California will restrict the usage of a toxic rat poison known to harm wildlife under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday.

AB1322, also known as the California Ecosystems Protection Act of 2023, adds pesticides containing the chemical diphacinone to an existing list of restricted rat poisons. 

On October 13, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 645, a speed camera bill, into law. AB 645, introduced by Assemblymember Laura Friedman from Long Beach, allows San Francisco and five other California cities to pilot automated speed cameras for the next five years. 

After about 10 years since the project was first introduced the Fremont Park renovation is officially beginning.

“I can tell you this is one of my favorite parks,” said Assemblymember Laura Friedman. “This is where my [daughter] learned to ride her bike. This is where she learned to ride her scooter. I know every bit of playground equipment here.”

Fremont Park is located at 600 Hahn Avenue in Glendale. This 100-year-old park is about eight acres and is the center of activity for many of the residents that surround the area.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has banned 26 chemicals — used in many cosmetics such as hair products, bodywash and nail polish — due to concerns about health harms.

Introduced by Assemblymember Laura Friedman in February, Assembly Bill 496 expands upon the state’s 2020 Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act, which bans 24 other commonly used chemicals from inclusion in personal care products. The original law goes into effect in 2025, and the new law won’t be implemented until 2027, giving companies time to revamp product recipes.

Your favorite perfume, nail polish or hair dye may have to undergo a makeover by 2027 if it has one of 26 potentially toxic ingredients now banned by California. 

A new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will ban more than two dozen ingredients from cosmetics and other personal care products in California — and most likely the rest of the nation.

Three years after California passed the Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act, which bans certain ingredients (formaldehyde and mercury among them) from personal-care products sold in the state by 2025, a new bill seeking to expand that ingredient list has been signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsome.

When research scientists tracking P-22, the late beloved lion of Griffith Park, went to change the batteries in his GPS collar in 2014, they found him suffering from mange, a parasitic disease of the skin and hair that is connected to rodenticide poisoning.

A state bill on the verge of becoming law would ban the use of drinking water to irrigate decorative grass, a mandate endorsed by Marin leaders who are already largely prepared for it.

Laura’s legislative work is focused in three primary areas: addressing the housing affordability and homelessness crisis, combating climate change, and protecting vulnerable communities. She has authored a package of bills to create new avenues for communities to tackle the affordable housing crisis, encourage water conservation, strengthen environmental sustainability, protect communities against devastating wildfires, improve access to higher education and health care, and ensure that California’s foster youth have the support that they need as they transition to adulthood.