In a step toward building the first massive wind farms off California’s coast, three Assemblymembers on Feb. 8 proposed a $1 billion bond act to help pay for the expansion of ports. The bill, if approved, would place a bond before voters aimed at helping ports build capacity to assemble, construct and transport wind turbines […]
Assemblymember Jim Wood
Governor Signs Contentious Nursing Home Licensing Bill that Splintered Advocates
A controversial bill aimed at fixing aspects of California’s broken nursing home licensing system was signed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faced dueling pressure from advocates who typically are aligned. In approving Assembly Bill 1502, the governor had no comment about his decision. The bill was drafted to address serious problems with the state’s […]
New Law Expands Time for Parents to Register Newborns to Respect Native Cultural Traditions
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill by North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood that expands the time period in which parents must register the birth of their child. Parents will now have 21 days to register their newborn instead of the previous 10, a time frame that did not recognize culture traditions followed […]
Assembly Bill 1311 Brings New Hope to CRV Recycling for Rural Areas
California rural counties will have new tools to make California Redemption Value (CRV) recycling easier now that Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed North Coast Assemblymember Jim Wood’s CRV bill. AB1311 makes changes to the state’s recycling law to better meet the CRV recycling demands of California’s rural counties by allowing CRV redemption centers to operate […]
State Health Department Blasted Over Nursing Home Oversight
At an emotional legislative hearing Tuesday, lawmakers and critics subjected the Newsom administration to blistering questions about the state’s oversight of nursing homes. Assemblymember Jim Wood, a Santa Rosa Democrat who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, questioned the state’s lack of urgency in addressing licensing concerns. “Where is the proactive, patient centered, public safety approach […]
Letter from Legislators: KHSU Gutting a ‘Slap in the Face’
Adding to a growing list, current and former North Coast legislators are calling on the California State University Chancellor’s Office to suspend any decision-making on the future of KHSU until new top administrators arrive at Humboldt State University. HSU President Lisa Rossbacher and Vice President of Advancement Craig Wruck, who oversees KHSU, are both slated […]
New Funding Sought for Last Chance Grade
More funding could be coming to the help fix the 3-mile-long stretch of U.S. Highway 101 in Del Norte County known as Last Chance Grade in the race to ward off the billion dollar economic loss a catastrophic failure could cost. Connecting California’s northern coastal reaches to the rest of the state, the roadway is […]
Trump’s Fire Tweets Decried as Congressional Delegation Urges Disaster Declaration
With the Mendocino Fire Complex — an explosive combination of the River and Ranch fires — now officially ranked as the largest in California’s history at nearly 300,000 acres, a congressional delegation sent a letter today urging President Donald Trump to declare a major disaster in Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties. The move would free […]
