Two California state lawmakers Wednesday introduced a bill that would require hotels to provide housekeepers with a "panic button" to prevent violent assaults and sexual harassment.

Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, jointly introduced the so-called hotel maid "panic button" bill with Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward. If it gets passed, it would make California the first in the nation to have a statewide law requiring hotels to provide employees working alone in guest rooms with a panic button.

Alarmed by a survey indicating sexual harassment of hotel housekeepers is widespread, a California state lawmaker on Tuesday proposed requiring employers to provide “panic button” devices to their employees so they can summon help if abused by a guest.

The bill to be introduced Wednesday by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) would also require individual hotels to impose a three-year ban on guests who engage in harassment on the property.

State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi plans to submit a bill during the next legislative session to clamp down on package theft rings by including their activities in existing RICO statutes. It would make organized package theft a felony.

The Assemblyman and his staff were the victims of package theft themselves, according to Muratsuchi. A package of official items was dropped off at a Huntington Beach-area UPS and “apparently never reached its destination,” Muratsuchi said.

As more and more people shop on the internet and have packages delivered to their homes during the holidays, beach city police departments are stepping up their vigilance to combat package theft.

State Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi plans to introduce a bill next session making organized package theft punishable under the RICO statute.

Eight Southern California refineries will provide fence-line air-monitoring data in real time and pay for the installation of similar systems covering communities near the plants by 2020 under a new rule unanimously adopted Friday by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The rule provides the regulatory and technical framework to implement Assembly Bill 1647, which required the two monitoring systems. It was authored by South Bay Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi and signed into law in October.

Peninsula High senior John Zuercher is getting ready to deliver what could be his biggest donation collection yet for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach with the help of State Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi’s office.

The football player started collecting donations for veterans when he started a Veterans Appreciation Club at his school last year.

The annual photo event has raised over $40,000 for the Hermosa Education Foundation since its founding nine years ago by Gum Tree owner Lori Ford.

Many of the 27 oil platforms drilling into the underwater shelf off the coast from Santa Barbara to Huntington Beach are decades old and, in the eyes of the oil industry and others, ready to be shut down.

Some cost big money to operate at a time of sagging oil prices. Others need expensive technical upgrades. And all are political targets, widely viewed in a liberal state as bigger environmental risks than the potential reward of pulling yet more carbon-generating oil from the Earth.

Big-screen TVs aren’t the only hot deals around as Black Friday stretches into the weekend.

If your wish list leans more toward whiskers, fur and cuddling, head on over to one of the six Los Angeles City animal shelters where extended Black Friday discounts on adoption fees run through Sunday.

Elected officials from the Redondo Beach City Council, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the California Assembly gathered Monday morning at the site of the AES power plant on Harbor Drive to announce a joint effort to purchase the century-old power plant.

The officials disclosed that the City of Redondo Beach and the County of Los Angeles have submitted a proposal to AES, the 18 year owner of the Redondo Generating Station, to purchase its 50 acre parcel and restore the saltwater wetland that the power plant sits upon.