomed large in their arguments against AB 1713.

“This could be a bad precedent for a lot of other infrastructure projects that are out there,” said Cesar Diaz, legislative director of the State Building and Construction Trades Council.

Many of the same groups oppose a measure on the November statewide ballot to force public votes on large projects like the water tunnels effort.

The bipartisan vote in favor of the bill included both supporters and critics of efforts to expand the state’s water supply through dams or other means. Even so, they all supported the idea of new restrictions on Brown’s delta project, which faces some key regulatory hurdles in 2016.

The last time voters weighed in on a plan to more easily transport water from the northern to the southern parts of the state was in 1982, when they rejected Brown’s plan for a peripheral canal.

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Mailer calls lawmaker ‘environmental champion.’ Environmentalists disagree.

A mailer sent out over the weekend touts Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown’s pro-environment credentials, calling her an “environmental champion” who will “protect our environment.”

It was sent by independent expenditure committee Keeping Californians Working, which last week reported receiving nearly $2 million in contributions, including $1 million from Chevron. It claims Brown (D-San Bernardino) helped pass a major solar energy bill and stronger renewable energy and efficiency requirements.

But some environmental groups, including one named in the mailer, say she doesn’t deserve those plaudits.

“I think it’s completely outrageous that our name is being used in a mail piece to imply that we have endorsed Assemblymember Cheryl Brown,” said Strela Cervas, co-director of the California Environmental Justice Alliance, which was referenced in the piece and has not made an endorsement in the competitive race between Brown and Democratic challenger Eloise Reyes.

Cervas said the group’s score card shows that Brown is not an environmental justice leader “by any stretch of the imagination.”

In a statement, Brown’s campaign manager said her record on the environment is “unmatched” and touted her endorsement by the California Democratic Party, adding that she can’t control the actions of the independent expenditure committee.

Brown has received criticism in the past for her role in helping block a key oil provision in last year’s SB 350, the landmark climate change bill that would have cut petroleum use statewide by 50% over 15 years.

Keeping Californians Working could not be reached for comment. It has reported spending just under $42,000 in campaign mailers for Brown.

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Lights, camera, Sacramento: Annette Bening to testify

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Man who barricaded himself in car outside state Capitol identified

Police have identified the man they say held up traffic outside the state Capitol for hours after he barricaded himself inside his car in downtown Sacramento.

Edgar Rodriguez-Napoles, 27, was booked Monday night into the Sacramento County Jail on charges of suspicion of possession of a hoax device, a felony, and resisting a police officer, a misdemeanor.

He was arrested without incident at about 4 p.m. Monday, more than two hours after he blocked the intersection at 10th and L streets, outside the north entrance of the Capitol.

The man inside the vehicle was reportedly shouting at police and had taped papers to his windshield. Phrases such as “Cops or Criminals” and “I just want justice” were scrawled on the outside of the silver sedan, which was registered to Rodriguez-Napoles.

Officer Matthew McPhail, a spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, said hostage negotiators were eventually able to make contact with Rodriguez-Napoles by phone and convinced him to surrender.

It took several more hours for police to inspect the car with robots, which discovered two items that were made to look like explosives, police say. The items were later determined to be safe.

McPhail said after the arrest police officers served a search warrant at the man’s home in an unincorporated area near the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento. Nothing was recovered, he said.

According to court records, the former roommate of Napoles-Rodriguez was granted a temporary restraining order against him last week. The roommate alleged in a filing with the Sacramento County Superior Court that Napoles-Rodriguez threatened her with a baseball bat and also threatened to burn down her house.

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Who can, or will, simplify California’s voter registration card?

Over the course of several weeks of investigating the confusion over how to be a nonpartisan “independent” voter in California, one thing kept coming back to the discussion: the registration form.

Not only are there multiple versions in circulation, but there have been three different versions of the official language in the last nine years. And the most comprehensive fix to that language, crafted by a state task force in 2008, was quietly set aside during the state Capitol negotiations that created California’s top-two primary system.

Now some say it’s time to take a closer look.

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California collected $1.5 billion in taxes on Monday. And it’s still coming in.

The flow of personal income tax revenues into California coffers turned into a pretty strong rush on Monday, with the state Franchise Tax Board reporting $1.58 billion in collections by the time the official day of reckoning had ended.

That’s about 8% more than the state received on tax deadline day in 2015, which was April 15.

As we’ve reported, this is the crucial month for setting the state’s budget priorities for the coming fiscal year. Gov. Jerry Brown has projected almost $15 billion in total personal income tax receipts by the end of April.

That means the next few days are crucial. As the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office has pointed out, the total tally for the month as of Tuesday morning -- $5.5 billion -- is less than halfway there. That means that for the rest of the month, the state needs to have more days on which it tops the $1-billion mark in tax receipts, and probably some in excess of $2 billion.

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Lawmakers approve bill that could require thumbprints from bullet buyers

The California Senate’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday approved a bill aimed at allowing the state to collect information on those who buy ammunition for firearms.

An earlier law that would have required bullet purchasers to provide identification and a thumbprint was struck down by a court in 2010 on the grounds that its definition of handgun ammunition was vague.

That case is on appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The new bill by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León (D-Los Angeles), SB 1235, would clarify that the previous law applies to all ammunition, including bullets for long guns and handguns as well as shotgun shells, which he hopes will address the lower court’s concerns.

“I am trying to provide a little clarity by removing the vagueness and ambiguity,” De León told the panel.

Another bill that would have required background checks for bullet purchasers got bogged down last year in the Legislature.

Sam Paredes, the executive director of Gun Owners of California, said the bill would harm law-abiding citizens by making it harder to buy ammunition.

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Legislature weighs more disclosure for police body cameras

LAPD Officer Jin Oh displays video from a body camera during a news conference on Dec. 16, 2014.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

State lawmakers are weighing whether to require police departments to release body camera footage, and so far efforts are moving forward to make some videos public.

Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) wants to require the release of body camera footage in instances where police caused great bodily injury or death, and his bill received support Tuesday morning.

Quirk’s bill is in contrast to one proposed by Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), who was pushing to keep all footage private absent a court order. Cooper has since eliminated that provision from his bill.

For a breakdown of the transparency and privacy concerns surrounding police body cameras that are being weighed by the Legislature, check out my overview from last month.

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Should ‘ghost guns’ be treated like real guns?

A state Senate panel on Tuesday approved a bill requiring those who build guns at home to register them with the state of California, get a serial number and undergo a criminal background check.

“These firearms are called ghost guns because they are built at home … with no serial numbers or background checks involved,” Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León (D-Los Angeles) told the Senate Public Safety Committee before it approved the bill on a 5-3 party-line vote. “These are weapons that have the ability to kill or maim a human being.”

De León authored the measure, which is similar to one of his bills that was vetoed by the governor last year.

He said the problem has become worse since the veto, including use of the guns by drug cartels in Mexico. Hundreds of ghost guns have been seized in California, and they have been used in major crimes, including a mass shooting in 2013. The measure is backed by the California Police Chiefs Assn.

“Gun-smithing has become easier than putting together Ikea furniture because of the 3-D printer,” said Chief Jennifer G. Tejada of the Emeryville Police Department. “This bill will decrease the number of untraceable firearms in California.”

The measure is opposed by groups including the National Rifle Assn. and Gun Owners of California.

“We’re going to take hobbyists who enjoy making guns and we’re going to make them criminals,” said Ed Worley, a lobbyist for the NRA.

Sam Paredes, executive director of the gun owners group, said the measure will hurt law-abiding citizens.

“This bill will do nothing to prevent a criminal from building their own gun or stealing a gun,” he said.

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Information was sparse inside Capitol as incident unfolded outside

While both the Senate and Assembly adjourned early because of the standoff unfolding outside, there was no mention of what was happening on the north side of the Capitol.

Many staff members and other Capitol occupants relied on Twitter and news reports to track what was going on.

Some journalists were surprised no announcements were made to staff members, given that the SWAT team had been called in and sharpshooters had been spotted on the building’s roof.

Samantha Corbin, a lobbyist, was less than pleased at the lack of information as she tweeted what she knew from her own account.

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Police make plans to approach vehicle; Capitol building is not on lockdown

Police say the man inside the car has been detained “without incident.”

“They still have to deal with the car itself,” said California Highway Patrol Officer George Granada.

While road closures will remain in effect in a perimeter outside the Capitol, the building itself is not on lockdown, Granada said.

People are still free to enter and exit the Capitol through the south entrance, but are not being allowed to walk north toward the parked car.

Granada says that CHP officials are still discussing plans to evacuate the Capitol, but have not decided whether evacuations will proceed.

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Barricaded man exits car with hands up

(Photo credit: Cheryl Miller)

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Watch live: Local CBS affiliate broadcasts from the scene

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Assembly adjourns early because of suspicious car near Capitol

The state Assembly adjourned early Monday because of a suspicious car parked on the street in front of the Capitol, but the Senate went through its full agenda without any mention of the security issue.

The Assembly was supposed to vote on several big issues, including a ban on smoking on college campuses, but wrapped up the meeting abruptly before 3 p.m.

Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar) tweeted: “If anyone is curious as to why session ended abruptly ... Security issue just right outside of the building.”

The Senate went through its full agenda, approving a bill that would ban the use of bull-hooks on elephants and prohibiting the sale of powdered alcohol in the state. They even wished Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Rafael) a happy birthday before adjourning after 3 p.m. without any announcement of the security situation going on outside the building.

Asked about the situation, Claire Conlon, a spokeswoman for the Senate president, said, “It’s our policy not to discuss Capitol security details.”

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Scenes from outside state Capitol

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Sacramento police still ‘not sure’ what man’s intentions are outside state Capitol

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Police, SWAT teams arrive to investigate person ‘barricaded’ in car

Sacramento police have a SWAT team and negotiators on scene in downtown Sacramento to deal with a person “barricaded” in a car outside the state Capitol.

Police said they were evacuating buildings near the scene between 10th and 12th streets.

Officers could be seen gearing up in tactical gear outside the Capitol building, and onlookers observed police rolling out what appeared to be a bomb squad robot.

According to the California Highway Patrol’s George Granada, a pedestrian first reported the car at about 1:45 p.m. to an officer at the north entrance of the Capitol.

That entrance and the area outside it have now been closed to foot traffic, and bystanders have been asked to move out of the area, Granada said.

Police have blocked off traffic and set up a perimeter around the state Capitol between 10th and 13th streets and L and N streets.

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Rep. Ted Lieu calls for cellphone hacking investigation after ’60 Minutes’ segment

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) is asking for a congressional investigation after an episode of “60 Minutes” in which his phone was hacked to show how easy it is.

In a segment that aired Sunday night, “60 Minutes” purchased an iPhone in New York and sent it to Lieu in California. Lieu, who has a computer science degree from Stanford, agreed to use the phone as his personal device for a week.

“60 Minutes” then gave the phone’s number to a German company that looks for security flaws in technology, and two German hackers were able to easily listen to Lieu’s phone calls.

Lieu said when he showed up to tape the segment in Washington, the hackers had told producers which hotel he’d stayed at the night before.

“It was really creepy that they knew where I was even though the GPS was turned off,” he said by phone Monday.

The segment also shows different hackers demonstrating a technique that allowed them to access reporter Sharyn Alfonsi’s emails, ride-sharing account and credit card information when she got onto a fake wireless Internet network made to look like it belonged to the hotel where she was staying.

Lieu said he’s always tried to be careful what he writes and says, but the “60 Minutes” experience has him thinking about how many elected officials are using phones that might have been hacked. He also has been using encrypted messaging systems.

“I always sort of thought that whatever I say on my phone or type in my computer ... other people will potentially see it,” he said. “Now it’s very real to me.”

He mentioned in the segment that President Obama recently had called him on his cellphone, as had other elected officials.

In a letter Monday, Lieu asked the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to investigate a network interchange service called Signaling System Seven, or SS7, which connects phone carriers worldwide and allows cellphone users to transmit information from text messages to bank account numbers.

Lieu said he wants the committee to look at how big the problem is, how it can be fixed and what could happen if it isn’t. He pointed to the possibility that hackers could listen in on phone calls for stock trading secrets, foreign governments could hear conversations or rival political campaigns even could eavesdrop on strategy.

“This flaw affects everybody. It affects daily life,” he said. “There are just thousands of ways this flaw affects commerce … and national security. I’m sure the Donald Trump campaign would love to know what the Ted Cruz campaign manager is saying on his cellphone.”

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Police cordon off area outside Capitol after suspicious car blocks intersection in downtown Sacramento

Police have cordoned off an area outside the north steps of the state Capitol after a car blocked the road in downtown Sacramento.

The vehicle appeared to have paper and signs taped to its windshield, and the driver did not obey earlier commands from the California Highway Patrol to exit the car.

The silver sedan also appeared to have writings scrawled on its exterior, including “Cops or Criminals” and references to “faith” and “government.”

Police evacuated some nearby restaurants, and instructed people to move back from the area. CHP officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

According to the office of Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), business is continuing as usual inside the capitol.

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Feinstein, Boxer seeking flight path changes after concern over noise pollution

California’s senators waded into a debate over ongoing concerns about noise caused by new flight paths Monday with a letter asking the head of the Federal Aviation Administration to address the complaints.

The number of complaints to the San Francisco International Airport’s Noise Abatement Office has spiked since new, state-of-the-art routes passing over Palo Alto and Santa Cruz were enacted.

Similar concerns have been raised at other airports across the country, and the FAA is studying potential changes to the traffic control system, the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, that will keep efficiencies but reduce noise.

“While we appreciate that this airspace modernization program is intended to benefit airlines and their customers, these benefits may not outweigh the serious noise concerns reported by many other Californians,” the letter from Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer states.

More efficient flight paths are scheduled to be put into place in Southern California airports, and Boxer and Feinstein wrote that the “noise burden” on residents needs to be considered. The letter states that thousands of Californians have called their offices since the start of frequent, low-altitude flights into San Francisco International Airport.

“In Southern California, where NextGen changes are still forthcoming, we are already hearing from constituents who believe that the new patterns were developed without adequate regard for noise impacts,” the letter states.

Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park), Sam Farr (D-Carmel) and Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) recently created a committee to recommend ways to ease airplane noise around San Francisco International Airport.

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Voters log on to see if they are really registered as an independent

From all walks of life, California voters have been checking to see if they are really unaffiliated with all political parties, or whether they made a mistake in their registration.

On Sunday, our Times investigation found widespread confusion between being an “independent” unaffiliated voter and registering with the American Independent Party.

A number of readers have contacted us saying they found that they had made the mistake after using the Times’ lookup database.

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Loretta Sanchez fundraising for first quarter: $540,000

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Congressional financial reports pour in

Congressional candidates have until midnight to submit to the Federal Election Commission the details of what they raised and spent in the first three months of the year.

Here is some of what we know so far about the more than 200 candidates seeking one of California’s 53 Congressional seats.

The open-seat districts (20, 24, 44 and 46) are seeing a lot of activity.

Republican incumbents put up big numbers in Central Valley Districts 10 and 21, both being targeted by Democrats.

Several incumbents have built $1-million-plus war chests already.

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Kamala Harris fundraising for first quarter: $2 million

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Nancy Pelosi raises $16 million for House Democrats

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Fransisco) announced Friday she raised $16 million for House Democrats in the first three months of the year, including $14.2 million directly for House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Through 255 fundraisers in 41 cities, she has raised $56.1 million for the 2016 election, with $44.6 million going directly to the committee, according to a release from the DCCC.

Pelosi traveled to eight cities during the two-week district work period, and hosted two fundraisers with President Obama in California, including raising $3 million at her annual fundraising event at the home of Ann and Gordon Getty in San Francisco.

Since entering Democratic leadership in 2002 and through March 31, Pelosi has raised $484.9 million for Democrats.

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Job growth improves for California

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Politics podcast: Gov. Brown’s play for progressives, Trump picks a California leader

Gov. Jerry Brown has won applause from progressive Democrats for two weeks running, signing bills that his party’s most liberal members believe will provide help to low-income Californians.

On this week’s episode of the California Politics Podcast, we take a closer look at Brown’s decision to sign the law that expands the state’s paid family-leave program.

We also discuss GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s big California moves: the hiring of a well-known Republican strategist for his state effort and his decision to attend the California Republican Party convention at the end of this month.

As always, you can subscribe to the weekly podcast either on Soundcloud or iTunes.

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Domestic violence allegations surface against Los Angeles assemblyman

A well-known Democratic legislator will return to the state Capitol next week facing new questions about his personal life, after domestic abuse allegations by his estranged wife.

On Wednesday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order to the wife of Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina).

Hernandez’s attorney denied the allegations in a Thursday interview with The Times. (The attorney is former Palmdale Assemblyman Steve Fox, who is trying to win back his old seat this year.)

Hernandez is challenging Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk) in one of 2016’s most closely watched intraparty congressional battles.

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Californians tell stories of poverty on Capitol Hill

Several House Democrats wiped away tears Thursday as they listened to two Californians talk about living in poverty.

They spoke along with several experts at a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing titled “The Failure of Trickle Down Economics in the War on Poverty.”

Audience members sniffled as Maverick Bishop, 26, of San Francisco spoke about the years he and his mother spent bouncing from shelter to shelter fleeing his abusive, drug-using father.

“I was pretty young, but I’ll never forget when we checked into the first shelter to get away from my dad,” he said. “My mom and I felt so out of place and scared. During that time I lived in every shelter our city has to offer.”

Bishop said that he joined YMCA of San Francisco’s Reach and Rise mentoring program when he was a teen. When the mentorship ended and he started getting into trouble, he said, his old mentor hired him to work part time after school at his construction company.

Bishop said he expects to be turned out as a journeyman carpenter later this year, and he urged Congress to expand mentorship programs.

“This is my story, just one of thousands in San Francisco alone,” he said. “Every child deserves an opportunity to better themselves and earn their place as a contributing member in our society.”

Violet Henderson of Oakland told the panel about growing up poor in Los Angeles before her boyfriend took her to Oakland when she was 14 and began trafficking her for sex.

“For me, like so many, the problem started with childhood poverty,” said Henderson, now 61. “I never remember having hope or vision for a brighter future.”

Henderson was found guilty of prostitution at 16, and of theft of a few hundred dollars at 19. In prison, she said, she earned her GED and began taking college classes. She worked in construction for 20 years, including working on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. In her 50s, a judge a granted her petition for a certificate of rehabilitation and she began working at coordinating environmental waste for a city agency.

She is currently working on a degree in environmental management at Merritt College in Oakland, and has been invited to transfer to UC Berkeley.

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Democrats oppose sex- and race-selective abortion ban

U.S. Reps. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) and other house members spoke out Thursday against the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, which aims to ban sex-selective and race-based abortions.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Service held a hearing on the bill, which would criminalize doctors who knowingly perform abortions sought because of sex or race, and require doctors and nurses to report if they suspect such motives.

Chu called the bill racist and xenophobic, saying at a news conference that it perpetuates stereotypes. She attended the subcommittee meeting even though she isn’t a member. The subcommittee members are all men.

“In practice, it is nothing more than blatant stereotyping. Bans like the one in [the bill] fuel negative stereotypes against Asian American women, and adversely affect women of color who already face disproportionate barriers to healthcare,” she said in a statement.

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Chevron and business group pour $1.75 million into campaign account for Cheryl Brown

Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown (D-San Bernardino), a Democrat facing a tough re-election campaign against progressive candidate Eloise Reyes, looks to be getting a boost from some major business groups.

In a new filing Wednesday, Chevron Corp., the California Apartment Assn. and the California Dental Assn. disclosed dropping $1.75 million into a committee account and spending several thousand dollars on mailers, research and consulting fees. Brown is the only candidate listed on the filing.

The committee, Keeping Californians Working, has received contributions from the insurance industry and real estate interests in the past.

In 2014, it spent more than $1.1 million to support several candidates, including Assemblywoman Autumn Burke (D-Marina del Rey), Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson) and Sen. Andy Vidak (R-Hanford).

Brown, a member of the business-aligned wing of Assembly Democrats, took flak from environmentalists and activists last year after she helped block a provision in the state’s landmark climate change bill that would have slashed petroleum use in half.

After that, an online campaign highlighted the thousands of dollars Brown has accepted from oil companies.

At an event in her district last month, protesters interrupted a town hall, calling her a “corporate hack.”

Several activist and labor groups upset with her recent votes on worker benefits, environmental issues and grocery store unionization have backed Reyes, who complained about the pro-Brown committee in a statement Thursday.

Reyes said, “It is now clear why Cheryl Brown voted against the health of children and families in the Inland Empire. She wanted to make sure the oil companies spent millions of dollars to help her get reelected.”

Brown’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The committee could still spend the money in other races, but Brown’s is likely to be one of the most closely watched this year.

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Newsweek: ‘How Jerry Brown Quietly Saved California’

Newsweek magazine turns its focus to California as it paints Gov. Jerry Brown as the state’s savior in a cover story this week. The lengthy profile touts Brown’s work on climate change, the economy and his low-key style.

It also says Brown would have been a great presidential candidate if the 78-year-old were a bit younger:

“Brown, by contrast, is far too inquisitive and restless for ideologies, which is why some sought to draft him into a 2016 presidential race in which Trump and Bernie Sanders have been the two candidates engendering the most enthusiasm, each offering unrealistic ideas involving border walls and class revolt,” reporter Alexander Nazaryan writes.

“If it is true, as New Jersey’s hapless chief executive, Chris Christie, claimed, that governors know best, then Brown knows better than anyone, presiding over a state that proudly adheres to the popular stereotype of California social liberalism, but not to the more damaging one of Democratic profligacy. Brown is the rare progressive who can balance the books, who can sell fiscal restraint to Bay Area liberals and gay marriage to Orange County evangelicals.”

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Immigrant rush to citizenship could be Prop. 187 naturalization wave all over again

Kate Linthicum has a piece today examining how a backlash to Donald Trump and Republican actions blocking President Obama on immigration policy is prompting immigrants to rush to become citizens in California and across the country.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the education fund at the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials who has been organizing citizenship campaigns for decades, said the level of political engagement by immigrants and their allies this year reminds him of the mood after Proposition 187 was passed.

“It’s hearkening back to what we experienced 20 years ago,” he said.

After California voters passed Prop 187, a 1994 ballot measure that sought to deny social services to immigrants in the country illegally, the number of people applying annually for citizenship jumped from about 500,000 to nearly a million, according to federal statistics.

There was a similarly dramatic jump after Congress passed a controversial measure in 2005 that called for the construction of vast border fences and would have forced employers to verify the immigration status of their workers.

Speaking at a Long Beach citizenship fair, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti cast naturalization in strictly electoral terms.

“The hate, the Trumpism, those aren’t the values of me and my country,” said Garcetti, whose office launched its own citizenship effort last year. “We can make sure we have a president who continues to reflect our values,” he said. “We can make sure we have a country that is open to the rest of the world.”

In California alone, there are an estimated 2.2 million legal permanent residents who are eligible for citizenship but have not applied.

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Legislature approves $176.6 million to clean up Exide plant

The state Assembly unanimously gave final legislative approval Thursday to spend $176.6 million to conduct testing and cleanup of lead contamination in the neighborhoods surrounding the closed Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon.

The emergency allocation next goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who originally proposed the cleanup fund in response to an environmental crisis impacting thousands of people within a 1.7-mile radius of the plant.

“This is a critical component to a long fight in our community,” Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) said during the floor debate. He said his son, who lives near the plant, has to take medication and wear a breathing mask. “For 33 years, we have had Exide dump on our community, and it’s inexcusable that they have been able to operate in our community with a temporary permit.”

Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Salinas) said before the 73-0 vote that the contamination is California’s equivalent of the problem with lead-tainted water in Flint, Mich.

Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) said minority residents are most affected by the contamination and called it “the most insidious form of environmental racism that we have seen in Los Angeles County in 100 years.”

State officials said it may cost $500 million to complete the cleanup.

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This is why you can’t afford to buy a house in California

There aren’t enough houses in California. This is the simple conclusion of academics and economists who have examined the state’s crisis in housing affordability.

And it is a crisis.

The state’s average home price of $459,000 is more than double what it is nationally.

But state lawmakers are doing little this year to make it easier to build homes. The reason why is just as simple. Doing so on a broad scale would require legislators to take on some of the most difficult environmental and tax reform issues at the Capitol.

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Arambula takes oath after winning Fresno special election

For the first time this year, the state Assembly has a full house.

Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) took the oath of office this morning, nine days after winning a special election in his district.

“I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work,” he said in brief remarks on the Assembly floor, after being sworn in with his wife and children watching.

Arambula fills the Fresno seat vacated late last year by Democrat Henry Perea, and brings Democrats back up to 52 of the Assembly’s 80 seats -- two short of supermajority status.

He also joins a rare group of fathers and sons who have both served in the Legislature. His father, Juan, was an assemblyman from 2005 to 2011.

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California wants $14.6 billion from you this month. Are you in?

California’s state budget depends on personal income taxes like a fish depends on water, and no month needs to make a bigger splash than April.

That’s where you come in.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget predicts $14.6 billion in net income tax revenues will be collected by the end of April, a month that has historically been make-or-break for the state’s finances.

As of Wednesday, the month’s total take stood at $2.7 billion.

Right about now, you’re probably doing the math and assuming the state could come up seriously short. But history proves otherwise. With April 15 coming on Friday, tax returns this year aren’t due until the following Monday. And the peak tax revenue days are always around the big deadline.

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FOR THE RECORD

5:34 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the Legislative Analyst’s Office reported April 2016 is already trending 4.6% above personal income tax collections in April 2015. The month is 4.8% below personal income tax collections in April 2015.

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Last year, the state collected almost $8 billion in personal income taxes in just six days. On Wednesday, the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office reported the month is 4.8% below personal income tax collections in April 2015. That means the pace will need to pick up.

California’s state government went into the month already slightly ahead of fiscal expectations, but April will be decisive in shaping the revised budget that Brown unveils in mid-May.

More than two-thirds of all of the state’s general fund revenues come from personal income taxes, with the lion’s share of those coming from high-income earners.

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Trump bound for California GOP convention

We noted in today’s Essential Politics newsletter that Donald Trump was the last holdout to speak to the state Republican Party convention.

But Trump is on his way. We’ll be covering the convention live in this space at the end of the month.

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Free trips for lawmakers to continue

State lawmakers on Wednesday derailed a bill that would have prevented them from accepting free travel to distant conferences, including an annual meeting in Maui, from nonprofit groups backed by special interests.

The Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee failed to muster a single vote for the bill by Assemblywoman Patty Lopez (D-San Fernando), with some Democrats voting “no” or not voting.

“I was both surprised and disappointed to see that my colleagues were willing to defend these types of trips, which obviously have no real value to our constituents,” Lopez said after the vote.

“I was hopeful today’s vote would prove it is something that needs to be addressed immediately,” she added. “Instead, it only proved that the Sacramento establishment has no intention of limiting such influence.”

Lopez introduced the measure in response to a Maui conference held annually by the Independent Voter Project, which pays for part of lawmakers’ travel expenses with money from Occidental Petroleum Corp., the Western States Petroleum Assn., Eli Lilly & Co., tobacco company Altria and the state prison guards union.

(Here’s the list of all the lawmakers who attended the lavish conference last year.)

Lopez said her constituents were shocked by the practice, saying it looks bad to have lawmakers relaxing with lobbyists far from the Capitol.

Lawmakers must disclose the trip on annual forms.

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Sweeping bill to open police misconduct records survives first hearing

A wide-ranging proposal to change California’s long-standing rules against publicly disclosing information about police misconduct from officer personnel files advanced out of a Senate committee Tuesday afternoon.

SB 1286 from state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) would open up police files to public disclosure in cases where officers were found to have committed sexual assault or racial profiling, lied on the job or engaged in other significant instances of misconduct. It also would make available investigations on serious use-of-force cases, including officer-involved shootings.

Since Leno introduced the bill in February, it has faced substantial opposition from law enforcement groups that have argued the measure would invade officer privacy and lead to unwarranted scrutiny of police whose disciplinary appeals might be ongoing, while failing to promote trust between police and communities.

Before the 75-minute hearing in the Senate Committee on Public Safety began, Leno eliminated a provision that would have allowed police departments to hold public hearings when an officer appeals his or her discipline.

Law enforcement unions remained adamantly opposed to the measure, saying that existing criminal and internal review provided enough accountability.

Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Temecula) debated this point with Leno and supporters of the bill. An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union noted that police have shot more than 2,000 people in Southern California over the last 12 years and only one was prosecuted, and said it was difficult for the public to trust that accountability mechanisms were working.

“So the public shouldn’t have faith in the district attorneys, they shouldn’t have faith in the attorney generals, they shouldn’t have faith in the judges, they shouldn’t have faith in the internal affairs departments of law enforcement agencies?” Stone asked.

“Senator,” Leno replied, “I think the point we’re trying to make here is that secrecy breeds distrust.”

The measure advanced on a 5-1 vote with Stone against it, and multiple Democratic senators expressed reservations about law enforcement’s concerns about the measure. The committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Lori Hancock (D-Berkeley), said she expected Leno to continue working with police groups to further amend the bill, but wanted it to move forward.

“I think we’re at a very important historical time on this issue of police-community relations,” Hancock said.

Tuesday was a big day for law enforcement bills, especially among Democrats. Two Assembly bills that offering greater protections for withholding officer information also made it through their respective committee hearings. Assemblyman Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles wants to require police departments to give officers three days notice before releasing their identity or video depicting the officer in use-of-force cases. Assemblyman Evan Low of Campbell is aiming to block the disclosure of any video or audio of an officer killed in the line of duty unless approved by the officer’s immediate family.

A bill from Assemblyman Bill Quirk of Hayward to ensure the public release of officer body camera footage advanced out of committee as well.

Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this report.

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Soda tax bill pulled before vote, is likely done for the year

A proposed soda tax for California was pulled before a committee vote Tuesday and is likely dead for the year after failing to garner enough support, even among Democratic lawmakers, according to an aide to the bill’s author.

Democratic Assemblyman Richard Bloom of Santa Monica proposed a “health impact fee” of 2 cents per ounce on sugar-sweetened drinks sold in California, which would have added 24 cents to 12-ounce soft-drink cans.

“We just didn’t think that the votes were there and so there was a decision by a number of the advocates to not put it up for a vote. We have a lot more work to do,” said Sean MacNeil, Bloom’s chief of staff.

The 19-member Assembly Health Committee has 13 Democrats, including Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), chairman of the committee and co-author of the bill.

“There were a number of Dems in our conversations that just weren’t there yet,” MacNeil said, adding that with an April 22 deadline to get out of the committee, the bill “probably” is dead for the year.

The measure, touted as a proposal to combat obesity, was opposed by Californians for Food and Beverage Choice, the political arm of the powerful California Beverage Assn.

The group, which comprises beverage makers, distributors and retailers, worked to kill a 1-cent-per-ounce statewide soda tax proposal in the Legislature in 2014 and a similar bill last year.

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), a committee member, generally opposes soda taxes, in part because their revenues are earmarked to specific programs, according to spokeswoman Jackie Koenig. He has Coca Cola and Dr. Pepper distributors and bottlers in his district, she said.

“He believes there are other sources of diabetes and health problems in children and adults and this (tax) pins the issue on just one source,” Koenig said.

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State Senate panel takes up L.A. Olympic bid

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Sen. Boxer gets help from ‘Sully’ Sullenberger in effort to require more rest for pilots

Flanked by passenger plane and cargo plane pilots, including Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Tuesday urged her colleagues to set the same rest standards for pilots of both types of planes.

Prompted by Boxer-backed legislation, the Department of Transportation moved in 2009 to limit passenger plane pilots to either eight or nine hours in the air, depending on the start time, and require at least 10 hours of rest time before they fly again. But, cargo plane pilots were exempted from the rule and can fly up to 16 hours a day.

“They share the same skies, the planes [are] the same size, they fly over the same homes, so this makes absolutely no sense,” Boxer said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

She and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are trying to align the rest standards in an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization the Senate is considering.

Sullenberger, who has become an air travel safety advocate since gaining fame in 2009 when he landed a US Airways jet on the Hudson River with no loss of life after a collision with a flock of geese took out its engines, said he couldn’t see a good reason for the different rest standards.

“This rule was written the way it was not for scientific reasons, but for economic ones by those who were more concerned about an additional burden for what they considered additional cost,” Sullenberger said. “It’s time to right this wrong. It’s time to fix this rule.”

In handouts distributed before the news conference, FedEx opposed the amendment. The company said cargo and passenger pilots work in different industries with different expectations and schedules and that the passenger pilot rest standard doesn’t give cargo companies scheduling flexibility.

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Cosby accusers testify on Senate bill to end statute of limitations on rape

Democratic state Sen. Connie Leyva’s bill, SB 813, to end the statute of limitations on rape attracted wrenching testimony Tuesday morning in a Senate committee hearing, including from multiple people who say they were victims of Bill Cosby.

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Celebrity boosts governor’s parole overhaul ballot initiative

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Gov. Brown signs boost to paid family leave benefits

Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed a law that increases benefits for Californians taking advantage of the state’s paid family leave law.

California’s program provides workers with 55% of their wages for up to six weeks.

The law signed by Brown boosts that to 70% of the salary of those making minimum wage and slightly more, and 60% of salary for those making a larger amount, starting in 2018.

“It’s a real pleasure to be able to sign another bill that helps ordinary Californians, working men and women,” Brown said during a signing ceremony at the Captiol.

President Obama hailed the action and urged Congress to follow California’s lead.

“I applaud the California State Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown for expanding paid family leave in their state today,” Obama said. “This action means more hardworking Californians will have the peace of mind to know that they can take care of a new child or a sick family member.”

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Obama: Paid family-leave law ‘great news for California’

President Obama praised California’s new paid leave law in a statement Monday.

This action means more hardworking Californians will have the peace of mind to know that they can take care of a new child or a sick family member. This is great news for California. Yet millions of Americans still don’t have access to any form of paid leave. Congress needs to catch up to California – and to countries all over the world – by acting to guarantee paid family leave to all Americans. As long as I am President, I will continue to do everything I can to ensure that working Americans have access to this basic security.

— President Obama

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Gov. Jerry Brown won’t pick between Clinton and Sanders, pokes at ‘lame’ ideas from Ted Cruz

As someone who’s run for the presidency three times, Gov. Jerry Brown is no doubt watching the 2016 race with unique interest.

And though he’s not ready to share an opinion about the Democratic contenders, he did have a quick zinger on Monday for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who’s campaigning in Orange County.

“I’ve not given a lot of thought to Sen. Cruz,” Brown said, “but I marvel at the fact that he got out of Harvard and has so many lame ideas.”

Brown made the comment after signing a new expansion of the state’s paid family leave law, and also rejected Republican criticisms of California policies.

But the governor sidestepped a question about whether he’s backing Hillary Clinton or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“I’m not in any hurry,” he said. “Once you make decisions, you give up, you know, the ability to make a decision.”

Brown, who ran for president three times, will be one of the Democratic Party’s superdelegates at this summer’s national convention in Philadelphia.

“As one of the superdelegates, I’m super-interested,” he quipped on Monday.

And as if to put a final exclamation on his reluctance to wade into the Clinton-Sanders battle, Brown pointed out this isn’t the first time he’s slowly made a decision.

“I didn’t propose to my wife for 15 years and that turned out perfect,” he said to laughter from the crowd gathered in his Capitol office.

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How much should the public know about police officer misconduct?

On Tuesday morning, one of the most sweeping policing bills in the Capitol will get its first test.

Sen. Mark Leno’s bill to unwind some of the state’s longstanding restrictions against the disclosure of police misconduct records will face a legislative committee hearing. Leno, a San Francisco Democrat, says his bill will improve police-community relations, something he says recent high-profile incidents have left frayed around the country.

But even among Leno’s Democratic colleagues in the Legislature, there’s a push to go in the opposite direction and make more officer information confidential. This mirrors a debate in statehouses across the country over how much the public should know about police officers whom departments have found to have behaved badly.

Leno’s bill has already attracted significant opposition from police unions, police chiefs and district attorneys across the state. Advocates for the bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union, rallied on the Capitol steps Monday morning.

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Carbajal releases first-quarter fundraising total in race to replace Capps

The race to replace retiring Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) continues to draw the attention of donors looking to support the candidates vying for the open seat.

Democratic Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal announced Monday that his campaign has raised $313,000 in the first quarter of 2016. The campaign has now raised a total of $1.75 million and has more than $1 million in cash on hand, a campaign spokesperson said.

Campaigns have until Wednesday to file their financial reports with the federal government, but they often share the data early as a way to show strength ahead of the June primary. The Times asked four other campaigns in the race for the 24th Congressional District for their fundraising totals, but did not immediately hear back.

When the campaigns last filed fundraising reports at the end of 2015, Carbajal, who Capps has endorsed to be her successor, had a commanding lead. He reported having raised $1.38 million, compared with $869,000 raised by Republican Justin Fareed and a $479,183 fundraising haul by Democrat Helene Schneider, the mayor of Santa Barbara. Republican Assemblyman K.H. “Katcho” Achadjian of San Luis Obispo is the fourth-best fundraiser, with $386,915.

On Friday, perennial conservative candidate Matt Kokkonen reported lending his campaign $210,500 in the first quarter of the year, according to federal elections records.

The cost of running TV or radio ads in the Central Coast media market is cheaper than doing so in Los Angeles or the Bay Area. Because of that, candidates such as Kokkonen who trail in fundraising have a chance to affect the race with advertisements.

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Assembly Republican leader picks a candidate

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Congressional candidate touts ‘Central Coast values’ in new TV ad

The candidates vying to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) have been raising lots of money, and with the June primary approaching, now it is time to spend it.

It comes as no surprise that Democratic Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal is the first to come out with a TV ad. After all, he can spare the money: He raised $1.38 million last year and reported having $970,309 in the bank at the end of 2015.

The ad, which starts airing Friday, first highlights Carbajal’s support of Planned Parenthood, same-sex marriage and the environment before pivoting to the fiscal accomplishments the Board of Supervisors has achieved since Carbajal joined.

“The ad is Salud introducing himself, his values and accomplishments to the district,” said campaign spokesman Cory Black.

Carbajal probably hopes to court liberal supporters of Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, his opponent. She worked for Planned Parenthood and was president of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee before she was elected to the City Council.

Both are trying to make it out of the crowded field of nine candidates in the primary. The top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to a general election.

Republican businessman Justin Fareed, state Assemblyman K.H. “Katcho” Achadjian (R-San Luis Obispo) and Democrat William Ostrander are also in the mix.

And on Friday, perennial conservative candidate Matt Kokkonen reported lending his campaign $210,500, according to federal elections records.

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Trump, Clinton lead the pack in California, new Field Poll shows

Donald Trump leaves a polling place at the Waukesha Fire Department in Wisconsin last week after meeting with voters and supporters.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters in New York.
Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters in New York.
(Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)

With just two months to go before the California’s June 7 presidential primary election, New York billionaire Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lead their respective party rivals in the state, according to a new Field Poll.

The survey found that Trump leads Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by 39% to 32% among likely Republican voters. Ohio Gov. John Kasich came in a distant third with 18% support.

In a January Field Poll conducted before the GOP field was winnowed to three candidates, Cruz had a slight lead over Trump in California, 25% to 23%.

Among likely voters in the state’s Democratic primary, Clinton leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 47% to 41%, the poll found. Clinton’s support has held at that level since October, while Sanders has been on the rise. In October, just 35% of likely primary voters backed him.

The polled showed that Trump had strong support -- 54% -- from Republicans who voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor in 2003.

Cruz appears to have strong support among Republicans in Los Angeles County. He leads Trump 40% to 29% among those voters.

Despite topping the GOP field, Trump still has a serious image problem in the state. Among the likely California Republican voters surveyed, 43% said they had an unfavorable image of Trump, compared with 53% who said they view him favorably.

Cruz isn’t that far behind: The poll found that 39% of likely GOP voters have an unfavorable image of him, with 54% viewing him favorably.

Among likely voters in the Democratic primary, 27% said they see Clinton in an unfavorable, light compared with 70% with a favorable impression. Sanders was rated unfavorably by 16%, compared with 75% who view him favorably.

The GOP holds a closed primary in California, so anyone who wants to cast a ballot for one of the party’s three remaining presidential candidates must be a registered Republican. Democrats allow decline-to-state voters to participate in their presidential primary.

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Union muscle tops the roundup on this week’s California Politics Podcast

Anytime that California’s most powerful labor coalition takes a pass on the reelection of Democratic lawmakers, you can be sure there’s much more to the story.

On this week’s California Politics Podcast, we discuss the non-endorsement of Democratic legislators who have been business friendly over the last two years.

We also discuss what Tuesday’s special election results mean, with Democrats retaining an Assembly seat in the Central Valley.

And we examine the latest skirmish between the Legislature and University of California leaders over out-of-state enrollment.

You can subscribe to our weekly podcast on Soundcloud or iTunes.

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Dr. Joaquin Arambula to be sworn in next week

The registrar still has about 5,000 votes left to count.

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Birthday fun at Gov. Jerry Brown’s office

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Porter Ranch Rep. Brad Sherman worried blackout threat will supersede safety changes after leak

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) said Thursday that concerns about power blackouts in Southern California will be used as an excuse to sidestep safety upgrades following the four-month Aliso Canyon gas leak.

Earlier this week, state officials warned that Southern California could face as many as 14 days of blackouts this summer because of depleted reserves of natural gas caused by the massive leak in Aliso Canyon.

“There is a political dance happening here. I am concerned that SoCal Gas may use these reports to build a case for business-as-usual operations with minimal safety improvements,” Sherman said in a statement. “Before we even consider injecting more gas back into Aliso Canyon, all 114 wells in the facility must be thoroughly tested and subsurface safety valves must be installed.”

The leak left the facility, which supplies gas to 17 power plants in the Los Angeles Basin, at one-fifth of its capacity. New gas injections have been prohibited until all 114 wells have passed comprehensive tests.

Officials estimate the storage facility won’t be back on line for months, leaving power plants without a key source of natural gas.

Southern California Gas Co. says it intends to resume injecting natural gas in the shuttered storage field as soon as late summer.

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L.A. congresswoman wants the Dodgers back on her television

Three games into the season and Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Los Angeles) is fed up with not being able to watch the Dodgers play on TV.

It’s the third year of a blackout linked to the carriage dispute, and Hahn and approximately 60% of Angelenos who don’t have Time Warner Cable can’t watch the games on TV. (Time Warner is the main broadcaster of Dodgers games.) That means locals who use other cable or satellite providers can’t watch the home team on their home sets.

DirecV/AT&T, Verizon and Cox Communications haven’t been able to reach an agreement with Time Warner Cable to provide access.

“The Dodgers are having a great season already… the fans are obviously anxious to watch the games,” Hahn said by phone. “The fans in Los Angeles are a little bit disgusted with Time Warner.”

The blackout is particularly galling considering this is the last season for Hall of Fame team announcer Vin Scully, she said.

“It’s something that all of the Dodgers fans should have a right to watch,” she said.

On Thursday, Hahn sent a letter to Time Warner Cable CEO Robert Marcus asking that the company either find a way to lift the blackout, or let fans watch for free.

“This disagreement has gone on for far too long and is unfair to Dodger fans,” the letter says.

Watching the Dodgers play is personal for Hahn, whose father, former County Supervisor Kenny Hahn, helped bring the team to Los Angeles in 1957. Her brother, former L.A. Mayor James Hahn, was the team’s first honorary bat boy.

“Since I was a child, we loved the Dodgers,” Hahn said.

Hahn said she hopes the rest of the L.A. congressional delegation will join her letter.

Earlier this month, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) sent a separate letter urging the cable companies to work with a third party to reach a deal.

“A community ought to able to rally around the home team. You can’t build a community if over half the residents can’t view the Dodgers,” he said in a statement.

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California drivers pay 11 cents more per gallon thanks to state’s cap-and-trade rules, study finds

(Elise Amendola / Associated Press)

Californians are spending $2 billion more at the gas pump because of the state’s carbon rules, according to the state’s independent Legislative Analyst’s Office.

The cap-and-trade program boosts prices by 11 cents a gallon for regular gasoline and 13 cents a gallon for diesel, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor wrote in a March 4 letter to Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale).

Besides raising gas prices, the cap-and-trade system does provide the state with revenue to decrease greenhouse gases, including a $3.1-billion allocation in Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget for items such as subsidizing the purchase of electric cars, Taylor wrote.

“Including transportation fuels in the cap-and-trade program imposes additional costs on motorists, but it also generates a significant amount of state revenue that can be used for programs that provide direct benefits to consumers and businesses,” Taylor wrote.

Lackey said in a release that Taylor’s letter shows there needs to be greater transparency surrounding the cap-and-trade system.

“Most drivers have no idea that this is costing them $2 billion per year because it has been largely hidden from them,” he said.

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State Senate votes to expand conflict-of-interest law for government contracts

The state Senate voted Thursday to expand a law that requires public officials to disclose when they have a conflict of interest and to recuse themselves from voting on a government contract involving a relative.

The law currently identifies a conflict of interest as a situation in which a public official votes on a contract involving a spouse.

The bill by Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) expands the list of family members that triggers a conflict to include the adult children, siblings and parents of officials. The measure, which next goes to the Assembly, also covers the spouse of a child, sibling or parent.

“Elected and government officials should abstain from voting when a family member has a financial interest or may benefit from the outcome of a public contract decision under the jurisdiction of that official,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said he was motivated to change the law by an experience he had as a member of the Artesia City Council when he witnessed another council member vote to approve a contract for a firm owned by that member’s father.

Mendoza said that when he asked Artesia’s city attorney about the vote, he was told there was no legal issue with the situation because the council member had no direct financial relationship with the winning bidder.

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Senate approves $176.6 million for testing, cleanup of L.A. County neighborhoods around Exide plant

The state Senate on Thursday approved an allocation of $176.6 million in emergency funds for testing and cleanup of contamination caused by the closed Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said the money would be repaid by Exide but is required now to help with the massive cleanup underway for lead-contaminated homes in southeast Los Angeles County.

“This catastrophe exceeds Flint, Mich.,” De Leon told his colleagues, referring to the contamination of that city’s drinking water with lead.

The Assembly is scheduled to take up the bill on Monday. The allocation of funds was originally proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign the bill.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said the Exide contamination case presents a large emergency.

“Were talking about thousands of families, thousands of children who have likely had lead contamination,” Leno said.

The emergency budget allocation also won approval from Senate Republicans, including Sen. Ted Gaines of Rocklin.

“It’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” he said. “It’s harming people in our state.”

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Rep. Mimi Walters’ chief of staff resigns after federal indictment

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Rep. Mimi Walters’ chief of staff, David Bowser, has resigned following news of federal corruption charges related to his work in another congressional office.

“The charges against him involve incidents alleged to have occurred in the office of former Georgia Congressman Paul Broun in 2012-2014, before Rep. Walters became a member of Congress,” the Irvine Republican’s office said in a statement Thursday morning.

The Justice Department released the indictments Wednesday, including one count of obstruction of proceedings, one count of theft of government property, one count of concealment of material facts and five counts of making false statements.

The charges stem from Bowser’s time as chief of staff to Broun, a Georgia Republican, and allegations that Broun used official funds to pay for a campaign consultant and Bowser tried to block an ethics probe into the matter.

Prosecutors allege that Republican campaign consultant Brett O’Donnell was paid nearly $44,000 in congressional funds. O’Donnell, whose work included debate prep for Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann, pleaded guilty last September in an ethics case involving Broun.

The House Ethics Committee investigation looking into the matter ended in January 2015 when Broun left office. The former congressman has not been charged with a crime and is seeking his old seat again.

In 2014, Walters was elected to her first term with 65% of the vote in her Orange County district. She was picked by colleagues to represent the freshman Republicans in House leadership and serves on the House Judiciary and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committees.

This year Walters is vying for the seat against her 2014 Republican challenger, Mission Viejo City Council member Greg Raths, and two Democrats, anesthesiologist Max Gouron and businessman Ron Varasteh.

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Why it’s so hard to get a bike lane in California

You’d think bike lanes wouldn’t be environmental enemy No. 1.

But in California, the state’s premier environmental law has blocked the installation of bike lanes up and down the state for more than a decade. Bike advocates say the law has stopped hundreds of miles of potential bike lanes across California.

New regulations are on the way, however, to make bike lanes environmentally friendly under the law.

Check out this animated video that explains how it all works and what’s going to change:

If you want a bike lane in your neighborhood, it’s not that simple.

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It’s Gov. Jerry Brown’s birthday. And all he wants is your signature

Gov. Jerry Brown has used some version or other of the the joke several times over the past few years, and it seems especially poignant in the heat of what’s easily the most surprising presidential race in modern times.

“Hell, if I was younger you know I’d be running again,” Brown said during a gubernatorial debate in 2010.

Today, Brown celebrates his 78th birthday and moves further into the record books as the oldest governor in California history. No doubt a cake is on deck somewhere today.

But what the governor really wants, it seems, is simple enough: your signature.

Brown and his political team are scrambling on his 2016 birthday to quickly gather as many as 1 million voter signatures on his initiative to revamp prisoner parole and juvenile justice laws. He has, at best, until early next month to cross the finish line. And even then, the proposal remains in limbo with the California Supreme Court still assessing whether it was legally drafted and submitted for official review.

The California Democratic Party is helping Brown gather signatures on his birthday, and send out an email to Sacramento area supporters asking them to stop by party headquarters today and sign on to the effort.

In the meantime, be on the lookout for signs of another cake on social media.

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Powerful labor group takes a pass on endorsing business-leaning Assembly Democrats

One of the state’s most influential labor organizations has sent a not-so-subtle message to some of the Democrats often seen as aligned with business interests: We’re not backing your reelection.

The California Labor Federation announced a full slate of legislative and congressional endorsments on Wednesday afternoon. And what stands out are the non-endorsements of some legislators who identify as being members of the informal legislative Moderate Caucus.

Five of those Assembly members were not endorsed by the labor group: Adam Gray of Merced; Rudy Salas Jr. of Bakersfield; Matt Dababneh of Encino; Cheryl Brown of San Bernardino; and Tom Daly of Anaheim.

Not all business-aligned Democrats were left off the powerful group’s endorsement list. Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), one of the Moderate Caucus’ co-chairs, did receive the backing of labor.

While it’s unclear to what extent the non-endorsements will impact the June and November campaigns, at the very least, it’s a symbolic show of disapproval. Labor and environmental groups have been critical of some of the “Mods” during key legislative battles this year and last.

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Latino groups urge immigrants to become citizens ahead of the November election

Several Latino and labor groups are encouraging lawful U.S. residents to apply for citizenship ahead of the November election as a way of combating anti-immigrant rhetoric.

In a video, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) urges his audience to get information about applying for citizenship by visiting luchemoscontraelodio.com as part of the “Stand Up to Hate” campaign led by the Latino Victory Foundation, the Service Employees International Union, Mi Familia Vota and other groups.

“We have seen it [in] the past and we are seeing it again many times over this year: When immigrant communities feel they are under attack, they react with a large number of eligible immigrants becoming citizens and a large number of eligible citizens becoming voters,” Gutierrez said in a Latino Victory Foundation statement. “It is a predictable, emotional and energetic response to protect their families and communities and it is also a refreshing shot in the arm for democracy across the country.”

A second video on the website lays Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s charge that Mexican immigrants who are in the United States illegally are “criminals, drug dealers, rapists” over images of Latinos. The site also lists three citizenship workshops in California in the next few weeks.

In March alone, participating groups helped more than 6,000 people with the naturalization process and hosted 85 events.

Across the country, groups are working to register millions of Latino voters before the general election this fall.

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Feinstein meets with Supreme Court nominee

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland “the right man for the time,” Wednesday after meeting with him in her office.

Speaking to reporters after the approximately 40 minute closed-door meeting, Feinstein said that of the seven Supreme Court nominees she has met with since joining the Senate, Garland is the first she hasn’t heard criticism of.

“All that comes in are letters of acclamation. Of what a fine person he is, what a good judge he’s been, the respect that his colleagues hold. To me that’s a very strong indication that we have somebody of quality,” Feinstein said.

Garland has met with Senators in both parties in recent days, though Republican Senate leaders maintain that they will not consider a nominee put forward by Obama. The White House has cast the meetings as chipping away that resistance.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has not yet scheduled a meeting with the nominee, but her staff says she plans to.

Feinstein said she and Garland had not met before Wednesday. She said she believes she would support him in a final vote, and will continue pushing colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee to meet with him and hold confirmation hearings.

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Calderon brothers’ corruption trial delayed by heart surgery

A federal judge has delayed the trial of two former state legislators after one of them, former Assemblyman Thomas Calderon, had heart surgery.

He and his brother, former state Sen. Ronald Calderon, are now scheduled to stand trial on July 19. The trial of the former Democratic lawmakers from Montebello had been scheduled for May 10 and has now been delayed six times.

Ronald Calderon faces corruption charges including allegations that he accepted bribes from an undercover FBI agent posing as a film executive seeking state tax credits. Prosecutors also allege he took bribes from the owner of a medical firm in return for action on legislation involving changes in the workers’ compensation system.

Thomas Calderon faces money-laundering charges in the indictment that was filed in 2014.

Court papers filed by prosecutors and defense attorneys stipulate the need for a continuance, saying Thomas Calderon “was recently diagnosed with a coronary disease and underwent a coronary bypass graft on or about February 18, 2016.”

The filing warns that Calderon’s physician believes he could be fit to stand trial as early as June but that further evaluation may result in additional delay.

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Medical marijuana tax advances despite opposition from patients, sellers

A proposal to put a 15% excise tax on the sale of medical marijuana in California drew strong opposition Wednesday from advocates for patients and pot dispensaries but was approved provisionally Wednesday by a key state Senate panel.

Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) said his bill would generate up to $250 million annually to pay for policing, drug and alcohol treatment programs, environmental rehabilitation and other services that would address the impact of the marijuana industry.

“We have serious issues in almost every community regarding marijuana,” McGuire told the Senate Governance and Finance Committee before its 4-1 vote to approve the bill.

However, McGuire agreed to have his bill return to the committee after he works out possible changes to address concerns that the tax may harm people with medical conditions.

Sen. James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose) voiced concerns that the proposal would keep some patients from getting their medical cannabis though Proposition 215, which was approved by voters in 1996, promising safe and affordable access.

“I think the main issue is the barrier to care that runs counter to the initiative,” Beall said. “The voters have spoken.”

Lanette Davies, director of Crusaders for Patient Rights, said the tax would reduce the ability of those who use medical cannabis to get treatment.

She noted an initiative proposed for the November ballot would also impose a 15% tax. If the voters reject that measure, “we’re having legislation saying ‘we don’t care what the voters want. We are going to force it down your throats,’” she said.

The measure is also opposed by groups California NORML, Americans for Safe Access and California Cannabis Operators League.

“A 15% execise tax is an unfair financial burden on patients and businesses,” said Caleb Counts, director of the league.

Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), the committee chairman, allowed a preliminary vote only after McGuire agreed to have the bill return to the committee to address his concerns.

“I’m just grappling with the fact that there are so many issues” to be worked out,” Hertzberg said.

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Assemblyman wants better working conditions for models

Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) says the modeling industry is rife with forced diets, sexual harassment and wage theft. A new bill from Levine, AB 2539, would require state regulators to develop rules related to safety, eating disorders, sexual exploitation and other workplace standards for the industry.

Levine held a news conference Wednesday morning in advance of an Assembly committee hearing on the bill. He was joined by former models and advocates who described conditions they said many face in the industry.

Nikki DuBose, a mental health advocate, said while she worked in the modeling industry she dealt with rape, sexual harassment, financial exploitation and relentless pressure to lose weight. She ultimately developed anorexia and had to leave the industry, she said.

“Models’ rights are human rights,” DuBose said. “Models are humans who deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. They deserve protection and their labor rights to be exercised just like any person working in any industry.”

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‘Baywatch’ star wants to make California’s prisons vegan

Chances are Gov. Jerry Brown hasn’t been thinking about the menu in California prisons. But actress Pamela Anderson thinks he should.

And it should be all vegan, she says.

The former “Baywatch” star has sent the governor a letter urging that California prisons eschew meat, an option she argues would not only be more healthy but also save the state more than $4 million in food costs.

“It’s heartening to know that you’re improving the state’s prison system.” wrote Anderson in a letter released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “I hope you use this suggestion as one way of achieving that end while also addressing the budget and water crises.”

And to up the ante, Anderson’s letter says she’ll kick off the program by serving lunch to inmates.

This isn’t the actress’ first effort at meatless incarceration. She’s made the same offer in recent weeks to officials in Louisiana and New York. She was also involved with a similar effort in Maricopa County, Ariz., that led to lower costs.

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Democrat wins 52% of the vote in Fresno special election

Democrats in Fresno on Tuesday successfully fought back an attempt by the state GOP to capture an Assembly seat there for the first time in 40 years.

Democrat Joaquin Arambula, an emergency room doctor and son of a former assemblyman, won 52% of the vote, surpassing Republican Fresno City Councilman Clint Olivier in a special election that drew more than $2 million in spending by the candidates and their supporters.

Olivier conceded the race late Tuesday after learning that he was trailing by 10 percentage points with 100% of precincts reporting.

“We are disappointed, and we are surprised at the result tonight,” said Olivier, even though earlier in the evening he had vowed to press on.

Olivier said in an interview with The Times that he has not decided if he would continue his campaign to the June primary, saying, “it is going to require more reflection ... to determine if that’s a viable option.”

Barring a dramatic shift from the outstanding provisional and absentee ballots, Arambula seems poised to be sworn in as early as this week.

The men were running to replace former Assemblyman Henry Perea, an influential Democrat who resigned in 2015 with a year left in his term to take a job with the pharmaceutical industry.

Arambula will fill the remainder of Perea’s term in Sacramento, and will be expected to vote on the state budget and other critical issues this year.

Olivier and Arambula are expected to face off again in June’s primary, when voters will decide who advances to the November general election for a full term that would begin in January.

If he decides not to pursue a run, the Republican Party won’t have another candidate in the race, as the filing period for that election has closed and Olivier is already on the ballot.

Despite the fact that Republicans haven’t held the seat since 1976, and that voter registration there favors Democrats by nearly 20 percentage points, observers had said Olivier might eke out a win if voter turnout was exceptionally low.

Turnout in Tuesday’s election was 17%, according to unofficial results.

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Voter registration is booming in California

(Christina House / For The Los Angeles Times)

Since January and with more than two months to go before California’s primary, 600,000 people here have gone online to register to vote or have updated their registrations.

What does that portend for the June 7 contest?

Voting analyst Paul Mitchell said it’s still too early to determine the significance of the jump. Are Democrats or voters without a party preference re-registering as Republicans so they can vote in the state’s GOP presidential primary? That’s unclear just yet. It’s also hard to determine if Trump is attracting a wave of new voters, or if his fiery anti-immigrant rhetoric has prodded more Latinos to register to oppose him, Mitchell said.

In Los Angeles County, there has been a recent spike in decline-to-state voters and, to a lesser degree, Republicans registering as Democrats, Mitchell said.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla is asking the governor and Legislature for an extra $32 million for the state’s 58 counties and his agency, in part, because of an expected “surge” in voter turnout in June and in the Nov. 8 general election.

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A Sacramento fight is brewing as Uber pricing bill advances

Sen. Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) wants the state to take an active role in setting customer prices for Uber, Lyft and other rideshare companies. His bill sailed through the Senate committee he leads Tuesday, ratcheting up a fight between the popular tech companies and those who believe the industry needs more regulations.

SB 1035 is one of the Capitol’s biggest broadsides against Uber and Lyft this year, taking aim at the core of the companies’ business model – the ability to lower prices when demand is low and surge them at times of high demand.

Hueso said he was concerned for consumers and workers. It isn’t fair, he said, for a couple to pay $10 for a ride to a restaurant, then face a $60 bill on the way back. The state also should protect drivers from receiving rates that are too low.

“There’s gotta be a way to allow some flexibility in the pricing but also to allow some guarantee to the drivers that they’re going to make some kind of profit,” Hueso told the Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, which he chairs.

Hueso insisted that his bill doesn’t give state regulators the ability to fix prices for ridesharing companies, but simply restates their authority to do so. Indeed, the California Public Utilities Commission, which currently regulates rideshares, already can do it under the law.

But before Hueso’s bill, no one had formally been pushing the agency to take such a step. Tech advocates testified at Tuesday’s hearing that the bill would, in fact, lead to state regulation over prices.

“The thought that we would be fixing prices for these companies is very dangerous from our perspective because that would upend the business model,” said Robert Callahan, who leads the Internet Assn. advocacy group.

Aside from rate setting, Hueso’s bill would encourage regulators to beef up restrictions on background checks for rideshare drivers and insurance requirements, allow local police to enforce state rules on rideshares among other changes.

“It’s completely transparent that this is an attack on the industry,” Callahan said after the hearing.

That Hueso’s bill passed out of the committee he chairs isn’t a surprise. Two Republican senators, Mike Morrell of Rancho Cucamonga and Anthony Cannella of Ceres, were opposed.

Its advancement sets up a fight between power players over the big policy question of how much the state should regulate ridesharing companies. Hueso has long and deep ties to the taxi industry and has taken numerous steps to add regulations to rideshares while blocking efforts to ease them. Meanwhile, Uber alone has spent millions in lobbying over the last few years.

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Barbara Boxer proposes Hillary Clinton-themed Ben & Jerry’s ice cream

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) pitched a new Hillary Clinton-themed ice cream flavor on Tuesday to Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, to balance his company’s flavor named after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Boxer gave Greenfield a model pint design for a flavor called “The HRC” — or Herstoric Raspberry Chocolate — with Clinton standing in front of a raspberry-colored White House.

In January, Ben Cohen, the other co-founder of the iconic ice cream brand, announced he was creating a small batch of “Bernie’s Yearning” ice cream — plain mint ice cream covered by a milk chocolate disc.

The company distanced itself from the culinary endorsement, saying Cohen was acting as a private citizen and not on Ben & Jerry’s behalf.

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Rep. Darrell Issa asks for nuclear waste hearing

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Burbank congressman wants Census Bureau to count LGBT community

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) is asking Congress to encourage the U.S. Census Bureau to collect more data on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, saying the information is needed to write better policy.

Seventeen California members joined Schiff and other representatives in a letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science on Tuesday, asking the committee to support the data collection as part of the fiscal 2017 appropriations bill.

“The Census Bureau’s data collection efforts [have] always played a significant role in our ability to understand the communities that we represent and how best to represent them. LGBT Americans — like every American — deserve to be counted and recognized in all federally-supported surveys,” the letter states.

In 2013, the Census Bureau begin asking about same-sex couples’ marital status as part of its American Community Survey. The letter called that change a step forward, but said “the fact remains that we know little else about the social and economic circumstances of the LGBT population at large.”

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Minimum wage law could be big part of Gov. Brown’s legacy

Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature on the new $15-an-hour state minimum wage law marked not only a big moment for workers and employers, but also for his own political legacy.

On a special early week edition of the California Politics Podcast, we examine the deal in detail and its potential to shift the political balancing act between business and labor that’s largely been in place in Sacramento for more than five years.

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Timing is everything, Part III

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Pro-taxi legislator wants state to help set Uber prices

State Sen. Ben Hueso
((Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) )

State Sen. Ben Hueso (D-San Diego), one of the biggest pro-taxi legislators in the Capitol, has a new bill that would allow the state to oversee pricing for Uber, Lyft and other ridesharing companies.

Beyond price setting, the bill, SB 1035, would allow state regulators to bolster background checks of rideshare drivers, increase insurance requirements and allow local police departments to enforce state rules on rideshares.

“While the growth of these new technology-enabled services is proving wildly popular among consumers, there are a number of areas that merit further regulatory review to ensure adequate safety and consumer protections,” a fact sheet on the bill says.

As reported in The Times last month, Hueso’s brothers own the largest taxi cab company in San Diego. Hueso has long been a thorn in the side of rideshare companies, arguing the state has failed to ensure the safety of rideshare drivers and consumers, especially compared to the heavy regulations faced by the taxi industry.

As chairman of the Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, Hueso has used his authority to not schedule hearings on two bills that would ease regulations on rideshare companies, a tactic commonly used in Sacramento to delay or kill legislation.

By contrast, Hueso has scheduled his bill for a hearing Tuesday morning – less than a week after he introduced the new language.

Uber, Lyft, the California Chamber of Commerce and other business and technology organizations have already expressed their opposition to Hueso’s bill.

“SB 1035 is a thinly veiled attempt to move California backward to an era where consumers had limited transportation options,” the groups wrote in a letter to Hueso on Monday. “Millions of Californians have chosen to use [rideshares] to move around their community and make additional income for their families. SB 1035 would end all of this progress.”

Hueso has told the Times that while he can use his authority to bring more attention to the issue, he believes he won’t be able to influence the future of ridesharing through regulation.

“Honestly, I don’t believe I can stop this,” Hueso said.

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New airplane noise committee formed in effort to bring relief to Bay Area

Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park), Sam Farr (D-Carmel) and Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) have created a committee to recommend ways to ease airplane noise around San Francisco International Airport.

The number of complaints to the airport’s Noise Abatement Office has spiked since new, state-of-the-art routes passing over Palo Alto and Santa Cruz were enacted.

“There was not enough local input into how these flight plans would affect our region,” Farr said in a statement. “The Select Committee will finally give those impacted local communities a voice in the process as we look for ways to remove airplane noise from all of our homes and neighborhoods.”

The Federal Aviation Administration has been reviewing the routes since last fall. The 12 local elected officials on the new committee will gather public input and make recommendations to the agency for the next stage of its review.

Speier said in a statement that she expects the federal agency to work with the committee members to “mitigate the intense increase in aircraft noise that is making it unbearable for many of my constituents.”

The committee includes officials from cities and counties in the lawmakers’ districts, including Capitola, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley, San Mateo, Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County and Santa Cruz, Saratoga and South San Francisco.

Eshoo said in a statement that it’s important for the affected cities to work together.

“This is a regional problem which calls for regional solutions. Simply shifting noise from one community to another is not an option,” she said.

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California’s minimum wage increase ‘means the world’ to supporters

Outside the packed auditorium where Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure that will gradually increase California’s minimum wage to $15, supporters celebrated.

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Villaraigosa’s big decision coming later rather than sooner

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will wait until at least the primary election before announcing plans for the 2018 governor’s race.

He might even hold out until after November.

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Nancy Pelosi lauds wage increase

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On minimum wage, De León says, California is ‘first ... period.’

Following Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing of California’s minimum wage increase, Senate Pro Tem Kevin De León reflected on what he says is California’s leadership on issues that affect the working class.

Despite the fact that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed his state’s $15 minimum wage law earlier Monday morning, just an hour before Brown did, California is still “the first in the nation, period,” De León told reporters.

“We got it [passed] before they did, ours is more progressive, and ours is a smarter way to go about it,” he said, referring to New York’s decision to allow for regional differences in wages.

“I know that folks that live in the Central Valley as well as San Bernardino, Riverside and elsewhere — they deserve a minimum wage increase, too.”

De León added that Monday’s signing was mainly ceremonial and, “We don’t look towards New York for any leadership, I think the rest of the country looks toward California for leadership on this issue.”

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Bill Clinton: California has been good to my family

Bill Clinton appeared in Los Angeles on Sunday to rally supporters for Hillary Clinton ahead of the June 7 primary.

At the event, Clinton hailed his wife as a change agent and applauded California for its minimum wage hike.

Cathleen Decker also tackled the former president’s appearance, seeing it as an illustration of how the party has moved further left than the Clinton duo.

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$15 minimum wage law is signed

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Timing is everything, Part II

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The politics of wages

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Looks like New York wins the bill signing sprint

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Nearly 2 million workers to get raise in Los Angeles County due to minimum wage hike, economists say

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On minimum wage, timing is everything

Within two hours of one another, the governors of California and New York today will sign legislation to gradually increase their statewide minimum wages to $15 per hour.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is scheduled to officially bless his state’s measure at 8 a.m. Pacific time.

At Cuomo’s side just after the ink dries will be Hillary Clinton, campaigning ahead of the New York primary.

Gov. Jerry Brown is scheduled to sign the California measure, which goes into effect in stages until 2022, in downtown Los Angeles at 9 a.m.

We’ll be reporting live from Brown’s event here and also via Snapchat. Are you following us at losangelestimes and latimespolitics?

We’ll be watching Cuomo and Clinton on Trail Guide and via @latimespolitics.

These details were in this morning’s Essential Politics newsletter. Are you a subscriber? If not, please sign up below.

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One reason minimum wage compromise was rushed

The minimum wage deal was reached just before Easter break, according to one source involved in the negotiations who wasn’t authorized to publicly blab. The agreement was leaked earlier than planned, during Easter weekend, because Gov. Jerry Brown’s office heard that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was about to make a similar announcement and wanted to beat Cuomo to the punch.

Cuomo will sign his state’s $15-per-hour measure Monday morning, just before a rally with Hillary Clinton. Unlike California’s — but like Oregon’s new minimum wage — New York’s plan would vary regionally, with the highest pay required only in areas with the steepest cost of living.

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‘Si se puede and si se pudo’: Watch leaders celebrate signing of minimum wage bill in Los Angeles

Gov. Jerry Brown, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León appeared together at the Ronald Reagan building in Los Angeles to mark the historic occasion.

Watch Brown’s remarks as he signs the measure into law.

You can watch the entire event as well. It begins 20 minutes into the video below.

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Tuesday special election could turn Central Valley Assembly district red for first time in 40 years

Republicans haven’t represented voters in the 31st Assembly District since 1976. That’s not surprising, given that Democrats hold a 20-point voter registration advantage in the Central Valley district.

But with an oddly timed special election Tuesday, low voter turnout could allow Republican candidate and Fresno City Council member Clint Olivier to eke out a win against Democrat Joaquin Arambula, an emergency room doctor and son of former Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula.

Typically, presidential election years are tough for California Republicans, since high turnout favors Democrats, who have a built-in voter registration advantage across much of the state.

But Henry T. Perea’s unexpected resignation in December — with one year left of his term — accelerated the campaign cycle and has turned traditional campaign thinking in this district on its head.

“People say, ‘That’s a Democrat’s seat,’” Olivier, 40, said in a recent interview. “The reality is that people who live [in the Central Valley] have elected common-sense Republicans who they trust to carry their stories to Sacramento, and to represent their interests and not the special interest.”

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Five Democrats got campaign checks from union the same day they voted to raise the minimum wage

The same day they voted to raise the minimum wage, five Democratic lawmakers received big campaign checks from a local union of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the group that pressured lawmakers for the wage bill, according to documents filed with the state.

The SEIU Local 1000 Candidate PAC made election contributions of $8,500 each to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount), former Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) and Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose).

The local also gave a $4,200 campaign contribution to Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento).

All of those Democrats voted for the measure.

All of the contributions were made Thursday, the same day the Assembly and Senate approved a bill that would raise the minimum wage in California to $15 an hour over the next six years, according to the campaign finance report.

A spokesman for the local union was not immediately available for comment.

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Ted Cruz to address California Republicans

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz will address California Republicans at their April convention, party officials announced Friday.

The Texas senator will speak to hundreds of the party’s leaders and most passionate activists at a luncheon on April 30.

“This year we have an opportunity to return to the founding principles of our nation -- free markets, fiscal responsibility and individual liberty,” Cruz said in a statement. “I’m excited to speak to California Republican delegates, activists and voters about how we can get our country back on track.”

The other two Republican candidates still in the race -- businessman Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich -- have also been invited to the three-day gathering in Burlingame.

The announcement comes as California’s June 7 primary has grown increasingly important in the presidential race.

The late date was expected to make the contest an afterthought in the GOP nomination fight, but the divided nature of the electorate means that California will likely be key in determining whether Trump can win the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the party’s national convention.

A new poll by USC and the Los Angeles Times finds that Trump leads Cruz, 37% to 30%, among the state’s registered Republican voters, but that his lead shrinks to one percentage point among likely GOP voters.

Among the Republican candidates, Cruz is by far the best organized in California. He started signing up volunteers in the state last summer. He visited the state this week, raising money in Orange County, rallying potential delegates and appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

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Natural gas storage-safety task force created

The U.S. Energy Department and Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said Friday they will lead a natural gas storage-safety task force in the wake of the Aliso Canyon storage facility leak near Porter Ranch.

“Industry actions that led to the recent natural gas leak at California’s Aliso Canyon site underscored the serious risk that these storage facilities can pose,” the announcement states. “The fact that this leak happened in the first place, the length of time that it took to fix, and the disruption that it caused for so many people are very concerning.”

The four-month leak near Porter Ranch released nearly 100,000 tons of methane and contaminants and forced thousands to evacuate their homes.

The task force includes representatives from several federal agencies who will work with city, county and state officials from California.

U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, who pushed for the task force’s creation, praised the move in a news release Friday.

“I am gratified that President Obama understands that we must make sure that what happened in Aliso Canyon never happens again and the task force he has appointed will report back in six months on how to do just that,” Boxer said.

Feinstein said the federal government has the responsibility to ensure no such leak happens again.

“In my view, the facility should be shut down, and it’s my hope the task force comes to the same conclusion. It’s imperative to protect the health and safety of local residents, and having this facility so close to a subdivision is simply too dangerous,” she said.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) said in a statement that he’s glad the task force was created, but is worried it won’t do enough.

The announcement states that the Department of Energy will hold workshops with industry and regulators to develop best practices.

Sherman wants hard and fast regulations, he said.

“The administration should use its clear legislative authority to adopt mandatory temporary regulations by the end of this month and permanent mandatory regulations by the end of this year – and not just rely on industry recommendations,” he said.

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Labor scraps its minimum wage ballot measure

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Congressional Democrats, cities side with Obama on Clean Power Plan

Led by California Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), 208 former and current members of Congress signed on to an amicus brief defending President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

Leaders from Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Fransisco and West Hollywood and 46 other cities and counties signed on to a separate brief defending the plan.

The amicus or “friend of the court” briefs were submitted Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is considering a challenge to the plan in West Virginia et al. vs. Environmental Protection Agency.

California Sen Dianne Feinstein joined Boxer in signing on to the congressional brief, as did 37 of the state’s 39 House Democrats. Missing were Reps. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Norma Torres (D-Pomona).

Former Democratic Reps. George Miller and Henry Waxman also signed.

In early February, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to put the president’s plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at existing power plants by about one-third by 2030 on hold until legal challenges are resolved.

Shortly after, eight of the 14 members of California’s Republican congressional delegation joined 197 colleagues in a brief opposing the president’s plan.

Dozens of Midwestern and Southern states that rely on economic activity tied to coal, oil and gas are challenging the plan as an overreach of federal authority and say taht electricity companies will be forced to spend billions of dollars to comply with the plan.

Congressional Democrats also took to social media Friday to make their case.

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Feinstein sets meeting with Supreme Court nominee

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Feinstein on 2018: ‘Ask me that in about a year’

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s plans have been a hot topic among California politicians for years.

There is a generation or two of Democratic politicians in the wings, frustrated by their lack of upward movement. But the Democrat and former mayor of San Francisco said Thursday during a visit with The Times that she would decide whether to run again based not on that but on whether she can continue to be effective.

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How did lawmakers vote on the minimum wage?

It was a mostly party line vote to increase California’s minimum wage to $15, with two exceptions.

Who abstained? Who was absent?

We built a chart for you to see for yourself.

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Minimum wage hike to become law on Monday

Gov. Jerry Brown hugs Burger King worker Holly Dias at a news conference on the minimum wage legislation. She’s worked for minimum wage for nine years.
(Renee C. Byer / Associated Press)

Following a long and emotional debate in the Legislature on Thursday, state lawmakers approved a wide-ranging package to increase California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next six years.

Soon after it passed, Gov. Jerry Brown announced he would sign the bill on Monday in Los Angeles. That means the package will have gone from its formal unveiling to California law in one week.

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The 8 ‘what ifs’ about California’s jungle primary

California’s jungle primary is wacky enough without a contested presidential contest at the top of the ticket. With June 7 shaping up to be a pivotal day in the race, we started to wonder what it might mean for Republicans and Democrats to share a ballot with Donald Trump.

Phil Willon, Patrick McGreevy and I got to the bottom of it — from congressional races to a tax issue in Glendale.

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