Aug 24, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Tuesday, August 24, 2010
San Jose Mercury News
Cruise ships and large commercial ships will be banned from dumping any kind of sewage—even highly filtered wastewater—along California’s coast out to three miles from shore, under new rules from the Obama administration.
The rules, which are scheduled to be announced Wednesday at a news conference in San Francisco, give California among the strictest laws in the nation limiting pollution from large ships.
“This is going to cover the entire California coastline,” said state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. “Oceangoing vessels should not consider our coastline a place for dumping sewage.”
In 2005, Simitian wrote a bill that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed banning sewage discharges in state waters from cruise ships and commercial ships larger than 300 gross tons.
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Aug 23, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Monday, August 23, 2010
Los Angeles Times
...A measure that swiftly made its way through the Legislature expresses the state’s “deepest regrets” over the mistreatment of Italians and Italian Americans during World War II.
The resolution was the brainchild of a 79-year-old San Jose man, Chet Campanella, who entered a legislator’s annual “There Oughta Be a Law” contest.
Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) sponsored a bill based on Campanella’s idea. “I was wholly unaware of the circumstances he described,” Simitian said. “Somehow this story had passed me by.” Simitian said he saw “contemporary importance” in the effort: “We’re at war on the other side of the world, and I think it’s important to remember that there are millions of Americans who are ethnic Arabs or Muslim by faith, and that they’re good Americans.
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Aug 9, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Monday, August 09, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
Two months ago, a reporter received a profanity-laced e-mail critical of one of her stories. The sender appeared to be Carl Guardino, the chief executive of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. He hadn’t sent the e-mail. Guardino was the victim of online impersonation. He soon found out he wasn’t alone - friends, colleagues and relatives had stories of usurped identities and tarnished reputations.
The state law on impersonation is not equipped to deal with the digital age. But a bill making its way through the Legislature is looking to change that. Inspired by Guardino’s story, state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, introduced a bill in June that would make it a misdemeanor to maliciously impersonate someone.
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Aug 8, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Sunday, August 08, 2010
Sacramento Bee
Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain writes that the next governor needs to defend a state’s right to protect personal data.
In California, privacy is a fundamental right. This state has a constitutional amendment identifying privacy as inalienable. And for better or worse, legislators don’t see themselves as potted plants. Some actually care about state law. All that means the next governor will grapple with privacy or lack of it right here in Sacramento.
“States often have to lead to get attention at the federal level,” said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, the Legislature’s most prolific author of bills that seek to provide at least a thin veil of privacy. Simitian helped push a first-in-the-nation requirement that companies tell us when a security breach has spewed our personal information into other people’s hands. [...] Now Simitian is carrying legislation to protect people who use FasTrak to pay bridge tolls.
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Jun 27, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Sunday, June 27, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
Over the past 10 years, California spent more than $3.5 billion on an agency that failed to solve the water crisis in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Now, the state is trying again - with a newly formed agency.
Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, author of the bill that created the new agency - the Delta Stewardship Council - said there is no guarantee the council will succeed where the old agency, CalFed, failed. But something needs to be done. Decades of “benign neglect and ineffective governance have not served the state well,” Simitian said. “There’s always some risk with a new direction, but I think the old model was a proven failure.”
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Jun 26, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Saturday, June 26, 2010
Los Angeles Times Editorial
Since 2007, state Sen. Joe Simitian (D- Palo Alto) has been introducing bills aimed at requiring California to get 33% of its power from renewable sources such as the sun and wind by 2020.
California cannot achieve its ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions without this standard, which is why the Legislature should pass Simitian’s bill and Schwarzenegger should sign it. SB 722 would clean the air, produce jobs and make the state a player in the global race to dominate the green-technology industry.
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Jun 22, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Tuesday, June 22, 2010
San Jose Mercury News Editorial
Impersonating someone with the intent to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud is illegal in California — except when it’s done online. Existing state law, written in 1872, didn’t anticipate the existence of Facebook, MySpace or a host of other Internet sites that unintentionally created new ways to harm innocent victims.
State Sen. Joe Simitian has a solution. His SB 1411 would make it a misdemeanor to maliciously impersonate another person online. The Legislature should pass the Palo Alto Democrat’s bill, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should sign into law legal protections against online abuse.
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Jun 3, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Thursday, June 03, 2010
Cal Watchdog
Commuters on California toll roads and highways subscribe to a device kept in the car, allowing electronic toll collection as they pass through a toll booth. Payment is made by credit card.
Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, wants to not only prevent this information from being sold, he is proposing in that state agencies dump all data collected on subscribers every six months.
Simitian’s SB1268 protects the privacy of drivers in California by controlling the personal information collected and stored by electronic toll collection systems. The bill also addresses the need for a civil remedy, for any drivers whose personal information is released.
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Jun 2, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Santa Cruz Sentinel
The state Senate passed a bill regulating the use of red light cameras Tuesday.
State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, introduced SB 1362, which establishes statewide standards for traffic enforcement cameras. The bill requires a history of collisions to justify the placement of cameras and that signs be posted warning motorists. It also makes challenging unjustified tickets easier
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Jun 1, 2010
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Staff | Filed in:
Joe on the Job Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Los Angeles Times
California lawmakers moved Tuesday to address controversy over cases of pension-spiking and double-dipping in which workers retire from one state job on a Friday and start another state job the next Monday. [...]
“Both of these issues have brought a pension system that was already viewed skeptically by many in the public under particularly harsh criticism,” said Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), who authored SB 1425. “I think frankly we can do something to restore public trust in government.”
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