May 17, 2010
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Joe on the Job Monday, May 17, 2010
Los Angeles Times Editorial
For better or worse, kindergarten has replaced the cookies, milk and naptime of old with reading lessons and numbers worksheets. It’s hard enough for a 5-year-old to negotiate; teachers complain that those younger than 5 are especially likely to fall behind. That’s why most states have changed their laws, requiring children to have turned 5 close to the start of the school year in order to enter kindergarten. California is one of a dozen that haven’t; here, the cutoff date is Dec. 2.
A bill by state Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) would do more than remedy the situation. [...]
SB 1381 is a smart and thoughtfully designed bill that deserves swift passage.
Read the full story here.
May 3, 2010
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Joe on the Job Monday, May 03, 2010
Press-Enterprise
A state bill to give car pool patrons a free ride even after the lanes are tolled faces a fight from transportation officials across California. But the bill’s author said he’s willing to work with those concerned provided his bill meets its simple goal.
“If you are a car pooler in a car pool lane, you should not have to pay,” said Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto.
After watching Bay Area transportation officials and some agencies in Southern California proceed with plans to turn car pool lanes into toll roads, Simitian said he worried tolling agencies would soon start charging vehicles with only two people inside.
“If the goal is to get people out of their cars into a car pool, then why should we make that harder? ...,” Simitian said.
View the full story here.
Apr 16, 2010
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Joe on the Job The California Senate has approved a bill that would update the state’s pioneering data breach notification law, the lawmaker who introduced the legislation announced Friday.
The bill from Democratic Sen. Joe Simitian is a reintroduction of the same measure that he proposed last year, but which was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
The current legislation, known as SB-1186, builds on the landmark 2003 breach notification bill, SB-1386, by requiring that breach notification letters also contain specifics around the data-loss incident, including the type of personal information exposed, a description of the incident, and advice on steps to take to protect oneself from identity theft.
View the full story here.
Apr 6, 2010
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Joe on the Job If you watch Oprah with any regularity, you know she is on a crusade to get people to stop texting and talking on the phone while driving. In California, the cell phone law may be about to get a lot tougher.
Refusing to use a hands-free device could get more expensive. A Senate committee agreed to make violators pay more. [...]
“The notion here is a somewhat more significant fine, we’d have a greater deterrent and save more lives. It’s really just that simple,” says Simitian.
The California Highway Patrol says traffic collisions and fatalities dropped 20 percent from the previous five-year average before California’s hands-free law took effect...
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Jan 18, 2010
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Joe on the Job Ronn Owens interviews Joe about hands-free cell phone use while driving and new statistics revealing the percentage of accidents caused by mobile phone use.
Click here to listen to the interview (MP3)
Dec 16, 2009
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Joe on the Job State Sen. Joe Simitian’s voting record received high marks from a state environmental group and a state group advocating for seniors, the local senator’s office announced Tuesday. The California League of Conservation Voters and the Congress of California Seniors both gave Simitian 100 percent scores this year on the score cards they use to grade legislators.
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Dec 10, 2009
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Joe on the Job KLIV's Jason Bennert profiles Joe's significant impact in Santa Clara County during the past decade.
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Nov 4, 2009
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Joe on the Job California lawmakers on Wednesday passed an $11 billion overhaul of the state’s antiquated water system in a bid to supply a soaring population while preserving a fragile environment. [...]
One of the authors in that package of bills, state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, said Wednesday that one of the first questions the state must address is how much water the Delta needs.
Simitian said he recognizes the fear of some Northern Californians that their water might go to other places.
“I wouldn’t have been an author, let alone voted for the bills, if I hadn’t been pretty comfortable with the fact that we’re going to take care of Northern California and do that as part of a larger state,” Simitian said. “I think that people want to put aside our regional differences and get the job done for the state of California.”
Read and watch the full story on the KCRA website.
Oct 7, 2009
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Joe on the Job Wednesday, September 30, 2009
by J.M. Brown
State Sen. Joe Simitian met with three top federal education officials in Washington on Tuesday to assure them that a bill awaiting the governor’s signature would qualify California for a piece of the $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund. [...]
The Race to the Top funds, part of the federal stimulus package passed in February, reward states that establish a clear plan for implementing consistent standards and establishing a data system that tracks students from the earliest years through college. The federal government also wants to see charter school expansion and plans to fix low-performing schools where nagging achievement gaps persist.
But to compete for the money, which is largest amount of discretionary funding ever allocated for education reform, a state has to meet a number of requirements that federal officials thought California lacked.
In his meeting with Russlynn H. Ali, assistant secretary of education for civil rights, and two other officials Simitian said he received assurances that his bill addressed concerns that state law prevented schools from using scores to weigh teacher performance.
Read the full story on the Sentinel website
Aug 25, 2009
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Joe on the Job
Farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are trying to convince other Northern Californians that the Peripheral Canal would be bad. But the narrow interests of the farmers do not coincide with the interests of people who live in the South Bay.
The governor is asking for a $10 billion bond act to build more dams. But the real problem, one that dams cannot solve, is the way water moves through the delta from the dams on the Sacramento River to water-users in the South Bay.
The delta, the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, is degrading our water supply, and it is dangerously unreliable. The Legislature is properly focused on this issue, not marginally usable new dams.
The Peripheral Canal would divert water from the Sacramento River near Sacramento and move it to state and federal water pumps in the Southern delta near Tracy. These pumps supply the Santa Clara Valley with about half our water.
Today, water from the Sacramento River flows through the delta to the pumps. This greatly degrades the quality of the water. Irrigation wastewater is pumped into the delta channels from the irrigated islands. Seawater intrudes into the delta. This doubles the pollution load of the water and adds chemicals which cause cancer (trimhalomethane precursors).
[...]
Senator Joe Simitian of Santa Clara County is taking a leadership position on this important issue and deserves the thanks of his constituents for his hard and effective work on water issues.
Read the full text of the article here