Asm. Laura Friedman

Existing law allows a person who is unlawfully imprisoned or restrained of their liberty to prosecute a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the cause of their imprisonment or restraint. Existing law allows a writ of habeas corpus to be prosecuted on several bases, including on the basis of the discovery of new evidence that has not been previously presented and heard at trial and has been discovered after trial. This bill would prohibit a habeas corpus petition prosecuted under these provisions from being dismissed based on procedural bars if the petitioner establishes that in light of all of the evidence now before the court, it is more likely than not the outcome of the case would have been different, as specified.

Existing law provides comprehensive regulation of ticket sellers and makes violations of those provisions a misdemeanor. Existing law imposes various refund requirements on a ticket seller, including a requirement to issue a refund upon request to a ticket purchaser for canceled, postponed, or rescheduled events. Existing law also imposes various disclosure requirements on a ticket seller, including a requirement to disclose to a purchaser the location of the seat represented by the ticket, as specified. This bill would revise and recast those provisions by expanding the definition of a ticket seller to include a primary contractor or platform, as defined, and would instead apply the refund requirement relating to the postponement or rescheduling of an event only to primary contractors. The bill would impose various disclosure requirements on ticket sellers relating to ticket price, including that the ticket seller would be prohibited from advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a ticket that does not include all fees or charges that must be paid in order to purchase the ticket other than taxes or fees imposed by a government on the transaction. The bill would prohibit the resale of tickets that were initially offered at no charge and that were knowingly obtained using software or services that circumvent controls or measures that ensure an equitable ticket buying process for event attendees, and would require a ticket seller to provide printed tickets for a cellular telephone-free event, as defined, at the same price that a mobile or electronic ticket is sold. By expanding the scope of existing provisions regulating ticket sellers and imposing new requirements on ticket sellers and primary contractors, the violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to adopt building design and construction standards and energy and water conservation standards for new residential and nonresidential buildings to reduce the wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary consumption of energy, including energy associated with the use of water. The act requires those standards to be cost effective when taken in their entirety and when amortized over the economic life of the structure compared with historic practice. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. This bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, to evaluate opportunities to increase electrification of industrial heat processes to meet the state's industrial emissions reduction goals, as provided. The bill would, as part of the state board's next update to the scoping plan occurring on or after January 1, 2025, require the state board to assess the potential for the state to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from the state's industrial facilities' heat application equipment and processes, as specified. The bill would require the state board to incorporate the commissions' evaluation required by the bill into the assessment and to identify potential emission reductions associated with the recommendations provided in the commission's evaluation.

Existing law, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, enacted as an initiative statute by Proposition 47, as approved by the electors at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, makes the theft of money, labor, or property petty theft punishable as a misdemeanor, whenever the value of the property taken does not exceed $950. Under existing law, if the value of the property taken exceeds $950, the theft is grand theft, punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony. Proposition 47 requires shoplifting, defined as entering a commercial establishment with the intent to commit larceny if the value of the property taken does not exceed $950, to be punished as a misdemeanor. Under existing law, if the value of all property taken over the course of distinct but related acts motivated by one intention, general impulse, and plan exceeds $950, those values may be aggregated into a single charge of grand theft. This bill would clarify that those values may be aggregated even though the thefts occurred in different places or from different victims. The bill would also, declarative of existing law, provide that circumstantial evidence may be used to prove that multiple thefts were motivated by one intention, general impulse, and plan. The bill would also authorize counties to operate a program to allow retailers to submit details of alleged shoplifting, organized retail theft, or grand theft directly to the county district attorney through an online portal on the district attorney's internet website. The bill would require counties that participate in the program to conduct an evaluation and collect specified information, and to report that information to the Assembly and Senate Public Safety Committees and the Board of State and Community Corrections, as specified.

Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The University of California provides instruction and performs research at the 10 campuses it operates and maintains in Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. Existing law establishes the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as one of the segments of postsecondary education in the state. The California State University comprises 23 institutions of higher education located throughout the state, including California State University, Northridge. Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The board of governors appoints the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to serve as the segment's chief executive officer. The segment comprises 73 community college districts and a total of 116 community colleges throughout the state. One of these colleges is Glendale Community College. This bill, until January 1, 2029, would establish the Students at Risk of Homelessness Emergency Pilot Program under the administration of the commission to award interest-free loans for housing and college attendance costs to eligible undergraduate students attending the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Merced, the California State University, Northridge, and Glendale Community College who demonstrate financial need, as defined. The bill would require the commission to enter into a contract with a nonprofit organization that has existed for more than 50 years and operates an interest-free loan program virtually in the state for the nonprofit organization to award loans to eligible students. The bill would create the Emergency Students Facing Housing Crisis and Homelessness Revolving Fund as the initial depository of all moneys appropriated, donated, or otherwise received for the program, and upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require the commission to distribute moneys in the fund to the nonprofit organization to award loans to eligible students. The bill would require the nonprofit organization to annually report to the commission the number of students who qualified for a loan and the number of students awarded a loan. The bill would require the commission to submit an annual report to the Legislature that includes this information.

(1) Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency, in implementing actions to achieve the goal to conserve at least 30% of the state's lands and coastal waters by 2030 established by executive order, to prioritize specified actions. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to prepare and submit an annual report to the Legislature on the progress made during the prior calendar year toward achieving that goal, as provided. Existing law requires that annual report to include certain information, including, among other information, the progress made in the prior calendar year to address equity as part of the above-described goal. This bill, the Wildlife Connectivity and Climate Adaptation Act of 2024, would additionally require the agency, as part of that report, to include an update on the state's progress towards addressing the priority wildlife corridors, as defined, identified in the Restoring California's Wildlife Connectivity report by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and goals for wildlife corridor protection in the next five years. The bill would also make related findings and declarations. (2) The Wildlife Conservation Law of 1947 requires the Wildlife Conservation Board to acquire real property, rights in real property, water, or water rights as necessary for a program to acquire lands and facilities suitable for recreational purposes and adaptable for the conservation, propagation, and utilization of state fish and game resources. The law establishes the program and makes a policy statement regarding the program and its purposes. This bill would additionally make it the policy of the state to preserve, protect, and restore wildlife habitats and biodiversity through the acquisition and restoration of blocks of habitat and natural lands that are connected by wildlife corridors, as defined, and the infrastructure that supports wildlife corridors. This bill would also require the board to identify priority projects for the acquisition, development, rehabilitation, restoration, protection, and expansion of wildlife corridors and open space. The bill would authorize the board to give priority for this purpose to projects that protect wildlife corridors, including wildlife corridors threatened by urban development, as specified. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, contingent upon funding being provided by the Wildlife Conservation Board, or from other appropriate bond funds, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to investigate, study, and identify those areas in the state that are most essential as wildlife corridors and habitat linkages, as specified. Under existing law, it is the policy of the state to encourage, wherever feasible and practicable, voluntary steps to protect the functioning of wildlife corridors through various means, as specified. Existing law authorizes those means to include, but not be limited to, acquisition or protection of wildlife corridors as open space through conservation easements. This bill would remove from the contingency requirement that appropriate funds be from bonds and would specify that the department not only investigate, study, and identify, but also track the protection and conservation of the above-described areas. The bill would also revise and recast various provisions involving voluntary steps to protect the functioning of these wildlife corridors to additionally include, among other means, acquisition or protection of wildlife corridors as open space through fee title acquisitions.

(1) Existing law establishes the Active Transportation Program in the Department of Transportation for the purpose of encouraging increased use of active modes of transportation, such as biking and walking, with specified available funds to be allocated to eligible projects by the California Transportation Commission and regional transportation agencies through the adoption of a program of projects. Existing law requires the commission to develop guidelines regarding, among other topics, project eligibility and project selection for the program of projects, as provided. Existing law establishes 4 classifications of bikeways and defines a "Class III bikeway" as a bikeway that provides a right-of-way on-street or off-street, designated by signs or permanent markings and shared with pedestrians and motorists. This bill would prohibit, on and after January 1, 2026, the commission from adding a project that creates a Class III bikeway or adds a specific road marking used to inform road users that bicyclists might occupy the travel lane to the program of projects, unless the bikeway or road marking is on a highway with a design speed limit of 25 miles per hour or less or the project will implement improvements to reduce the design speed limit to 25 miles per hour or less. (2) Existing law creates the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program to address deferred maintenance on the state highway system and the local street and road system. Existing law requires funds made available by the program to be used for projects that include, but are not limited to, road maintenance, safety projects, railroad grade separations, traffic control devices, and complete streets components. Existing law requires the department and cities and counties receiving funds under the program to incorporate complete streets elements into projects funded by the program, to the extent beneficial, cost effective, and practicable in the context of facility type, right-of-way, project scope, and quality of nearby alternative facilities. This bill would delete the factor relating to quality of nearby alternative facilities when the department and cities and counties are considering the benefit, cost effectiveness, and practicality of incorporating complete streets elements into projects funded by the program. The bill would require, where feasible, a bicycle facility that is identified for a street in an adopted bicycle plan or active transportation plan to be included in a project funded by the program that includes that street. If a planned bicycle facility is not constructed or if the bicycle facility that is constructed deviates from the adopted bicycle plan or the adopted active transportation plan, the bill would require the city, the county, or the department, as applicable, to document and publish the justification for the deviation. (3) Existing law requires the department to improve and maintain the state highways. This bill would establish the Bikeway Quick-Build Project Pilot Program within the department's maintenance program to expedite development and implementation of bikeways on the state highway system. The bill would require the department to develop guidelines for implementing bikeway quick-build projects. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2027, to identify and implement one bikeway quick-build project in each district.

Maddy summaryThis California Assembly resolution encourages the U.S. Congress to pass legislation creating a National Infrastructure Bank to fund critical repairs and upgrades for roads, bridges, dams, and other public works. The bill cites reports from the American Society of Civil Engineers highlighting billions of dollars in investment gaps and poor conditions affecting California's transportation and water systems. It advocates for a financing model that uses existing federal debt rather than new taxes, aiming to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and prioritize projects in disadvantaged communities. The resolution formally requests that federal leaders adopt this approach to address the state's urgent infrastructure needs.

Maddy summaryThis California House Resolution condemns the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump and calls for an end to political violence. The measure highlights the event where Trump was wounded while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and notes that one attendee died and others were injured while trying to protect him. It urges the state to foster a political environment based on respectful discourse and nonviolence. The resolution is a formal statement of the Assembly's stance and does not create new laws or change existing policies.

This measure would recognize the importance of California Native American Day, celebrated this year on September 27, 2024, and the annual California Indian Cultural Awareness Conference, to the enhancement of awareness of California Indian culture.