In the News

June 26, 2018

#1MOM, 1LOVE#LA, #Y0L0 — these could become license plates of the future if a state bill to fund homeless services passes. A bill by State Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, is moving forward that would allow drivers to place a hashtag on a special license plate and have the price tag help fund mental health and substance abuse treatment for California’s homeless.

June 07, 2018

California drivers may soon be able to help the state’s homelessness crisis. State Senator Richard Roth’s bill was recently approved by the state Senate and it creates a specialized license plate that uses the hashtag symbol as the first of the seven digits.

May 29, 2018

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to protect a patient’s right to medical records. Imagine you’re diagnosed with an illness and you have to look years back into your care. “The patient actually may find when he or she goes to look that the records have been destroyed without the patient’s consent,” said Senator Richard Roth who authored the bill SB 1238 the Medical Records Protection Act.

May 11, 2018

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The unprecedented $199.3 billion state budget announced Friday under Gov. Jerry Brown's May Revise reflects some level of "fiscal restraint" and contains other positives, several Riverside County lawmakers acknowledged, but others found the revision wanting for lack of tax relief and greater commitments to higher education.

May 03, 2018

You hire a contractor to replace your roof and paint your house, then end up on the hook for more than a quarter million dollars. It happened to a Los Angeles man. And others have shared similar home improvement nightmares with the NBC4 I-Team.

April 23, 2018

A name long associated with transportation in the Inland region may soon be on a sign announcing commuters’ approach to the complex 60-91-215 interchange near downtown Riverside. A state senator is carrying legislation that would name the interchange in honor of Joseph Tavaglione...

April 10, 2018

By Joe Michaels

A legislative bill being introduced at the State Capitol would give California drivers an easy way to help the homeless.

Senator Richard Roth is behind an effort to create a specialized license plate using a hashtag as one of its seven digits.  Money raised would fund supportive services at Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention programs.

“These are men and women who have served our country,” said Senator Roth.  “It’s our solemn duty to make sure that we provide a path for them out of homelessness so they can succeed in society.”

April 04, 2018

By James Rojas

The hashtag movement may be jumping from social media to the highway. 

“#BOOTFC” You might be reading that while stuck in traffic on the 405 freeway if Democratic Senator Richard Roth’s bill, SB 1112, passes. 

The Riverside lawmaker says it would allow drivers to personalize their license plate with a hashtag – with that fee going towards providing supportive services for homeless vets. 

March 02, 2018

By Teri Sforza and Tony Saavedra

People looking to quit alcohol or other drugs typically find treatment the same way they might search for take-out food or a mechanic – by typing search words into Google.

Once there, addicts and their families can get trapped in a tangle of lies.

The deception has taken many forms:

— Competitors hijack online traffic from established centers by buying common misspellings and iterations of rehab names and key phrases.

February 01, 2018

By Teri Sforza and Tony Saavedra

California’s troubled addiction treatment industry may face stricter oversight and a raft of new requirements in 2018, as lawmakers try to protect vulnerable patients and reduce blatant fraud.

After reports of death, sexual assault, drug use and paying-for-patients inside the state’s loosely-regulated treatment centers, the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday called a dozen witnesses to explain the Golden State’s approach to the industry — and map out a plan to to tame the “Wild Wild West.”