John Laird is California State Senator, 17th District.

It's Open Studios weekend #2 of 3, North Santa Cruz County, & John's husband will be showing his art (watercolor landscapes) at Studio 281, with Senator Laird guarding bicycles & greeting - with open studios, John loves going into homes & studios, like a voyeuristic Architectural Digest; Tax Expenditures & Tax Breaks: closing loopholes is NOT raising taxes; at Town Hall last Saturday Senator Laird went through all of the ballot measures in a non-partisan way, discussing what each one would do, who put it on the ballot, who's for & who's against, & the total amount spent on each side; started with Prop. 43, which would require local taxes, including special taxes (which are for a specific purpose, & include citizen's initiatives, which a court rule required 50% + 1 vote) to have a 2/3 vote to pass; Props. 40, 41 & 42, the "Billionaire's Tax" & competing propositions; Prop 38, a bond measure that would fund immunology research, which was put on the ballot by an interested party that would be the primary beneficiary, which is backed by both Dems & Republicans, but that the LWV is against because it lacks transparency.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange, airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 2026 is Bushwhacker's 37th year on the air! Thanks for listening!

To support KZSC (& these podcasts), please go to KZSC.FM and click on the "Donate to KZSC" button in the upper right-hand corner. Thanks!

The Assembly was on recess from July 2nd to August 3rd, and on August 4 Assemblymember Pellerin broke her ankle, was in a cast, & now in a boot; there are 10 days before the state Constitutionally mandated deadline for bills to pass the legislature, so the pressure is on; they are "in floor session as of Monday", but will be in "committees as needed"; what does this mean? Discuss Assemblymember Pellerin's "Gut & Amend" bill, where, when the legislature realized there was no minimum age for marriage in California (one of 3 states), they took all the language out of a bill that had passed the Assembly, and re-wrote it in the Senate so that Calfornia would have a minimum marriage age of 18 - once this passes the Senate, it will come back to the Assembly, where it would be assigned to a committee before coming back to the floor; discussion of 3 of Assemblymember Pellerin's bills that have been signed by the Governor, 3 that are on the Governor's desk; & 3 that continue to move (including one that would hold people under influence behind the wheel in a self-driving car liable even if the car is doing the driving; at the end of the legislative session on Aug. 31st, if the Governor has not vetoed a bill that passed the legislature, it becomes law..."when the clock strikes midnight, all bills stop."...except they done..."urgency bills" can be worked on by the legislature after midnight on Aug. 31; there are 213 bills on the Assembly floor, & 412 on the Senate floor; how do they maintain order? "The Assembly has an electronic voting system, green for yay, red for nay. The Senate votes by roll call, although they someimes do a 'substitute anonymous' vote." They got the Morgani Hill battery storage facility paused by submitting letters to the P.U.C. In Santa Cruz for the weekend, celebrating the O'Neill Sea Odyssey's 30th Anniversary tomorrow.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange, airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 2026 is Bushwhacker's 37th year on the air! Thanks for listening!

To support KZSC (& these podcasts), please go to KZSC.FM and click on the "Donate to KZSC" button in the upper right-hand corner. Thanks!

Earlier this year, California was 1 of 10 states without a minimum age to marry - with the signing of AB1267, it's now 18...no exceptions!! Assemblymember Pellerin sponsored this bill, which involved a "Gut-and-Amend" of a bill that she wrote that had been passed by the Assembly, but was languishing in committee in the State Senate...she changed all of the words & the name on the bill, thus "gutting-and-amending", it it passed the Senate, then came back to the Assembly where it also passed. The Governor hosted a signing ceremony with survivors & the author(s) of the bill in the Governor's office, singing it on the back of a large bear outside his office; shout out to the Girl Scouts of Northern California had come to Sacramento with Taylor Swift-style bracelets to raise awareness of the bill. At the signing ceremony, taking a line from Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", was Governor Newsome's hair perfect? A: "I've never seen it not perfect!" (and she said she "crushed it" with her hair! Deep dive into the Assemblymember's staff, with offices in Santa Cruz, San Jose & Sacramento - as a committee chair, Gail gets additional staff, with staff tailored to the geography of each district, so Gail may get more than some given that her district includes both San Jose & Santa Cruz. As a former county clerk, discussion of Alaska senate race with a 2nd "Dan Sullivan" recruited to be on the ballot: "People get recruited all the time." "There's always confusion", recounting a Bay Area race with 2 people on the ballot with similar names. In Santa Cruz to get out the vote. Discussion of walk in vote centers, and "naked voting", where you fill in your ballot at home, then walk it in in person, so that the elections officials do not have to open the envelope or match signatures, saving time...more streamlined.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & ""Miles-the-Mentee" (Miles Hewitt), airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 2026 is Bushwhacker's 37th year on the air! Thanks for listening!

To support KZSC (& these podcasts), please go to KZSC.FM and click on the "Donate to KZSC" button in the upper right-hand corner. Thanks!