In Gov. Jerry Brown’s late rush to dispatch more than 140 legislative bills before midnight Sunday, Assemblyman Mike Davis had three bills to make the cut–AB 420, AB 126 and AB 1329.
AB 420 requires the Department of Corrections to submit the last known address of inmates to the Citizens Commission on Redistricting every 10 years and requests that the Commission deem each inmate as residing at his or her last known address, rather than the correctional facility, for the purposes of establishing a population count when drawing district lines. The bill was signed by Brown on Friday. It effectively ends prison-based gerrymandering. Prior to AB 420 the state followed the practice of counting prisoners where they were incarcerated rather than their last known legal address.
AB 126, co-authored by Assemblymember Wilmer Carter (D-Rialto) ensures equity and transparency at all levels of the judicial selection process. It also increases fairness in the vetting process of judicial qualifications.
The signing of AB 1329 provides the California Department of Public Health with the necessary administrative tools to continue the operation of the statewide California Cancer Registry. The Registry will continue to provide the cancer community with clues about the causes of cancer, improved treatment methods, and the development of strategies for cancer screening and prevention. The latter two bills were signed Sunday.
*
Sen. Curren D. Price Jr., chair of the Senate Select Committee on Autism and Related Disorders and the founder of the Special Needs Network, joined other state and local politicians along with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to hail the signing of SB 946, which is considered a landmark victory for autism insurance coverage. The bill, signed Sunday, requires California insurance companies to provide coverage of behavior therapy for autism spectrum disorders as a medical benefit.
*
SB 610, a measure by Sen. Roderick D. Wright (D-Inglewood) designed to create consistency in firearm licensing among various agencies and “keeps unqualified applicants from paying exorbitant fees prior to being declined,” was signed into law Sunday by Gov. Jerry Brown. Prior to that, a person wishing to obtain a concealed firearms permit had to apply to the sheriff or the police, pay a firearms training fee and complete a training course before it was determined that they had met the requirement to have a concealed firearm. “It is only fair that we tell someone whether or not they even qualify for a permit before we ask them to spend their time and hard-earned money on training that may serve them and the public no purpose,” said Wright.
