State Government

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following appointments: First, Fahizah Alim, 63, of Sacramento, has been appointed deputy director of communications for the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Alim has been communications director for California State Senator Curren Price since 2009. She served as communications [...]

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — On Friday, S.F. Mayor Edwin M. Lee and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that they will co-host the second annual Bloomberg Technology Summit to bring together technology and business leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the nation’s top digital cities and examine what other cities [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, California State Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), Chair of the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee released the following statement regarding the state budget: “Today is an exciting day for California and for millions of K-12 students throughout the state. I commend Governor Brown for his vision in what I [...]

SAN FERNANDO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — In Washington, D.C., Thursday evening, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-San Fernando Valley) introduced critical legislation to improve cybersecurity in the United States, which passed the U.S. House unanimously. The three pieces of legislation were amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Cárdenas amendments will ensure the United [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that he has signed a tribal-state gaming compact between the State of California and the Ramona Band of Cahuilla. The compact includes provisions to protect employees and patrons as well as measures to protect the environment during the construction and operation of [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. joined the region’s business leaders and workers to call for action on his plan to revamp the state’s economic development program and help put Californians back to work. “California’s thirty-year-old Enterprise Zone program is not enterprising, it’s wasteful. It’s inefficient and not giving [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — On Thursday, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following governmental appointments: First, Dan Burch, 47, of Turlock, has been appointed to the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services. Burch has been administrator at the San Joaquin County Emergency Medical Services Agency since 2005. He was a coordinator at [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today met with a broad coalition of business, civil rights and education leaders from across California to continue the call for action on his plan to direct additional resources to the state’s neediest students and restore local control over how money is spent in [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following appointments: First, April Lopez, 46, of Yorba Linda, has been reappointed to the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities, where she has served since 2012. Lopez has been owner at Stadium Chiropractic and Sports Medicine Rehabilitation since 1998. She was [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — On Tuesday, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following appointments: First, Judith Frank, 71, of Los Angeles, was appointed to the California Health Facilities Financing Authority. Frank has been owner and principal at Asset Strategies since 1993. She was a consulting project executive at the California Department of [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Calif. Assemblymembers Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) and Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks) are calling for an investigation of County Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies in California following recent failures that, in one case, led to the death of a child in Los Angeles County and, in another, caused an infant to [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following appointments: First, David Chandler, 50, of Palm Desert, has been appointed to the California Private Security Disciplinary Review Committee, South. Chandler has been owner of Bel-Air Patrol since 2012 and president and chief executive officer at Coachella Valley Security Inc. [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Open access advocates in California celebrated last week as AB 609 passed the Assembly floor by a vote of 71-7. The bill, co-authored by Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) and Republican Assemblyman Brian Nestande (R-Palm Desert), would ensure that research conducted using public funds is available to the public, [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — California’s legislature took action to ease congestion, and driver frustration, on the Los Angeles freeway system yesterday, by passing AB 405 with a bipartisan vote of 72-0. The bill, authored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, addresses infuriating late-night traffic jams on some of the nation’s most notoriously congested freeways, by permitting [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, the California State Assembly took action to prevent child abuse in our schools and track those accused of crimes against children, by passing AB 349 with a bipartisan vote of 71-0. The bill creates a landmark, statewide, information system to help prevent repeat offenders from retaining employment at a [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following government appointments: First, Jacqueline Hostler-Carmesin, 57, of McKinleyville, has been appointed to the California Fish and Game Commission. Hostler has been chief executive officer at Cher Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria since 2010 and was director of [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — California communities struggling with decaying and contaminated properties will have new tools available to revitalize these sites now that Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s (D-Los Angeles) AB 440 has cleared the Assembly with a bipartisan vote of 75-1. Changes to state law made in 2011 made it unclear whether local governments could [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Calif. Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s bill to address the epidemic of hit-and-run offenses in Southern California and other parts of the state moved to the Senate today following a unanimous vote of 74-0 of the full Assembly. The legislation, AB 184, provides an additional tool to law enforcement officers investigating hit-and-run [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Today, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the following appointments: First, Laura Alarcon, 57, of Sacramento, has been appointed chief of the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services at the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Alarcon has served in multiple positions at the California Department of Insurance since 2008, [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — The Calif. State Senate today approved SB 380 by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) on a bipartisan vote of 35 to 2. The bill would set standards to prevent the arbitrary shutdown or interruption of cell phone service. The bill now moves to the Assembly for consideration. “SB 380 establishes a [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Calif. Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s (D-Los Angeles) bill to improve California’s fuel standards passed the Assembly by a vote of 77-0. AB 278 would ensure that so-called “green” fuels do not in fact harm the environment. California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) was created to reduce emissions from burning fuels. It [...]

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — S.F. Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced that four new businesses have signed leases in the Central Market neighborhood, including digital music service Spotify, which has signed a lease for 13,500 square feet of office space in the Warfield Building on Market Street. Three other businesses are joining Spotify [...]

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — This past week, Mayor Edwin M. Lee and the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) announced that QB3 will develop a new biotech incubator at 953 Indiana Street in San Francisco’s Central Waterfront area. The incubator will be called “QB3@953”and will advance QB3’s work to support life science companies [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ –A tiny bug that causes huge problems is one step closer to being eradicated, says Calif. Assemblyman Mike Gatto. Huanglongbing (HLB), a disease spread by the Asian Citrus Psyllid, infects citrus trees and destroys them. There is no known cure. The disease has almost destroyed China’s citrus industry, and Florida has [...]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — On Friday, Calif. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments: First, Stephanie Shimazu, 43, of Sacramento, has been appointed chief counsel at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Shimazu has been an attorney at the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs since 2013. She [...]