Archive for the 'News' Category

AB 221 Passes California Legislature

Published September 11th, 2007 in Governor, Senate, Assembly and News. Closed

The California Public Divest from Iran Act (AB 221), one of the bills we actively lobbied on during our annual Mission to Sacramento, unanimously passed the State Senate last week by a 36-0 vote. 

Yesterday morning, the State Assembly concurred with the Senate’s amendments, unanimously passing the revised bill making California the third state in the nation to pass Iran divestment legislation.  The bill now heads to Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk for his signature. 

Introduced by Assemblyman Joel Anderson, AB 221 will prohibit the state’s public pension funds from investing in companies with business ties to Iran’s petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, or defense sectors.  Depriving Iran of investment in these sectors of their economy will send a clear message to Tehran that they must give up their nuclear weapons program. 

HELP US THANK THE LEGISLATURE 

Please call your State Senator and Assembly Member in Sacramento to thank them for voting for the California Public Divest from Iran Act (AB 221).  Visit http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html to look up your State Senator’s contact information.

Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon), the author of AB 221, should be thanked for introducing the bill and for leading the effort in the Legislature to ensure the bill’s passage.  Assemblyman Anderson can be reached at (916) 319-2077. 

Senator Darryl Steinberg (D-Sacramento) should be thanked for his leadership on AB 221 in the Senate.  Senator Steinberg can be reached at (916) 651-4006.

Votes

The following State Senators voted for AB 221:

Aanestad, Ackerman, Alquist, Ashburn, Battin, Calderon, Cedillo, Cogdill, Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham, Dutton, Florez, Harman, Kehoe, Kuehl, Lowenthal, Machado, Maldonado, Margett, McClintock, Migden, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla, Perata, Ridley-Thomas, Romero, Runner, Simitian, Steinberg, Torlakson, Wiggins, Wyland, Yee

The following State Senators were not present for the vote:

Ducheny, Hollingsworth, Scott, Vincent

The State Assembly passed AB 221 unanimously.

Budget signed, cuts made

Published August 24th, 2007 in JFS, Health Care, Budget, Governor, Assembly, Senate and News. Closed

The Governor just signed the budget and as expected, he vetoed the additional dollars that the budget sub-committee put in for Adult Protective Services, which means that the program will not be fully funded, yet again. 

As you may recall this program has never been fully funded, so fewer senior citizens the ability to have a place to call if they are being abused by a caretaker or family member.  This program was intended to help seniors by having additional resources to help investigate complaints and stop the abuses from happening again. 
 
The Governor also vetoed money for the Naturalization Services Program, bringing its funding level back down to the original dollar amount that he included in his January budget.   This program was funded at $3 million and we were successful at getting an increase through the subcommittee process of $2 million for a total of $5 million.  We had been able to get it funded in both houses, keeping it out of Conference Committee.

With the Governor’s $2 million cut, our NSP programs will not serve nearly as many immigrants as we could have with the additional funds.  
 
As we are able to better analyze the budget we will send out another update.

UCs to change move-in days

Published June 22nd, 2007 in Assembly, Education and News. Closed

A few months ago, we began working closely with Assemblyman Levine regarding the move-in days for the University of California system falling on the High Holy Days.

Our efforts have paid off as UC President Robert Dynes has begun the process of changing the move-in days, which would have fallen on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.

“I’m pleased that President Dynes heard our message loud and clear and took action to prevent future conflicts,” Assemblymember Levine said. “Incoming Jewish freshmen should not be forced to choose between their religion and their first few days of college life. Moreover, it is not necessary that they choose. The UC’s action today proves that it is perfectly able to change its freshman residence hall move-in days to dates that would not conflict with the Jewish High Holy Days.”