There are a few weeks in each legislative session that I get simply barraged with press releases from legislative staff. And this week is one of them, as the deadline for bills to pass out of their respective policy committees is on Friday.  But before I move on… here’s a rant:



First, props for trying to reach out to bloggers, that’s a point for you.  But I would give one point of free advice to all you press flacks out there, please include the text of the press release in the email. I really don’t want to open a PDF just so that I can get the privilege of having all of your pretty formatting work out every time. And by text, I mean text, not an image of text. Ok end rant.

Now, to some of the actual bills that have emerged from policy committees that are taking up space in my inbox.  First, how about one from an environmental champion, Lois Wolk:

Wolk´s Senate Bill 679 prohibits the use of state park lands for non-park purposes without legislative approval. Even with legislative approval, the bill would not allow a project to move forward unless the use of the park land was compensated for with a parks´ designation for land with equal environmental and fair market value. (Press Release here)

And how about a couple from Sen. Leland Yee. SB 557 would allow law enforcement to sieze property from human traffickers. And in response to the SF Bay Oil Spill last year, he has gotten SB 1217 passed out of the policy committee. It would regulate bar pilots and provide more transparency in the process.

And how about one from freshman Assembly member Joan Buchanan? Her AB 1317 was passed out of the Assembly Committee on Health. The bill would provide access to parent of newborns for tests to screen for a wide range of disorders, such as sickle cell anemia.

I suppose I am encouraging more emails with this post, so I guess all you Assembly staff can feel free to shoot me more emails with tales of your boss’s big breakthrough.