Tag Archives: Bill

Legislation proposed Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives aims to give undocumented farmworkers more protections. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will provide undocumented workers a path to legal residency, and for those who want it, citizenship. Several congressional representatives helped introduce the bill including many from the Valley: Rep. …

California’s legislative session ends on Friday, which means it’s a marathon week in Sacramento as state lawmakers rush to pass bills and get them onto Governor Jerry Brown’s desk to be signed into law—or else wait until 2019 to reintroduce their legislation and begin the process all over again. Assembly …

A new bill in congress is aimed at preventing the fungal disease valley fever that’s endemic to Central and Southern California. The so-called FORWARD Act , introduced by Bakersfield Congressman and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, would establish a national valley fever working group and would award grants to entities …

The House version of the Farm Bill barely passed by a margin of two votes last week, and a Senate version is currently in the works. This piece of federal legislation is renewed about every five years and determines policy about agriculture and food assistance, like Food Stamps, or in …

Law enforcement organizations are unlikely to compromise with advocates of a proposal this session to restrict the circumstances under which police officers could use deadly force. Their staunch opposition significantly … Click to Continue »

Atwater’s legal bill of about $ 100,000 after two months of work “shocked” some of the City Council members, who called it “a bunch” of money, but the attorney contends the … Click to Continue »

More than 300 California communities lack access to clean drinking water. A disproportionately high number of those communities lie in the San Joaquin Valley, as we reported in our 2017 series Contaminated . Last fall, a bill with a proposed solution passed the state senate but has since remained in …

A hearing in Sacramento earlier this week revealed local support and opposition to a drinking water bill making its way through the state legislature. More than 300 public water systems in California are currently out of compliance with state code, mostly due to contamination from substances like arsenic and nitrate …

A new bill in the California Senate would ban so-called “willful defiance” suspensions in k-12 schools throughout the state. The legislation (SB 607) comes amid a recent push from social justice organizations for schools to adopt “restorative justice” or PBIS approaches to school discipline issues, as well as a looming …

If you’ve been contacted recently about your power bill from the Merced Irrigation District you probably should check to make sure it’s legitimate. MID officials on Tuesday issued a warning … Click to Continue »

In one corner is a roster of climate change deniers who now run key congressional committees and the Environmental Protection Agency. In the other corner is Bill Nye the Science … Click to Continue »

Even as valley fever cases are sharply increasing in Central California, Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed legislation that would have created programs to inform the public about the little-known respiratory disease. AB 1279, authored by Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, initially promised $ 2 million in funding for valley fever awareness. It …

For about the past year, two San Joaquin valley school districts have allowed some parents and staff members to carry a concealed firearm on campus if they have a concealed carry weapons permit and seek the permission of the district superintendent. However, under a new bill on Governor Jerry Brown’s …