In the News

CBS-TV 5 SAN FRANCISCO: California Moving Closer To Ban On Sexual Orientation Therapy For Minors

May 02, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— A key State Senate committee approved a bill Monday that would ban what’s known as “reparative” or “sexual orientation change” therapy for minors.

State Senator Ted Lieu (D-CA), who authored the bill – SB1172 – said there are therapists engaging in what he calls the deceptive and harmful practice of telling parents they can “cure” their kids of being gay. Now the state of California is a step closer to outlawing the so-called psychotherapy.

Related Stories: 
Senate panel cracks down on deceptive sexual-orientation conversion ‘therapies’

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Hey, sport: It's not a sport

May 01, 2012

When speaking of hunting ("Hundreds weigh in on bill to ban use of dogs," April 25), please put quotation marks around the word "sport."

My Apple dictionary defines sport as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."

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Senate environmental panel OKs end to unsporting practice of packs of dogs pursuing bears, bobcats

IN TED's WORDS: Why I introduced SB 1172, Sex Change-Orientation Therapy

May 01, 2012

To listen to high-quality audio of Sen. Lieu explaining why he's carrying SB 1172, click on the link below.

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Senate panel cracks down on deceptive sexual-orientation conversion ‘therapies’

VENTURA COUNTY STAR EDITORIAL Putting a leash on cruel methods used by hunters

April 28, 2012

A decades-long effort has again surfaced to ban the use of dogs while hunting bears and bobcats in California.

In the 1990s, two attempts to end the practice failed to advance out of the committee stage in the Legislature. This time, despite a spirited protest Tuesday by hundreds of hunters, Senate Bill 1221 cleared the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water on a 5-3 vote.

One of those voting in favor was state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills. The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Senate environmental panel OKs end to unsporting practice of packs of dogs pursuing bears, bobcats

TORRANCE DAILY BREEZE: State Senate Health Committee approves Lieu's seafood labeling bill

April 27, 2012

By Art Marroquin Staff Writerdailybreeze.com
The state Senate's Health Committee this week approved a seafood labeling bill proposed by state Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach.

If signed into law, Senate Bill 1486 would require retail-food outlets with 19 or more outlets to identify the specific type of seafood being sold, where it was caught and whether it was farm-raised or wild.

Violators would face civil fines of up to $2,500. Lieu's measure now faces fiscal review.

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Senate health experts pass state’s first-ever seafood labeling bill put on table by Sen. Ted W. Lieu

CBS-TV 2, KCAL 9 AND KNX RADIO: ‘Powerful’ Hospital Lobby Killed Effort For Billing Transparency

April 26, 2012

SACRAMENTO (CBS) — A state senator from Torrance said Thursday that powerful lobbyists for the hospital industry helped defeat consumer legislation that was prompted by a series of KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO investigative reports into hospital billing practices.

KNX 1070′s Charles Feldman reports State Senator Ted Lieu’s bill for greater transparency has been defeated — for now.

“They lobbied aggressively against it, and it was disappointing to me that they didn’t work out with me a solution to a very big problem,” Lieu said.

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Sen. Lieu introduces bill to protect consumers from wrongful medical billing

LBPOST.Com: California Bill Aims to Regulate Underage Ex-Gay Therapy

April 26, 2012

A new piece of legislation mght be passed which makes sexual orientation change therapy, commonly referred to as "ex-gay therapy," illegal to administer to a minor or someone without consent. Proposed by California State Senator Ted Lieu, the bill would alter existing law -- which already provides licensing and regulation of the the healing arts community, which include everyon from physicians to counselors -- to prohibit psychotherapists, as defined, from performing sexual orientation change efforts in the absence of informed consent of the patient.

Related Stories: 
Senate panel cracks down on deceptive sexual-orientation conversion ‘therapies’

TORRANCE DAILY BREEZE: California hunting bill to ban dogs draws hundreds

April 25, 2012

SACRAMENTO - Hundreds of animal lovers and hunters packed the Capitol on Tuesday to testify about a bill seeking to ban the use of dogs to hunt bears and bobcats in California, legislation that arose after a top state fish and game official drew heat for killing a mountain lion during a legal hound-hunting trip in Idaho.

The crowd overflowed two committee rooms and filled the building's two cafeterias before SB1221 by Democratic Sen. Ted Lieu passed its first committee test on a 5-3 vote. The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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SANTA MONICA PATCH: Dozens Gather on 70th Anniversary of Forced Relocation of Japanese

April 25, 2012

By Paul Chavez

More than a thousand people of Japanese ancestry from Venice, Santa Monica and Malibu gathered at a Venice intersection 70 years ago and were loaded onto buses and sent to a World War II relocation camp.