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As he was walking into church this morning, Doctor George Tiller of Wichita Kansas, one of the few late-term abortion providers in the country, was shot and killed.
The California NOW Annual Membership Meeting/State Conference has already given us an amazing speech by Assemblymember Nancy Skinner on how the budget crisis is going to impact women throughout the state, and Latifa Lyles from National NOW spoke on NOW's history, progress, and plans for the future. Now we're getting ready for our workshops with some fabulous presenters!
ASSEMBLY FLOOR
AB 612 (Beall) Custody and Visitation
CA NOW Position: WATCH
Passed 80-0
AB 789 (De Leon) Search Warrants
CA NOW Position: APPROVE
Passed 78-0
AB 943 (Mendoza) Employment: Credit Reports
CA NOW Position: SUPPORT
Passed 49-30
AB 988 (Brownley) Human Trafficking: Training Content
CA NOW Position: APPROVE
Passed 66-10
AB 1142 (Price) MediCal: Proof of Eligibility
CA NOW Position: WATCH
Passed 47-29
AB 1198 (Swanson) Food Stamps: Eligibility Drug Felonies
CA NOW Position: APPROVE
Passed 45-31
AB 1541 (Asm Health Committee) Health Care Coverage
CA NOW Position: WATCH
Passed 79-0
SENATE FLOOR
SB 141 (Maldonado) In-Home Supportive Services
CA NOW Position: WATCH
Passed 29-1
SB 273 (Corbett) Domestic Violence
CA NOW Position: WATCH
Passed 34-0
SB 786 (Yee) Civil Procedure: Attorney’s fees and cost
CA NOW Position: WATCH
Passed 34-0
This week all bills held in Appropriations Committees in both houses were reviewed. Because of CA’s financial crisis few were moved forward to their respective floors. They will be held in Committee. As this is the 1st year of a 2-year session there is still some life in them.
Sorry for the radio silence all week. I appear to have contracted the plague (not swine flu, I did go to the doctor), and have had difficulty stringing together any sentences more complex than, "Juice, now!" or "Get these hot cats off me!" Apparently illness brings out the nursemaid in my cats, which is just what you're looking for when you have a fever on an eighty degree day, 30lbs of hot, vibrating fur parked on your chest.
I did this series of posts in my Polimicks blog about six months to a year ago about Rape Myths. You know, the things everybody "knows" about rape, which are almost completely and utterly wrong.
Some of these may well be triggering. I know that I spent a good chunk of the time I was writing them shaking. But I think it is incredibly important to debunk these societally constructed myths surrounding rape if we are going to have even the faintest of faint hopes of actually reaching justice for the victims, or of lowering the obscenely high rape rate in our society.