SB 277, a bill that would mandate vaccinations for children attending public schools, had an emotional hearing yesterday in the Senate Health Committee, fraught with outbursts and ejections. In the end, the bill passed 6-2, with Committee Chair Ed Hernandez (D-Azusa) abstaining. David Siders has the story for the Bee:
“The final vote was 6-2, with Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, opposing. The Senate Health Committee chair, Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa , abstained. The measure faces several more committee hearings before a potential Senate floor vote.
“Conceived in response to recent outbreaks of diseases such as measles and whooping cough, Senate Bill 277 removes the ‘personal belief exemption’ allowing California parents to enroll kids in school without having them receive the prescribed range of shots.”
Representative Lois Capps set off a scramble with the announcement yesterday that she will not seek reelection in 2016. Elena Schneider has the story at Politico:
“’The 24th District has been competitive for multiple cycles and instantly becomes a more likely pick-up opportunity for Republicans in 2016 with Lois Capps’ retirement,’ said Zach Hunter, regional spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Democrats have also tossed around several possibilities to replace Capps, including one name who would continue the family dynasty. Some have hinted that Laura Capps, Capps’ daughter, who recently moved back to the district, could be considering a run.
Capps, now in her ninth full term, first ran for the seat in a special election in March 1998 to replace her husband, Walter Capps, after he died of a heart attack in October 1997.”
With strict new limits on residential water use, California is saying “no more Mr. Nice Guy” to water wasters.
Fenit Nirappil, AP: “State regulators are naming and shaming local water departments that have let water wasters slide — and forcing agencies to slash water use by as much as a third. They say it's necessary as California reservoirs, and the snow on mountains that is supposed to refill them, reach record lows….
“Not all cities were at risk of running out of water and didn't feel the same pressure to conserve. Some had enough water in local storage to weather the drought. Other local elected officials risked the wrath of constituents for hiking rates or imposing far-reaching restrictions.
"’If it's the state telling them what they have to do, that takes the heat off of local officials,’ said Ellen Hanak, a water expert at the Public Policy Institute of California.”
Silicon Valley is often seen as a bastion of liberalism – a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won a Bay Area county since 1988 - but National Journal’s Rebecca Nelson seeks out the Valley’s hidden Republicans.
“For some right-leaning techies, the GOP brand itself is a liability. The startup CEO stressed that there are "a number of ideas that conservatives have that I totally disagree with," such as opposition to same-sex marriage, and he abhors the thought of being lumped in with Republicans who deny climate change or evolution.
"’Republicans are regarded as assholes,’ he said. ‘And I wouldn't want to be associated with assholes.’
“Another Republican who founded a small San Francisco-based startup told National Journal that he's worried potential partners and investors would be turned off by his libertarian views. Recently, it seems like all of his peers in Silicon Valley have been outspoken about their opposition to the thwarted religious liberty law in Indiana, he said. He thinks business owners should be allowed to decide whom they serve, and if they discriminate against gays, people can choose not to patronize their business. He won't discuss that view, though, or debate his left-leaning colleagues on Facebook or Twitter.
"’If I were to speak out about something like that, maybe one of these companies wants to buy my company one day and the CEO is like, “Oh, I remember this guy saying all this stuff about this thing that I really disagree with.” And that obviously could have negative effects,’ he said. ‘Getting your point across isn't worth it.’"
It’s nearly an epidemic: one out of every six California drivers – over 4 million people – has a suspended license for failing to pay fines. Senator Bob Hertzberg, (D-Van Nuys) wants to fix that. From John Howard at Capitol Weekly:
“[Legislation] by Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, would restore a driver’s license if it was suspended for nonviolent offenses and if the driver agrees to a court-ordered debt collection program. The legislation, SB 405, would work in conjunction with the Traffic Amnesty Program proposed by Gov. Brown, which seeks to collect at least some of the estimated $10 billion in uncollected, court-ordered debt.
“Hertzberg said the traffic-court fines and an array of escalating fees and penalties have forced millions of drivers from their automobiles and unable to get to work…
“’Under existing law, it is virtually impossible for the driver’s license to be restored until all the unpaid fees, fines and assessments are completely paid. This jeopardizes economic stability in the state, limits the available workforce, and forces employers to bear the cost of replacing workers and finding qualified replacement workers with valid licenses,’ according to Hertzberg’s office.”
And, we’ll end on a solemn note: the American Civil War ended 150 years ago today.
On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered Confederate forces to General Ulysses S. Grant following a devastating defeat at Appomattox, Virginia. In the parlor of a home owned by Wilmer McLean, Grant and Lee met to discuss the surrender. From Wikipedia:
“Dressed in an immaculate uniform, Lee waited for Grant to arrive. Grant, whose headache had ended when he received Lee's note, arrived at the courthouse in a mud-spattered uniform—a government-issue sack coat with trousers tucked into muddy boots, no sidearms, and with only his tarnished shoulder straps showing his rank. It was the first time the two men had seen each other face-to-face in almost two decades. Suddenly overcome with sadness, Grant found it hard to get to the point of the meeting and instead the two generals briefly discussed their only previous encounter, during the Mexican-American War. Lee brought the attention back to the issue at hand, and Grant offered the same terms he had before.”
While Lee’s surrender was the official end to the war, fighting continued for months, tallying 14,000 casualties before hostilities ended on July 24, 1865.
Some would argue that the Civil War has never really ended – that the confederacy simply went underground, emerging in Jim Crow laws, lynchings and anti-federalist sentiments.
We’ll close with a snippet from Euan Hague’s look at the “living Confederacy” from Politico.
“One hundred fifty years ago, on April 9th, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House and the Union triumphed in the Civil War. Yet the passage of a century and a half has not dimmed the passion for the Confederacy among many Americans. Just three weeks ago, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) appeared before the Supreme Court arguing for the right to put a Confederate flag on vanity license plates in Texas. Just why would someone in 2015 want a Confederate flag on their license plate? The answer is likely not a desire to overtly display one’s genealogical research skills; nor can it be simplistically understood solely as an exhibition of racism, although the power of the Confederate flag to convey white supremacist beliefs cannot be discounted.
“Rather, displaying the Confederate flag in 2015 is an indicator of a complex and reactionary politics that is very much alive in America today. It is a politics that harks back to the South’s proud stand in the Civil War as a way of rallying opinion against the federal government—and against the country’s changing demographic, economic, and moral character, of which Washington is often seen as the malign author. Today’s understanding of the Confederacy by its supporters is thus neither nostalgia, nor mere heritage; rather Confederate sympathy in 2015 is a well-funded and active political movement…”