Legislative Bulletin

Nearly a year after its last hearing, legislation that would provide public access to video footage, AB 748 was up in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and was voted out on a 6-1 bipartisan vote. The bill creates an exception to the investigatory records exemption, Gov. Code 6254(f), which is often utilized by law…

If you have editorialized against the tariffs on imported Canadian newsprint and galvanized your readers to let their representatives know how harmful these tariffs are, thank you. Please take time to complete the survey on the tariff’s impact on your newspaper There is still more that needs to be done, though. The News Media Alliance…

CNPA expects few fireworks in next week’s Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing on SB 1244 which would change a single term in the California Public Records Act. The spark behind the bill was a school district’s attempt to collect $500,000 against a public records requester because technically the school district was the “plaintiff,” and the requester…

On Tuesday, the Assembly Public Safety Committee will hear SB 1421, a bill that ambitiously seeks to end 40 years of imposed confidentiality of police personnel records. If the committee approves the CNPA sponsored bill, it will mark the furthest a bill has progressed in the Legislature to loosen the vise on the state’s stringent…

Nearly a year after its last hearing, CNPA’s sponsored legislation to require the disclosure of police video or audio footage related to a police shooting is up for a vote on Tuesday. After lying in wait, the bill was amended this month to mirror the policy recently enacted by the Los Angeles Police Department which…

Two California legislators brokered a deal late Thursday that would strengthen consumers’ online data privacy and head off a proposed November ballot measure that major technology companies opposed. AB 375, dubbed the California Data Privacy Protection Act by state Senator Robert Hertzberg, (D-Van Nuys), and Assembly member Ed Chau, (D-Alhambra), would allow consumers to know…

Last week, CNPA General Counsel Jim Ewert joined newspaper publishers, state press association managers and executives from across the country at the Capitol to meet with legislators and their staffs to gather support for the effort to oppose the tariffs on imported Canadian newsprint. Ewert met with trade policy consultants in the offices of Senator…

In coordination with the STOPP Coalition, the News Media Alliance has launched a petition calling on the International Trade Commission to reverse the tariffs on imported Canadian newsprint. NMA hopes to obtain 10,000 signatures by the ITC’s scheduled hearing on the case on July 17. NMA has provided new digital ads promoting the petition for…

The time, date and place of a public employee orientation will be confidential information when the governor signs the employment budget trailer bill, likely next week. The language was dropped into the budget bill after it had been advancing, through a policy bill authored by Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove). Two weeks ago, CNPA opposed…

Last year, the Legislature passed AB 248, the California Disclose Act, new political advertisement regulations that shed light on “dark money” in politics. This year, Assemblymember Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco) is running AB 2188 to specifically target online platforms that host advertising, imposing platform liability on those who host political ads. Proponents of the…