Newsom signs consumer protection, police accountability bills into law
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
NEWSOM SIGNS CONSUMER PROTECTION, POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY LAWS
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been blitzing through some of the hundreds of bills sent to him by the Legislature. On Monday and Tuesday, he passed over 125 bills, and vetoed almost 20. Many of the bills passed were technical bills that make changes in the weeds. Others will make more of a splash but didn’t quite rise to the occasion of the governor hosting a news conference.
Bills he signed included ones to increase police accountability and improve affordability for consumers, plus others to help immigrants and protect children.
FOR CONSUMERS:
- AB 325 adds algorithmic price fixing, such as for rent or hotel rooms, to the Cartwright Act, which bans anticompetitive behavior. He also signed SB 763, which would increase punishments for companies that violate the Cartwright Act.
- AB 628 requires units leased for rent after Jan. 1, 2026 to have a working refrigerator and stove.
- AB 656 requires social media companies to make it easy for someone to delete their account, and when they do so, to delete all of their stored information.
- AB 1312 would require hospitals to screen whether someone is eligible for charity care, or other reduced-cost options, rather than the patient having to inquire.
ON POLICE:
- AB 847 allows civilian law enforcement oversight boards to be privy to the confidential personnel records of peace officers during investigations concerning the conduct of those officers.
- AB 1108, takes control of the autopsies for officer-involved fatalities from the county’s sheriff-coroner, if sheriff’s deputies in that county were involved.
OTHERS OF NOTE:
- SB 848 establishes new requirements for preventing and dealing with the sexual abuse of minors at school, including creating a new statewide system for tracking misconduct investigations.
- AB 894 would allow people to opt out of being put into a patient directory at a hospital. The bill is intended to allay fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could target people in “sensitive spaces” like the hospital.
These bills are in addition to ones signed Tuesday to hire discrimination prevention coordinators to watch over California schools, and Wednesday to ban ultra-processed foods in public schools by 2032.
The governor has until next Monday, October 13, at midnight to sign or veto the remaining legislation on his desk.
SCHIFF CAPITALIZES ON BONDI TUSSLE
Via David Lightman in Washington, D.C. ...
Angry about how Attorney General Pam Bondi blasted Sen. Adam Schiff this week? Then Schiff wants you to donate to his campaign.
A day after Bondi and Schiff battled during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the California Democrat sent out a fundraising letter Wednesday referencing the confrontation.
Bondi told Schiff he owed President Donald Trump an apology; Schiff had led the 2019 Trump impeachment.
She also told Schiff that if he worked for her, she’d fire him. And that he wants “five minutes of fame.”
Schiff was trying to ask Bondi about a long list of controversies at the Justice Department she heads, and he was not pleased with the answers.
“We’ve seen DOJ cover up the corruption of the administration and its friends — like the WH Border Czar taking $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents,” Schiff said in the fundraising letter.
Border czar Tom Homan received $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents. Bondi said her department found “no credible evidence of wrongdoing.”
Schiff goes on in the one-page letter to say Bondi was not happy with him, and vows he will “continue to use my position on the Judiciary Committee to conduct hard oversight and demand concrete answers.
“I will call out corruption and speak out against any and every attempt to weaponize our legal system against Trump’s political opponents. I will not give in, and not back down.”
He then asks for a donation to his Senate campaign of $10 to $250 or “another amount.” Schiff, elected to the office last year, does not have to run again until 2030.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Gavin Newsom wrecked our state. Now he wants to make it worse. Help me stop Gavin Newsom. Vote No on Proposition 50.”
— Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, in a newly released campaign ad, hitching himself to the ‘No on Prop. 50’ side.
Best of The Bee:
- CA governor candidate nearly walks out of interview. ‘Don’t want all this on camera’ via Nicole Nixon
- More housing could be coming to California coast under new law signed by Newsom via Stephen Hobbs
- California, Illinois National Guard cases test Trump’s power to deploy troops via Sharon Bernstein
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