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Looking for the next young philanthropist to SK8 for Schools in Hermosa Beach

Sebastian 'Sea Bass' Kuhr, a junior at Loyola High School, was a kindergartner in 2006 when he and his family started a fundraiser built around skateboarding called SK8 for Our Schools.

After dozens of heel flips, fakies and ollies, multiple government commendations and more than $50,000 raised for Hermosa Beach City School District, Kuhr is ready to pass the baton to someone else.

Lawmaker Pushes Funding Overhaul for California Schools

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – A California lawmaker on Tuesday introduced a bill to boosting spending on California schools by $35 billion in a bid to address chronic underfunding of the nation’s most populous state for the 2018-19 school year.

California made radical changes to education financing in 2013 with the creation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The formula eliminated many categorical grants and gave K-12 school districts more flexibility to fund necessary programs through the establishment of base funding for all districts, with additional need-based grants.

“For too long, California has been below the national average in per-pupil spending,” Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, said in a telephone conference call announcing the bill. “AB 2808 will establish strong education funding targets to provide full and fair funding for all California Children regardless of where you live.”

Lawmaker Pushes Funding Overhaul for California Schools

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – A California lawmaker on Tuesday introduced a bill to boosting spending on California schools by $35 billion in a bid to address chronic underfunding of the nation’s most populous state for the 2018-19 school year.

California made radical changes to education financing in 2013 with the creation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The formula eliminated many categorical grants and gave K-12 school districts more flexibility to fund necessary programs through the establishment of base funding for all districts, with additional need-based grants.

Assembly Passes Muratsuchi’s Day of Remembrance Resolution

SACRAMENTO — Assembly Concurrent Resolution 143, which declares Feb. 19 as a Day of Remembrance throughout California, was passed by the Assembly on Tuesday.

ACR 143, authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and co-authored by Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), now goes to the Senate for a vote.

California lawmakers push back against more offshore drilling

Last month, the U.S. Interior Department proposed opening nearly all of the country's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, including here in California.

The announcement has inspired protests from environmentalists and state lawmakers,  including Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who represents several beachside cities in Southern California. 

Could surfing become California’s official sport?

With the Surfer's Walk of Fame as their backdrop, state and local elected officials joined leaders in the surfing industry at the base of the Hermosa Beach Pier on Saturday to support surfing as the official sport of California.

“I’m stoked to be here,” said State Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-South Bay), who co-sponsored AB 1782 along with Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-San Gabriel Valley), also in attendance. The bill was introduced last week in the California legislature.

California officials, protesters fight offshore drill plans

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Commissions that oversee coastal lands and water pushed the Trump administration to leave California out of plans to expand offshore drilling, saying the state will throw up any barriers possible to prevent pumping and transportation of oil.

“We are California and we will fight back to protect our beautiful coast,” said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi of Torrance.

Parras students take strides to create policy, make change

Janet Barker’s eighth grade English classes at Parras Middle School are working to change social policies, both great and small. Last Wednesday, Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi dropped by to offer his advice to Barker’s students as they worked through their Democracy in Action project.

The project was based on Barker’s philosophy to bring as much life experience to the classroom as possible, “instead of research papers trapped in a folder…why do it unless it’s going to be useful?” Barker said.

Legislature approves first state audit of bullet train project since 2012

After years of mounting delays and cost increases, the first formal state audit of the California bullet train project was authorized Tuesday by the legislature's joint audit committee.

The decision comes after the rail authority disclosed this month that the cost of building the first 119 miles of track in the Central Valley would cost $10.6 billion, a 77% increase over the original estimate of $6 billion.

Inside the Campaign to Make Surfing California's Official Sport

Jack London was mesmerized the first time he saw surfers riding the waves of the ocean. It was 1907, and he’d docked at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu during a sailing trip from San Francisco when he spotted them: “One after another they come, a mile long, with smoking crests, the white battalions of the infinite army of the sea,” he wrote in a magazine essay published later that year.