By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
Soon, the threshold for passing local transportation bonds in California could be far lower, unlocking funding for countless transit needs across the Golden State.
In the News
Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Todd Gloria announced the introduction of a new bill on Monday that would update the state’s antiquated decades-old HIV discrimination laws.
Many of the laws were drafted in the 1980s during the peak of the HIV scare, when a diagnosis was equivalent to a death sentence. There were no effective treatments for HIV and misinformation was rampant. During this time several laws were passed which would offer more serious consequences to those who were HIV positive than those who were not.
LGBT seniors and HIV-positive people living in long-term care facilities throughout California would be protected from discrimination under a bill gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) will introduce Thursday.
His bill is modeled after a policy he authored and San Francisco officials adopted in 2015 on the recommendation of the city's LGBT Aging Policy Task Force. Known as a "Bill of Rights" for residents of such facilities, it barred operators from restricting or evicting residents based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status.
California faces a transportation crisis, with gridlock, crushing commutes and significant negative impacts on our environment, economy and quality of life.
Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, defended the city’s protections for immigrants and called Trump’s executive orders “piece(s) of garbage,” that are “part of a steady stream of hatred that’s been coming out of our own White House since Friday.”
“Our sanctuary city status has allowed immigrant communities in San Francisco to flourish (and become) active members of their communities without fear of sweeps or being deported,” Wiener said. “It has allowed people to contact the police and not be fearful that when the police arrive, the victim of a crime is going to be detained and deported.
“When people aren’t on their meds, they get sick. And they have higher viral loads, and that means they’re more likely to infect other people,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. “It’s in everyone’s interests for people to be healthy and to have suppressed viral loads. This just isn’t a tenable or acceptable state of affairs.”
In December, Wiener sent a letter to state public health Director Karen Smith demanding that she immediately fix problems with the drug assistance program, or cancel the new operators’ contracts.
Newly sworn-in state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, plans to introduce legislation Monday requiring all new construction in the state to include solar panels.
The bill expands on a San Francisco city ordinance Wiener wrote while on the Board of Supervisors that requires solar panels to be put on new construction within the city, including residential and some commercial buildings. The city ordinance was passed last year and applies to any project that receives building permits after Jan. 1.
A nascent effort by a New York State Democrat to get Donald Trump to release his taxes ahead of the 2020 election is being buoyed by California lawmakers, a state where the legislation might actually pass.
As a San Francisco supervisor, Scott Wiener has made housing one of his top priorities.
That’s not going to change now that he’s a state senator.