Senator Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) announced that she has reintroduced “Brandon’s Law” (Senate Bill 434) to prohibit an operator of rehabilitation treatment facilities from providing any form of false advertising or marketing services. The new bipartisan bill is identical to last year’s Senate Bill 863, which Sen. Bates placed on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is similar to Senate Bill 589 that Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed in 2019.
“I’m not giving up on the fight to end abuses in the rehab industry,” said Senator Bates, a former social worker. “No one should ever have to experience what Brandon Nelson and his family did when seeking care. My bill will help protect patients and honor Brandon’s memory.”
Revenge Porn ‘Wrongdoers’ To Register As Sex Offenders If AB 307 Becomes Law
Three state legislators who represent the Santa Clarita Valley have introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 307 which would force “wrongdoers” of revenge porn to register as sex offenders.
AB 307 was authored by Assemblymembers Suzette Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, and Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, as well as State Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, to increase protections for victims of revenge porn by requiring wrongdoers to register as sex offenders, according to the legislation.
“Our laws should never protect abusers who harass and exploit to maintain control,” Lackey said in a statement Thursday. “Revenge porn is a disgusting expression of someone’s desire to dominate those who have intimately entrusted them.”
A record number of California Democratic lawmakers were dinged on the 2020 legislative scorecard released by a statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization. Thirty-three Democrats in the state Legislature failed to receive perfect scores last year due to not casting yes votes for LGBTQ bills.
It is the highest number of Democratic legislators falling below a 100% score since 2006. That year, 22 Democrats in the statehouse earned less than perfect scores due to not voting in support of LGBTQ legislation.
Equality California posted its 2020 scorecard to its website Friday, January 15, prior to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. EQCA also tweeted out a link to the scorecard that day along with a number of tweets praising various lawmakers who earned perfect scores, among them Assemblyman Chad Meyes (I-Yucca Valley), who left the Republican Party a year ago this month.
California Assembly impeachment vote puts Republicans in bind
In its first vote of the 2021-22 legislative session, the Assembly voted 51-to-6 on a nonbinding resolution calling for the president to resign. Author: Ben Christopher | CalMatters Updated: 3:41 PM PST January 12, 2021
CALIFORNIA, USA That the California Assembly would spend its first day of the year calling for the removal of President Donald Trump a week after he sicced a mob of white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and hooligans on Congress is about as surprising as summer fog in San Francisco. Democrats hold a super-majority in both chambers of the Legislature.
But it was not a welcome first vote for California’s elected Republicans. The choice presented to them: Either castigate a president still wildly popular within their own party or take a vote that might be construed by moderate and independent voters as, if not pro-insurrection, then at least insurrection-tolera