[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jenny Oropeza
California State Senator

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the “Poor People’s Campaign” to address issues of economic justice conceived by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. shortly before his death.

And while the Civil Rights movement stressed integrated schools and voting rights for African-Americans, the Poor People’s March encompassed the economically disadvantaged of all races: Latinos, Native Americans, Third-World immigrants and poor whites.

In his book, Why We Can’t Wait, King endorsed a “Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged” and the idea has as much merit today as it did when the march ended 40 years ago. Dr. King’s agenda included plans for massive federal investments in jobs and housing programs. The march went on after his tragic death in April of 1968, but these plans never passed Congress. Forty years later, how are the poor doing in California?

The answer is that while some progress has been made, the poor in California are now falling behind the rest of the nation. In 1970, California averaged 20 percent fewer poor families than the national average (12 percent of Californians versus 15 percent of all Americans).

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jenny Oropeza
California State Senator

Since Day One of the modern environmental movement that began in the 1960s, California has shown national leadership. We passed landmark Clean Air and Water acts, with bipartisan support, and quick federal adoption of Golden State initiatives set the standard for 50 states — and many countries worldwide.

Among several pro-environment bills passed last year, Assembly Bill 32 became internationally famous for committing California to lead the fight for more energy-efficient buildings and reduced greenhouse-gas pollution.

The next logical step: Ensuring future generations of California’s schoolchildren are protected from air pollution and life-threatening respiratory diseases from nearby freeways. Senate Bill 1507 seeks this goal by barring new construction or expansion of freeways within 500 feet of a school.

With help from the Legislature’s 27-member Latino Caucus and others, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the serious health risks to students and employees when a school is located near direct sources of air pollution.

Consider two alarming facts:

A recent state study of Los Angeles area freeways measured fuel particulates near freeways at up to 25 times greater than less congested areas.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Alex Padilla
California State Senator

Imagine if the federal government had required the public to purchase light bulbs years before electricity was available. Would anyone have complied? What if the federal government required states to purchase flex fuel vehicles years before ethanol fuel was available? Apparently, that’s another story.

California is complying with a federal government mandate that it purchase flex fuel vehicles despite the fact that the ethanol fuel they are meant to run on is not available in California.

Flex fuel vehicles are modified to run on a fuel known as E85, which simply means 85% ethanol. Here in the U.S., that usually means corn-based fuel. Because ethanol fuel is only 15% gasoline, flex fuel vehicles can reduce emissions as well as our dependence on foreign oil. The benefits of flex fuel vehicles are promising, if the vehicles are actually running on E85.

There are more than 33,000,000 registered vehicles in California, and of those, more than 300,000 are flex fuel vehicles. While there are 9,000 gas stations in our state, only eight pumps dispense E85 and only three are open to the public. So, what are our "flex fuel" vehicles running on? You guessed it, traditional gasoline.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jenny Oropeza
California State Senator

Early one Tuesday morning last January, Quirino Mateo Antonio, 31, was barreling down Sepulveda Boulevard at 95 mph in his Toyota pickup. At about 3:30 a.m., as Antonio’s truck crossed Wilmington Avenue, his vehicle slammed into a Cadillac — killing Juan Gabriel Ontiveros, a 32-year-old father of four.

Tests showed Antonio’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

When is one drink too many? That is what many should worry about after an evening of fun with friends or family before deciding if it’s safe to get behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound battering ram.

Extreme drunken drivers, because of either addiction or apathy, don’t care about the law or about the safety of fellow motorists. While drinking alcohol impairs one’s judgment, intoxication is neither an excuse for stupidity — nor a license for murder.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sarah Granger

Imagine a great person, a principled woman, a dedicated mom in Congress. Yes, there are already a few of those, but we're very close to electing one more. On April 8th, former California State Senator Jackie Speier may succeed to where she aimed nearly three decades ago, U.S. Congress. Speier, shown left with me and my daughter, a resident of Hillsborough, California, the youngest woman elected to the San Mateo County supervisors, reportedly the first mom to breast feed in the California State Assembly (as a new widow), and a well-respected two-term state senator first ran for congress after a terrifying experience where her boss, then U.S. Congressman, Leo Ryan, was killed in front of her eyes.

This is a woman who I've had the privilege of seeing in action firsthand and whom I have admired for many years. (Photo is from last year, taken on my phone of me, my daughter, and Senator Speier.) People like her are rare, and our nation would be incredibly lucky to have her legislating on our behalf. Due to a sad twist of fate, Senator Speier may become Congresswoman Speier in a special election next week.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Gil Cedillo

California State Senator

Four weeks after the deadline to introduce legislation, a group of Republican Assemblymembers have revealed a package of twenty anti-immigrant bills touted as “common sense” despite an obviously biased intent. Many of the proposals are reruns of anti-immigrant legislation that have either been questioned in legal courts or unable to garner majority support, even among other Republican legislators.

The revelation of the anti-immigrant package coincides with the launch of a national clearinghouse for refuting immigration falsehoods entitled “Truth in Immigration.” Sponsored by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), the website seeks to “refute legal and factual inaccuracies about immigrants and/or Latinos” noting that “hateful dialogue threatens to drown out reasonable and thoughtful perspectives on immigration reform and other key policy issues.”

by fnpople [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Charlie Brown, running for Congress in California's 4th District, needs our help! I just received this email in my inbox, as I'm sure hundreds of you also have. Let's send Charlie into battle well-armed and prepared for these foreign invaders (quite literally foreign-- none of the Republicans running in this race even come from the 4th District) by sending in a donation to the Brown campaign!