Latest Updates

Amid shifting immigration policies and heightened federal enforcement, new funding from SB 104, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, will expand immigration services across the Central Coast.

Catholic Charities of the Central Coast will receive $1.5 million of a $5 million budget allocation secured by Assemblymembers Dawn Addis and Esmeralda Soria as part of a statewide effort to strengthen legal service infrastructure in underserved regions.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB 1288, the Retain and Train Act, into law, a key measure aimed at addressing workforce shortages in public health.

Sponsored by the California Association of Environmental Health Administrators and the County Health Executives Association of California, the bill focuses on creating pathways for training and certifying environmental health specialists vital professionals responsible for monitoring community safety during crises like wildfires, floods, and other natural disasters.

"Emotional disturbance" was a designation given to nearly 22,000 TK-12 students in California in 2023-24. That label made these students eligible to receive special education services through their school, in much the same way a student who is deaf or autistic or has a speech impairment might.

That changed in 2024 when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 2173, which allowed the state to instead use the less-stigmatizing phrase "emotional disability." The bill's author, Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, asked the state Advisory Commission on Special Education (ACSE) for their support of the bill.

Assembly Bill 1336, now awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature or veto, is the latest skirmish in a decades-long conflict over protecting workers from heat effects on their health, whether they work outdoors or inside.

The measure, if approved, would create a new legal presumption — that workers suffering from heat illness or injury would be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if their employers failed to comply with standards set up to protect employees from heat effects.

While the federal government unwinds climate progress at warp speed, I reject the assertion that forward movement is dead. So, I traveled to Climate Week NYC the week of Sept. 21 to share California’s groundbreaking work and learn from others. I believe in policy initiatives to help create a livable climate, detailed below.

1. The grassroots are partners, not enemies. On day one, at the California Climate Leadership Forum, I presented my 2024 bill AB 3233, the Local Environmental Choice and Safety Act. Protect Monterey County first successfully fought for the right of local communities to make decisions about oil production.

Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, authored a resolution to rename a four-mile portion of Highway 46 the James Byron Dean Memorial Highway.

Addis said she was inspired to author Assembly Concurrent Resolution 101, introduced June 24, in part to reinvent the notorious roadway while recognizing Dean’s contributions to arts and film in the 1950s.