Veuve Clicquot at VC's cellars in Reims. (Photo: public domain)
Some Naughty, Some Nice: Ringing in New California Laws for 2025
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
By Katy Grimes, December 31, 2024 2:55 am
Most Californians know that the state does not need 1,200 new laws every year. Fortunately, most governors veto a handful. California Globe contributor Chris Micheli reported that during Governor Newsom’s 6 years in office, between 425 – 1,200 bills were sent to him annually, and he vetoed between 8% – 16.5% of them.
We are highlighting some of the worst of the 800+ bills signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024. There is even some good news as well.
Some good news:
The failure of Proposition 32 in November marks the first time in California history that a statewide minimum wage ballot measure has failed. Proposition 32 would have increased the state minimum wage to $18 per hour… but beginning in 2025, the new state minimum wage will automatically increase to $16.50 an hour from $16. Voters were able to stave off $1.50 an hour… for now.
More good news… A federal judge in October blocked a new California law restricting the use of digitally altered political “deepfakes” just two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law. The law would have make political humor illegal in California by prohibiting political parodies. “You can no longer knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content — including deepfakes,” Newsom said. Except political parody is in fact protected by the First Amendment.
Something disgraceful…
Under the violating parental rights category, Gov. Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1955 by Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego), the bill to prohibit schools from notifying parents if their child is “gender confused” or “transitioning” to the opposite sex. Horrifyingly, the bill’s title is “Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act.” Expect legal challenges to this new law.
Devious: The mainstream media and politicians claim parents are demanding “book banning” without providing any context – thus Assembly Bill 1825, by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), was jammed through the California Legislature, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom September 29, 2024, to shut parents up. Its sole purpose is not to protect your kids from pornographic library books, but to prevent the pornographic, library books from being banned by parents and school boards. Expect legal challenges to this new law.
Gas Tax increases:
The unelected California Air Resources Board voted in November to approve new gas regulations which will result in as much as a .65 cent per gallon increase in California’s gas prices.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ABX2 will impose new mandates for oil storage requirements on oil refineries in California. The regulation requirements in ABX2-1 will artificially create a fuel shortage crisis due to limiting the distribution of fuel. This will unavoidably increase the demand, causing prices to increase.
Grocery bags:
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed the first plastic bag ban in the country in 2007, to no avail, just signed a total plastic bag ban in September. Under SB 1053 (Blakespear), California has banned thick single-use plastic film bags from grocery and convenience store checkouts across the state.
Water rate hikes…
With the help of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, these will hurt financially. As HJTA President Jon Coupal writes in the Orange County Register:
For property owners, several attempts to destroy your rights to protest new and higher water rates go into effect. Under Proposition 218, water agencies must send notices to customers ahead of time with information on how to protest the rate hike. If a majority protest, the rate increase can’t go into effect. But Assembly Bill 2257 creates a protest procedure separate from the notice required by Prop. 218 and appears merely to layer on added – and superfluous – requirements for the sole purpose of hindering taxpayers’ constitutional ability to approve or reject taxes.
Senate Bill 1072 because it could leave taxpayers without proper compensation for overcharges on their water bills by offering only future credits instead of actual refunds. There is a huge difference between a “credit” for future charges and an actual refund. If a taxpayer moves, how will he or she be compensated for the violation of constitutional rights if the agency merely applies the overcharge to reduce rates paid by others in the future?
AB 1827 is another concern because it tries to add potentially unconstitutional charges to your water bill based on speculative factors like “maximum potential water use” and “peaking” factors. This is in direct contravention of Prop. 218 which provides that, “No fee or charge may be imposed for a service unless that service is actually used by, or immediately available to, the owner of the property in question. Fees or charges based on potential or future use of a service are not permitted.”
New Gun Control laws for 2025
BearingArms.com lists several new gun laws that will go into effect January 1, 2025:
“AB 2917 would require the court to additionally consider a recent threat of violence or act of violence directed toward another group or location in deciding to issue a restraining order to prevent a person from purchasing a firearm or ammunition.
AB 1598 This bill would require firearm dealers to provide safety pamphlets to gun buyers explaining the reasons for and risks of owning a firearm.”
added bonus…
“AB 574 is deceptively insidious. What this is about is making sure they know exactly what guns you have at all times. It’s confirming that you still have them so that there’s no worries about a lack of communication between databases. If a gun is stolen, you’ll be required to confirm that to officials when transferring a firearm. Every single time.
The only reason for the government to know who owns what guns is so that they know which doors to knock on if or when they decide to ban something. That’s it. AB 574 is designed to try and make sure you can’t claim that you don’t have those guns anymore because you’d have confirmed you still had them in far too many cases.”
One for the good guys…
Senate Bill 1414 by State Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) says any individual who solicits, agrees to engage in, or engages in any act of commercial sex with a minor will face felony charges. This was a bipartisan measure to strengthen protections for minor victims by making the act of soliciting, agreeing to engage in or engaging in any form of commercial sex with a child a felony offense, with sex offender registry required on repeat offenses. Gov. Newsom signed SB 1414 into law. This bill was jointly authored by Democrat Senators Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park).
Good new laws… for some:
If you are a member of the exclusive VIP club at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, you’ll be able to party and drink alcohol until 4 A.M. Assembly Bill 3206 by Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor (D-Hawthorne), specifically grants a major exception to California law, which halts the sale of alcohol in such places at 2 A.M. Under the bill, and until January 1, 2030, alcoholic beverage sales are allowed to occur between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.
Senate Bill 969 by Sen. Scott Wiener allows “entertainment zones” in California cities and counties where bars and restaurants can serve alcohol on public streets and sidewalks starting January 1, 2025.
For those who imbibe other ways, cannabis consumption lounges and cannabis cafes are now legal. There will be permitted smoking lounges as well as edible lounges, similar to pot cafes in Amsterdam. Gov. Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1775 by Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), which allows cities in California to have marijuana dispensaries within marijuana cafes to prepare and serve hot food and nonalcoholic drinks, along with live entertainment.
New state symbols…
California has many official state symbols. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is the California red-legged frog, and California’s official Amphibian. Denim is the official state fabric. Bodie is the official California State Gold Rush ghost town. The California grizzly bear, West Coast Swing Dancing, and the California Poppy are all official symbols (animal, dance, and flower).
Gov. Gavin Newom signed legislation giving the state three new official state symbols: the banana slug as the official state slug (and UC Santa Cruz mascot), the Dungeness crab is now the official state crustacean, and Black abalone is the state seashell.
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AB1775 sounds like great news…for auto body shops, hospitals, physical rehabilitation centers, and funeral homes. Nobody leaves a “cannabis cafe” without being completely stoned and getting behind the wheel of their car.
Also the “cannabis cafes” can introduce even more people to marijuana, so they can become marijuana addicts, too. Having one in twenty people in the U.S. ages 13 and up having a cannabis use disorder just isn’t enough. What society can’t benefit from more people being addicts?
Great news!
In many ways this New Year’s Eve Katy Grimes article perfectly sums up California in 2024. Dem Marxist silliness and wreckage dominates a minuscule number of necessary and common-sense wins. There will be a lot to dig out from if the state finally stabilizes!
With that in mind, how ripe for satire is the “Good new laws…. for some” segment? Only in modern California, and only amongst our most brain dead Californians, would the Gov and certain legislators waste legislation to extend and expand hours and venues for partying. Yes, it’s all about partying for our Dem leadership, for the sole purpose of getting MORE stoned/psychotic and MORE face-plant drunk, whether in the new cannabis cafes (beware of the “hot food”! YUCK) or in the puzzingly-awarded-for-goodies VIP lounge at the Intuit Dome, or on the (literal) streets of S.F., where the alcohol and drugs will flow freely in “entertainment zones” all night and well into the morning, where it’s all good and there will magically be none of the problems usually seen from this sort of thing (thanks much, Scott Wiener!).
That’s right, blast your brain until it’s gone, top it all off with some stupid virtual reality goggles to augment the fun, and then you DEFINITELY won’t notice that you are living in a slithering cesspool of filth and dysfunction also known as today’s Dem Marxist-controlled and corruption-infused State of California.
Happy New Year Everyone! Better times are ahead! (knock wood)
How many California voters clamored for all the idiotic legislation from the criminal Democrat mafia in the legislature such as AB 1955 by Assemblyman Chris Ward that prohibits schools from notifying parents if their child is “gender confused” or “transitioning” to the opposite sex; or SB 1053 by Senator Catherine Blakespear that banned thick single-use plastic film bags from grocery and convenience store checkouts across the state; or AB 1825 by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi that prevents the pornographic, library books from being banned by parents and school boards; or AB 574 by Assemblyman Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer that would require the register or record to include the acknowledgment by the purchaser or transferee that they have, within the past 30 days, confirmed possession of every firearm that they own or possess; or AB 1598 by Assemblyman Marc Berman that would require firearm dealers to provide safety pamphlets to gun buyers explaining the reasons for and risks of owning a firearm.
Probably very few voters?
When will Californians be free of the criminal Democrat mafia that has a stranglehold over power in the state?
“The unelected California Air Resources Board voted in November to approve new gas regulations which will result in as much as a .65 cent per gallon increase in California’s gas prices.”
I think you mean 65 cents per gallon. .65 cent is just over one half a cent.