Newsom signs extreme heat legislation + Bonta supports Title IX changes
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
AMID HEAT WAVE, NEWSOM SIGNS BILLS TO TACKLE EXTREME HEAT
As temperatures took a turn for the sweltering last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills intended to protect state residents from extreme heat.
First up was AB 1643, from possible future Assembly speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas. It creates an advisory committee to study the effects of extreme heat on workers, businesses and the economy.
Then there was AB 2238 from Assemblywoman Luz Rivas, D-Arleta, to create a heat warning and ranking system akin to the one used for measuring hurricanes.
AB 2420 by Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, directs the California Department of Public Health to review research on the impact of extreme heat on infants and develop guidance for safe outdoor conditions for pregnant workers.
Finally, SB 852, by Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, authorizes cities and counties to create climate resilience districts to invest in programs to tackle climate change-related weather conditions such as extreme heat, droughts and wildfires.
“This week’s unprecedented heat wave is a painful reminder of the costs and impacts of climate change – and it won’t be the last,” Newsom said in a statement.
BONTA CALLS FOR STRENGTHENED SEXUAL HARASSMENT PROTECTIONS IN SCHOOLS
California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined counterparts in Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, and New Jersey, Matthew Platkin, in leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general to support federal rules that would strengthen sexual violence and harassment protections under Title IX.
The Biden Administration is working to undo Trump-era changes to Title IX enforcement policies.
“It’s 2022 and we’re still cleaning up the Trump Administration’s mess,” Bonta said in a statement.
In 2020, the Trump U.S. Department of Education altered how Title IX’s sexual violence and harassment claims would be handled, a move that “burden(ed) schools with duplicative, courtroom-like Title IX proceedings,” according to Bonta’s office.
“Rather than supporting state efforts to implement Title IX, the 2020 amendments hinder ongoing work to prevent and stop school-based sexual violence and assault at the state level. The 2020 amendments also impose unnecessary barriers to student survivors seeking relief unique only to sexual harassment,” his office said.
Bonta’s office said that the proposed rule change by President Joe Biden’s Department of Education will preserve school resources and complement state laws that ensure greater protections for survivors, “while preserving the rights of respondents under Title IX to fair and equitable proceedings.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Rest assured, one way or another, California will not tax the federal student debt relief.”
- Senate President pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, via Twitter.
Best of The Bee:
Faced with a historic heat wave that has lasted nine days and placed unprecedented stress on California’s electricity grid, the nation’s most populous state managed to avoid rolling blackouts. That would seem to look like success. But Republican lawmakers and organizations still found reasons to attack Gov. Gavin Newsom and the liberal state of California, via Maggie Angst and Jenavieve Hatch.
Californians blasted their air conditioning so much this week they nearly overwhelmed the state’s electricity grid. For many of the 24% of households across the state without A/C, each day has been a misery and a health hazard, via Ari Plachta and Mathew Miranda.
A judge cleared the way in Lassen County Superior Court for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to close a rural Northern California prison, dismissing a city’s lawsuit that challenged the plan, via Wes Venteicher.
The federal government has removed a word long used to slur Native American women from use on federal lands including 80 sites in California, U.S. Department of Interior officials announced, via Darrell Smith.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom weighs whether to veto another California farmworker union bill, he has a new and unexpected voice in his ear: President Joe Biden, who has decided to inject national politics into a state labor battle, via Mathew Miranda and Lindsey Holden.
Two months before Californians decide whether to open the nation’s largest state to legalized sports betting, a new audit finds that the agency charged with treating people with gambling addictions may be ill-prepared for such a significant expansion of the market, via Maggie Angst.