In 2024, the 12-member California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), introduced nearly 600 bills aimed at improving the lives of all Californians, many with a particular focus on addressing inequities faced by Black citizens. Of these bills, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 230 into law and vetoed 50. The remaining bills either failed to pass out of committee, were rejected in one of the chambers, or were withdrawn by their authors for possible re-introduction later.
In The News
The Los Angeles Urban League (LAUL) will partner with NBC4/KNBC and Telemundo 52/KVEA to present the second annual State of Black Los Angeles on Thursday, Oct. 10, from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Town and Gown Banquet Hall on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC). The program will also be livestreamed on KNBC and Telemundo.
In a late-night veto message Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom torpedoed a plan to have various medical boards in California expedite the medical licensure of out-of-state doctors who provide gender-affirming care. It came as a surprise decision considering the governor had declared the Golden State to be a trans refuge in light of other states adopting laws in recent years restricting their trans residents' health care services.
Governor Newsom signed three new laws that will help protect people living near oil and gas facilities, including one that overrides a court decision blocking local control over gas wells.
Marqueece Harris-Dawson — a community organizer who was first elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2015 — was sworn in Friday, September 20, 2024, as the new LA City Council President. He will lead a city council that he describes as having a diverse set of ideological perspectives.
It’s been nearly three weeks since the California Legislative Black Caucus blocked two key reparations bills. The bills would have created a reparations agency and established a reparations fund.
I am the first in my family to be born free of legalized segregation. My mother grew up forced to attend segregated schools, and my great-great grandmother was born a slave and worked as a tobacco plantation worker before becoming a sharecropper. Living with first-generation rights comes with a tremendous responsibility.
A year ago, thousands of workers went on strike across California, and what became known as “hot labor summer” was reflected in mandatory wage increases and other state policy wins remarkable even for a Democratic-controlled Legislature sympathetic to union concerns.