Frank X. Moraga
By Frank X. Moraga / Amigos805
The holiday season is over as the public readies for the challenges and opportunities to come in 2015.
They include a slew of new laws enacted on Jan. 1.
State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson in late December reported a number of her bills authored in 2014 will take effect in the new year. They include:
Senate Bill 505: Introduced in the wake of the Isla Vista rampage in May, the bill requires local law enforcement agencies to develop policies encouraging officers to conduct a search of the Department of Justice’s Automated Firearms System, California’s database of gun purchases, prior to conducting a “welfare check” on a person who is potentially a danger to themselves or others.
Senate Bill 949: Designed to prevent childhood obesity by encouraging healthy eating and physical activity in after-school programs.
Senate Bill 967: Known nationally as the yes-means-yes bill and jointly authored with State Sen. Kevin de León, it makes California the first in the nation to define affirmative consent and requires institutions of higher education to educate students about consent and sexual assault.
Senate Bill 988: In the midst of California’s record-breaking drought, the bill gives the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency (FCGMA) in Ventura County the authority to inspect any groundwater extraction facility within its boundaries to gather information on the status of the well and how much water has been withdrawn.
Senate Bill 1028: Will help the long-term unemployed get job training and get back to work.
Click here information on other bills.
Assemblymember Das Williams in December received a perfect score for pro-consumer votes from the 2014 Consumer Federation of California. Among the votes is Assembly Bill 1522, a bill he co-authored that entitles employees to sick days to be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked, limited to 24 hours or three days in each year of employment.
Williams also reported earlier this year that Gov. Jerry Brown signed his bill that will allow tuberculosis control programs to work more effectively to detect and control TB in California by replacing a previously mandated tuberculosis examination with a TB risk assessment and follow-up TB exams.
“The best public health and medical evidence suggests that universal TB testing is neither necessary nor cost-effective. Targeted screening will continue to protect our state’s teachers, volunteers, school employees, and children from tuberculosis,” Williams stated in a media release.
Rep. Lois Capps in December reported President Obama signed her TRICARE Moms Improvement Act into law (click here). It improves health coverage for military moms by making breastfeeding supplies, services and counseling available to military families covered under the federal TRICARE health insurance program, benefits already required in private health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. This is the fifth Capps bill signed into law during the 113th Congress, she reported.
During 2014, Rep. Julia Brownley introduced bills to: connect students with local manufacturing jobs; to expand complementary and alternative care for veterans, the VA Investigation and Accountability Act, and co-sponsored the Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act. In December she reported that in the nearly two years since she took office she and her staff have successfully delivered more than $4.6 million in retroactive and estimated monthly federal benefits to constituents throughout Ventura County and helped secure more than $10 million in federal grants for local projects. Click here for more information.
— Frank X. Moraga is editor/publisher of Amigos805. He has served as business editor, director of diversity and general manager of a bilingual publication at the Ventura County Star, and as a reporter in the community editions of the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Daily News.