It was a busy Wednesday at the state Capitol in California.
The Assembly passed bills that would regulate daily fantasy sports websites, allow voters to take “ballot selfies” in the voting booth and require the state health agency to report on maternal mortality cases.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed new safety requirements for charter buses, in response to a 2014 crash.
Neither body typically meets on Wednesdays, but lawmakers face a deadline this week to keep bills introduced last year alive. Measures must pass their “house of origin” by Friday. All the bills listed here remain active for consideration by the other chamber.
Disclosure
Campaign donors in California would need to show their names more prominently in advertisements, under another bill the Assembly approved.
Print, radio and TV ads would have to disclose the top three contributors who have paid more than $50,000 to a campaign.
"We have a duty, members, as elected officials, to prove to our constituencies that we work in a transparent manner," Democratic Speaker-elect Anthony Rendon said.
Republican Assemblyman Matthew Harper called the bill unnecessary.
"Current law already requires that the top two donors must be displayed on political ads," Harper said.
The bill passed with 55 votes, one more than the necessary two-thirds supermajority.
Double pay
Another Assembly bill would give retail employees double pay on Thanksgiving Day.
The bill’s author, Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, says many retail employees are forced to work on Thanksgiving as stores get a head start on the Black Friday shopping rush.
"People who work hard, who are trying to raise their families, have the right to have a little family time," Gonzalez said. "Or, at least, be compensated fairly when they go to work on Thanksgiving."
The measure applies only to retail or grocery stores with more than 500 employees. A broader version of the bill failed last year.
Republican Assemblyman Don Wagner says it’s unfair to assume the stores can pay more.
"Merely because you have 500 or 600 or 1,000 employees, you can’t automatically afford everything this Legislature decides it’s going to dump on you," Wagner said.
The bill passed 43-to-32.
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