Banner Week For Bills At State Capitol
From paid sick leave to helium-filled balloons, it was a banner week at the state Capitol for bills. Lawmakers passed a slew of measures ahead of a key deadline.
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(Sacramento, CA)
Friday, May 30, 2008
Lawmakers were hot on health and consumer bills. The Senate passed one allowing landlords to ban smoking in apartments...and another requiring hospitals to report drug-resistant infections to the State Department of Public Health. And the Assembly okayed a measure requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to all workers. On the public safety front, Senators gave the go-ahead to the “Ocean Rangers.” That’s a measure creating a sort-of police force for cruise ships sailing in California waters. And birthday-party goers, beware. The Senate also approved a bill banning helium-filled metallic balloons....which apparently can get caught in power lines and cause outages. Finally, in a first nationwide, the state Assembly approved a bill that would allow the state public employees retirement account to offer IRA’s to private sector employees.