In the News

September 03, 2018

By Melanie Mason

A last-ditch effort to impose additional environmental review on a controversial groundwater pumping project in the Mojave Desert sputtered Friday night after a key state Senate committee held the bill over concerns about legislative process.

The measure, Senate Bill 120, would have given the state Lands Commission and Department of Fish and Wildlife the authority to study the project by Cadiz Inc. to make sure the pumping would not harm surrounding lands.

August 27, 2018

By Melanie Mason

Environmentalists are mounting a last-minute bid in the final week of the California legislative session to revive a stalled effort to require more review for a project to pump more groundwater from the Mojave Desert.

August 19, 2018

Last week, military personnel and veterans planning to go to college enjoyed an important victory that will streamline their education opportunities at community colleges. The Assembly Appropriations Committee passed SB 1071, which will require that California Community Colleges implement a uniform policy for awarding course credit to veterans for their prior military education, training and service.

August 12, 2018

By Julie Watts, KPIX-TV

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — One of California’s largest agencies promised lawmakers it would make changes following a KPIX investigation. But, three years later, we discovered they broke that promise and are still putting millions at risk for identity theft.

Now, citing our investigation, lawmakers have launched an investigation of their own.

They’re embedding a state auditor inside the Employment Development Department for five months to figure out why that agency can’t seem to stop compromising Social Security numbers.

August 07, 2018

By Daytona Everett

The continuous fires torching the state of California are sparking action at the state level in Sacramento. California Senator Jeff Stone, R-Riverside, recently joined a new committee focused on subsiding and analyzing the raging fires.

“I’ve been appointed to a committee to do fact-finding to really find out what the cause of the fires are and who should be financially responsible,” Stone said.

July 22, 2018

Community News

Last Friday, the Executive Council of the Riverside Chapter of the NAACP announced the passing of beloved community leader and President of the Riverside Branch of the NAACP, Waudier “Woodie” Rucker-Hughes. Hughes passed away peacefully early Friday morning.

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.