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Jerry Brown Signs Bill Permitting Non-Physician Abortions in California

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Photo Credit: Rose Palmisano, Orange County RegisterCalifornia on Wednesday became the only state in the nation this year to increase access to abortions, as Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing more medical professionals to perform abortions.

AB154 by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would let nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives and physician assistants with special training perform abortion by aspiration — in which the uterus’ contents are suctioned out — which is the most common kind of first-trimester abortion. The Assembly passed the bill on a 50-25 vote in May, and the state Senate passed it on a 50-25 vote in August, with most Democrats and no Republicans voting for it.

“California is moving in a different direction than the rest of the country. So far this year we have seen 68 abortion restrictions become law, and California is the only state to make real progress to protect abortion rights,” said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-rights research group.

“This is just a common sense measure,” she said. “The state recognizes that abortion is not always available when needed and that advanced practice clinicians are well-placed to provide those services.”

But Brian Johnston, executive director of the California ProLife Council, said the bill “isn’t about helping women so much as about promoting abortion.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Riverside Cop Tricks Autistic Teen into Buying Pot (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube “We felt like our family was totally violated by the sheriff’s department and the school district,” says Doug and Catherine Snodgrass of Temecula, California. Last December their 17-year-old autistic high school son was arrested after twice buying marijuana for an undercover Riverside county police officer.

The undercover operation, titled “Operation Glass House,” spanned a few months and included undercover officers in three area high schools: Chaparral, Temecula Valley, and Rancho Vista Continuation. The officers posed as regular high school students and would ask other students for drugs. Twenty-two students were arrested – the majority of them are reported to be special needs students like the Snodgrass’ son.

Their son, who wished to remain unnamed, is noticeably handicapped and has been diagnosed with autism as well as bipolar disorder, Tourettes, and several anxiety disorders…

His new friend, who went under the name of Daniel Briggs, was known as “Deputy Dan” to many students because it was so apparent to them that he was an undercover officer. However, to their son, whose disabilities make it hard for him to gauge social cues, Dan was his only real friend.

Dan reportedly sent 60 text messages to their son begging for drugs. According to his parents, the pressure to buy drugs was too much for the autistic teen who began physically harming himself.

Read more from this story HERE.

CA Gov. Brown Signs Bill to Allow Children More than Two Legal Parents

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Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/ AP

Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/ AP

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday that will allow children in California to have more than two legal parents, a measure opposed by some conservative groups as an attack on the traditional family.

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said he authored the measure to address the changes in family structure in California, including situations in which same-sex couples have a child with an opposite-sex biological parent.

The law will allow the courts to recognize three or more legal parents so that custody and financial responsibility can be shared by all those involved in raising a child, Leno said.

“Courts need the ability to recognize these changes so children are supported by the adults that play a central role in loving and caring for them,” Leno said. “It is critical that judges have the ability to recognize the roles of all parents so that no child has to endure separation from one of the adults he or she has always known as a parent.”

The bill was partially a reaction to a 2011 court decision involving a lesbian couple that briefly ended their relationship, according to Leno’s office. One of the women was impregnated by a man before the women resumed their relationship. A fight broke out, putting one of the women in the hospital and the other in jail, but the daughter was sent to foster care because her biological father did not have parental rights.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Grants Driver’s Licenses to Illegal Immigrants

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Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli

Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli

California’s governor signed a bill Thursday granting illegal immigrants driver’s licenses, in a decision immigrant rights groups hailed as a major step forward for their movement.

The country’s largest state becomes the latest to reverse course and grant legal driving privileges to illegal immigrants.

“No longer are undocumented people in the shadows. They are alive and well and respected in the State of California,” Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said as he signed the measure in Los Angeles.

The state has until the beginning of 2015 to set up the new licenses, but Mr. Brown said when they are in effect, the state will be safer.

Mr. Brown still has several other major immigration bills pending on his desk that he must sign or reject by Oct. 13, including one that would let local police ignore immigration authorities who ask that dangerous criminals be held for transfer to the federal government.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Deuce Bigalow’ Actor: I Haven’t Made a Movie in California in 7 Years Because of Democrats (+video)

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Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

“Saturday Night Live” alumnus and “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” actor Rob Schneider appeared in a short video (embedded below) with California Assemblyman — and Republican gubernatorial hopeful — Tim Donnelly and Politichicks reporter Ann-Marie Murrell on Monday. In the video, Schneider declared that he hasn’t worked on a film in California in seven years because of the recent rise of Democrats in state elections.

“The state of California is a mess,” Schneider declared, “and the supermajority of Democrats is not working. I’ve been a lifelong Democrat and I have to switch over because it no longer serves the people of this great state.

Read more from this story HERE.

California City Flies Flag of China

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Over the objections of residents and human rights groups, the city will raise the flag of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1, a day that honors the formation of the sovereign state in 1949 by communist leader Mao Zedong.

The City Council voted 4-3 Monday to approve the request by Councilman Benny Lee, a Chinese-American who said he intended the move as a sign of support for the city’s growing Chinese population and a sign the city is open for Chinese business and investment…

Read more from this story HERE.

California’s Great Gun Grab: State’s Sweeping Gun Control Bills Target Firearms, Ammo — and Hunting

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Breaking new ground in the state-level battle over firearms, the Democratic-dominated California state legislature has taken gun control into uncharted territory with a flurry of new bills that target not just firearms and ammunition, but also recreational hunting.

Among the dozen gun-control bills sitting on California Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk are measures that would outlaw lead ammunition for hunting as well as common types of hunting rifles under the umbrella of an assault-weapons ban. Taken together, the measures go far beyond the efforts that have inspired a sharp backlash and political battles in states such as Connecticut and Colorado.

To put the lead bill in context, about 95 percent of all ammunition sold in California contains lead. The alternative is metal bullets, some of which can pierce police armor and are banned by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Critics say the bill would effectively end hunting as a sport in California.

“If California outlaws lead bullets, the federal government already outlaws everything else, so there’s nothing left for hunters to use,” said California Assemblyman Brian Jones, a Republican from Santee. “It basically outlaws hunting.”

Mr. Brown has yet to say whether he will sign any or all of the gun bills, but the effort has already sparked a backlash against the Democratic-sponsored bills by one of the party’s chief constituencies: labor unions. A half-dozen California labor leaders have formed a coalition urging the governor to veto Assembly Bill 711, the lead-ammunition ban, citing the loss of manufacturing and supply-chain jobs as well as recreational opportunities.

Read more from this story HERE.

Freedom of Speech? College Student When Police Stopped from Handing out Copies of the Constitution (+video)

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

A college student from California is making waves this week after being told he couldn’t pass out copies of the United States Constitution on campus.

Robert Van Tuinen, 25, was attempting to hand out complimentary copies of the US Constitution at Modesto Junior College in central California on Tuesday when a police officer informed him that he could only distribute pamphlets on campus if done from within a designated free-speech area that requires weeks of notice to reserve.

“Anytime anything is being passed out it has to be… you have to go through the Student Development office,” said the officer.

“Don’t I have free speech, sir?” Van Tuinen responded, clutching copies of the Constitution.

“But do you know what this is?” he asked. “What are the rules? Why are the rules tied to my free speech?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Woman Suing Hospital, Doctors over Prank During Surgery

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Photo Credit: Los Angeles County Superior Court

Photo Credit: Los Angeles County Superior Court

A Los Angeles woman is suing an area hospital after one of its surgeons affixed a fake mustache to her upper lip and fake tears and then photographed her – all while she was still under anesthesia.

ABC News reports the unnamed patient, who also worked at Torrance Memorial Medical Center, where the procedure was performed October 2011, also hit her unidentified anesthesiologist with a raft of incendiary legal claims.

The patient says she learned of the bizarre photos from co-workers who had seen them after returning to work as a surgical supply purchaser at the hospital.

“Perhaps the most vulnerable position any human being will ever endure in their life is a time when they are placed under full anesthesia,” reportedly reads the lawsuit, filed Aug. 15 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Bill Allows Nurses, Others to Perform Abortions

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

California’s liberal Gov. Jerry Brown now has a bill on his desk allowing nurses, certified midwives, and other specially trained clinicians to perform early-term vacuum aspiration and medicine-induced abortions.

AB 154, whose main sponsor is Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and is supported by numerous pro-choice groups, passed both legislative chambers this past week and is now on Brown’s desk, reports Breitbart News.

If Brown signs the bill, it will allow non-physician staff at Planned Parenthood’s clinics, among others, to obtain licenses to perform the abortion procedures.

Planned Parenthood says the legislation is necessary because a shortage of doctors in some parts of the state means that women often have to wait until later in their pregnancies to terminate them, which is a riskier procedure.

“Early abortion access is a critical public health issue,” Planned Parenthood says on its legislative page.

Read more from this story HERE.