Hotel workers would get panic buttons and other protections from sexual assaults under a new bill just introduced in the State Assembly.  

Assault and harassment is a problem that affects every industry, says Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who tells News Radio KFBK it's a well-documented problem in the hotel business.  The Torrance Democrat says a poll of Chicago-area hotel workers finds 58% said they'd been sexually harassed by a guest and 49% said they had a guest answer the door naked or exposing themselves.

I came into the world the year the modern environmental movement was born. It seems prescient now, and perhaps it was, to be born just a few miles away in the wake of the largest oil spill in U.S. waters.

In retrospect, the tragedy that inspired the dawning of the environmental movement, seems be the genesis of my personal journey from environmental activist to elected official. I am not alone in that arc, as the unprecedented oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara was a call to action for many and continues to be.

SACRAMENTO – In response to the Trump Administration’s announcement Jan. 4 to expand offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) are reintroducing legislation to ensure that pipelines and other infrastructure cannot be built in California waters to support any new federal oil development.

The boat left Redondo Beach's King Harbor early Friday morning under conditions so perfect, I couldn't think of one good reason to ever go back to the office.

The overnight fog had lifted, with only a thin layer lingering over the Palos Verdes Peninsula. A small swell rolled gently under the boat, gulls sailed through the salt air, harbor seals frolicked and common dolphins used our wake as a playground.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In the decades since a 1969 oil spill near Santa Barbara tarred sea-life and gave rise to the U.S. environmental movement, politicians and environmental activists have built up ample ways to make it difficult but not impossible for the Trump administration to renew drilling off California's coast.

The Interior Department said Thursday it plans to open most federal waters off the United States to oil leases.

Hours after President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled plans to massively expand offshore drilling, California lawmakers announced they’ll re-introduce legislation to block the federal government from doing so ― at least near their shores.

The Trump Administration is proposing a major expansion of offshore oil leasing nationwide, including off the California Coast.

It would be the first West Coast oil lease sale since the 1980s, but that doesn’t mean it’s a done deal. State and local officials could easily throw a wrench in the plans.

On Sunday, show-business women will wear black onto the Golden Globes red carpet in a display of post-Harvey-Weinstein solidarity.

Good for them, and skip the snark about superficial celebrity causes. If ever a cohort had a point about their working conditions, it’s the exploited, objectified and occasionally assaulted women of California’s signature cultural export.

A bill by a Los Angeles-area state senator would protect homeowners against losing their insurance after wildfires like the ones that tormented California in 2017.

That’s just one example of how issues commanding local state lawmakers’ attention in the new year seem to be ripped from the headlines, including the disastrous fires, the Aliso Canyon gas leak, worrisome crime trends and, inescapably, sexual harassment scandals.