Posted on 08/28/2006 8:05:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO
Californians who smoke in motor vehicles carrying young children could be slapped with $100 fines under a bill approved Monday by the state Senate.
But a measure to force automakers to produce more lower-polluting, alternative-fuel vehicles fell four votes short of passing.
The smoking ban, in a bill by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, would cover vehicles carrying children who were required to ride in a child safety seat.
Under current law, that would be children who were younger than 6 or who weighed less than 60 pounds. But a bill on the governor's desk would require children younger than 8 years to ride in child seats unless they were at least 4-foot-9.
Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, said the Koretz bill was an attempt to "protect the health of children who cannot protect themselves."
"We all know that secondhand smoke is hazardous," she said, particularly for young children whose lungs are still developing. "Children are effectively smoking a pack and a half a day for every hour they are exposed to smoke in a car."
A 23-14 vote returned the bill to the Assembly, which initially approved it last year when it dealt with a different subject.
The alternative fuel bill, by Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, would require the California Air Resources Board to adopt regulations requiring that at least half the new cars and light trucks sold in California starting in 2020 be classified as clean-running alternative vehicles.
Battery-powered cars, vehicles that ran on ethanol or another alternative fuel, and vehicles that used a fuel mixture that was less than half gasoline would meet that standard.
Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, said the bill would "help move us away from our 99 percent dependence on petroleum for motor vehicle fuel."
But the bill, which did not generate debate on the Senate floor, received only 17 votes. It needed at least 21, a bare majority of the 40-member Senate, to pass. Eighteen senators voted against it.
Supporters indicated they would take up the measure for a second vote before lawmakers adjourn their 2006 session on Thursday.
Here's a rundown of some of the other bills voted on Monday:
POOL SAFETY By a 28-7 vote, the Senate approved another bill designed to protect children. The measure by Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco, would require homeowners to install fences, door alarms or another anti-drowning device when they remodel a swimming pool or spa.
The bill, which goes back to the Assembly for a vote on Senate amendments, extends requirements that now cover new pools to older pools and spas when they are remodeled.
CELL PHONES The Senate, by a 23-16 vote, approved a bill by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, that would give consumers 21 days to rescind a new cell phone service they found dissatisfactory.
The measure now goes back to the Assembly for a vote on Senate amendments.
DARFUR By a 29-7 vote, the Senate approved another Koretz bill that would attempt to pressure Sudan to stop genocidal violence in the Darfur region.
The bill would prohibit California's two giant public employee pension funds, the California Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System, from investing in oil and other energy-related companies that operate in Sudan but haven't taken steps to stop the violence.
The measure also would bar the funds from investing in companies that supply weapons to Sudan.
Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, said a similar investment ban helped bring about the end of apartheid in South Africa.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING The Assembly approved a bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, that would extend public services such as refugee cash assistance, Medi-Cal benefits and employment services to non-citizen victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and other violent crimes.
In order to receive state and local aid, those individuals would have to show that they were taking steps to meet eligibility requirements for federal benefits.
The bill passed 45-4 and now goes back to the Senate for a vote on Assembly amendments.
WAL-MART The Assembly voted 41-31 along party lines to approve a bill by Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, that would require so-called "superstore retailers" such as Wal-Mart and Costco to provide cities and counties where they wish to build with a detailed economic impact report.
The reports would include an assessment of the effects the superstore would have on local retailers.
Assembly Republicans argued that the bill would create a hostile business environment and harm healthy competition among retailers.
It now returns to the Senate for a vote on Senate amendments.
___
Associated Press Writer Robin Hindery contributed to this report.
___
On the Net: http://www.assembly.ca.gov and http://www.senate.ca.gov
The logical follow-on is to ban smoking in homes with small children. This is what happens when you put the inmates in charge of the institution.
Wow, that's pretty strong. Regardless of one's opinion of the massacre at Waco, comparing oneself to someone who planned and executed a terrorist act that resulted in the deaths of over 160 Americans, including dozens of innocent children, is rather over the top.
You're welcome to your position, but I must say I don't share it in that regard.
"New laws always sound like a good idea until the first time you have to enforce them." --- Unknown
But seriously, this is my symbol of American freedom.
Each and every American must have a trigger point, and this is mine.
As for McVeigh? Congress and the Senate has two years to do the right thing. They failed...
Die Horst Wessel a.k.a. "Die Fahne Hoch"
Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossen
S. A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
Kam'raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
Marschier'n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit
Die Strasse frei den braunen Batallionen
Die Strasse frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann
Es schau'n auf's Hackenkreuz voll Hoffung schon Millionen
Der Tag fur Freiheit und fur Brot bricht an
Zum letzen Mal wird nun Appell geblasen
Zum Kampfe steh'n wir alle schon bereit
Bald flattern Hitler-fahnen Uber allen Strassen
Die Knechtschaft dauert nur mehr kurze Zeit
Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossen
S. A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
Kam'raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
Marschier'n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit
Die Wacht am Rhein is of course a better melody (that's the tune the German officers sang in Rick's Cafe Americain in the film Casablanca), but is an old infantry song, not a political tune. And, the melody was lifted from a well-known American university's alma mater.
In the grand scheme of things, I believe the It's for the children! type legislation is a bigger threat to our freedom than islamofascism. I'm not given to hyperbole, but I believe it to be so; this seemingly innocuous type of nanny-statism just isn't as dramatic as terrorism.
I noticed that too. I guess I'll be slitting mine, also.
I'm an ex-smoker, but I deplore the "facts" they spew to further an agenda.
The goal is to stop all smoking everywhere. People in this country do not understand the freedoms they have lost.
This isn't your "private life" at all. It's regulation of gov't granted privilege. Either give up driving or *like* it.
Still,
I am moving to Arizona in February. Still better than Kalifornia. I for one am NOT GOING TO COMPLY WITH THIS LAW.
I noticed how you conveniently ignored the simple fact that a very specific office building was targeted.
That building was the headquarters of the FBI and BATF, who were directly responsible for the murder of the American citizens at Waco.
For two years, American citizens expected our government to full investigate and insure that this would never happen again.
Our Congress and Senate had hearings, and amazingly, nobody in the government did anything wrong!
The bombing of a specific building in Oklahoma city was the result!
Yes, I have drawn a line in the sand.
Ping
If all smoking ceased, Social Security would be in even a bigger mess than it already is!
Also here in Kalifornia prop 86 which will raise cig taxes up to 2.60 a pack--making some cigarettes cost up to 8.00 a pack. All this is going to do is force people to buy on the black market. No way am I going to pay that much. Or you can go onto reservations and get smokes pretty cheap.
Likewise myself. On both counts.
These anti-tobacco laws have increased my personal income. Actually, the more laws that are passed, the more money I make!
However, I grew up in a time when American freedoms were known and understood. Those freedoms were something that you were willing to fight for, even if it costs you your own life.
Today, I may be an "old fart", but this old fart can still fight.
Let me be the first to welcome you to Arizona! I live up in Northeastern Arizona. I love this state. We do have an excellent Senator. Jon Kyl. J.D. Hayworth was my Rep. up until the last gerrymandering fiasco. They tried to create another DemocRATic district. We elected Rick Renzi (R). LOL! I sure do miss J.D. though.
> I noticed how you conveniently ignored the simple fact that a very specific office building was targeted.
If McVeigh wanted to blow up a government building he could have done it at night and vastly reduced the number of innocent children and adults killed -- Americans who had nothing whatsoever to do with the government or the massacre at Waco. Or he could have made a huge splash some other way that killed nobody. Instead, he murdered innocent Americans.
One of the prime rules of shooting a gun is to Be Absolutely Sure Of Your Target. He was mistaken, and missed.
McVeigh was a loathesome terrorist who didn't think through the results of his plans, and caused horrific suffering to thousands of people who had no connection with his obsession over Waco. Had he had even half a brain, he could have done something much more impressive to make his point, without killing innocent Americans in the process.
Accept it -- Timothy McVeigh was wrong.
He was an evil asshole who killed innocent children for his obsession. You're welcome to consider him your hero, I don't care. But I find your desire to emulate him odious, and inappropriate for a forum like FreeRepublic which does not advocate violence, and which values innocent human life as well as freedom.
> The bombing of a specific building in Oklahoma city was the result! Yes, I have drawn a line in the sand.
You're earning your time-out. ;-)
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