SACRAMENTO – Today, Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) named Skylight Books the 43rd Assembly District Small Business of the Year. Skylight Books is an independent bookstore known for its selection of literary fiction, graphic novels, and children's books, along with books on Los Angeles history, political science, translated literature, and the arts.
SACRAMENTO – Today, two bills to reduce California’s reliance on fossil fuels authored by Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, passed the Assembly. AB 1400 will phase out the use of fossil fuel generators used to back up microgrids, and AB 1414 caps the fees for solar installation to keep systems within reach of consumers.
BURBANK - In my 2012 State of the City speech while serving as the mayor of Glendale in a time when much of the country was still struggling to recover from the recession, I addressed a key reason as to why Glendale was able to weather the financial crisis.
GLENDALE - Recently Los Angeles has seen a dramatic increase of traffic-related fatalities, a sharp 43% increase with 260 traffic fatalities occurring in 2016. That rate is continuing to increase and is already significantly higher this year than it was last May. Unfortunately, these rising rates of local traffic fatalities are part of a statewide upward trend.
BURBANK - On Friday, April 7 Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared that our historic drought was over thanks to the immense amount of rainfall we received this winter. With our snowpack reservoir reaching 178% and the City of Los Angeles reaching 141% of historical averages as of this month.
(Sacramento) – Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) joined the rest of the Armenian Caucus for a state capitol news conference to honor the 1.5-million people who were killed 102 years ago in the Armenian Genocide. Assemblymember Friedman represents an area of Los Angeles that is home to the largest contingent of Armenian-Americans in the country. “Glendale is, I hope, soon to become the home of the Armenian-American museum,” said Assemblymember Friedman. “And that’s something that, while the week of remembrance really inspires people in the district every year, that museum is something that will educated and inspire from across the country and from around the world.” The Armenian Caucus also honored USC Institute of Armenian Studies leader Salpi H. Ghazarian for her contributions to addressing and resolving challenges in Armenian communities and announced 3rd Annual Essay & Visual Arts Scholarship winners. Here’s more in this Assembly Access video.
California legislators will consider a towering stack of bills addressing the state's rising housing costs, a testament, they say, to their recognition of an emergency.
"We have a housing crisis and we need to act now," said Assemblymember David Chiu, who chairs the Assembly's housing committee.
It's unclear how many of the 130 bills will make it through the session. Past leaders such as Toni Atkins, the last speaker of the Assembly, had made housing affordability a priority, but she was unable to get key pieces of legislation passed.
GLENDALE - Earlier this month the state Assembly celebrated “California Women and Girls in STEM Week.” The Assembly started this tradition as a way to bring to light the vast gender inequalities in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and to encourage our young women to pursue opportunities in these areas.
(Sacramento) – Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) brought a very special guest with her to work at the State Capitol. During the March 23, 2017 Floor Session, Assemblymember Friedman said her special guest “founded the first chapter of the National Organization of Women in Broward County, Florida” and jokingly added “and she forced her young children to canvass door-to-door their entire childhood, causing her eldest daughter to say she would not go to law school and would never go into politics.” That eldest daughter, Assemblymember Friedman, then introduced her Mom, Carole Osman, to the Assembly. Here’s more in this Assembly Access video:
The California Legislative Women's Caucus has issued an open letter to US Supreme Court Justice Nominee, Neil Gorsuch, calling on him to protect the rights of all Californians.