News

It wasn’t long ago that surfing was frowned upon — a sport, if you dare call it that, for slackers. Surely, this salty pastime would be just a fad, parents hoped, as they got calls from school informing them their child had, again, ditched class to chase swell.

Fast forward a few decades, and you never know if that flip-flop wearing surfer next to you is the head honcho of a million-dollar company. Your doctor or dentist surfs. Parents home school their kids in hopes that they are the next Kelly Slater.

Even your grandma surfs.

SACRAMENTO (CBSLA) — California could be riding the wave to surfing becoming the state’s official sport.

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Joint Author Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-Whittier) on Wednesday introduced AB 1782, a bill that would establish surfing as California’s state sport.

The rubber is hitting the road, the gloves are coming off and California leaders are suiting up for battle. At least, figuratively.

When the Trump Administration announced that it would commence offshore oil drilling across all national waters — including six locations in California — federal agencies struck against decades of bipartisan environmental policy in California.

On Thursday, Jan. 4, President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding offshore drilling in federal waters in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. In response, State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara Jackson and Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, reintroduced legislation (SB-834 and AB-1775, respectively) to ensure pipelines and other infrastructure can’t be built in California waters to support any new federal oil development.

Surfing could become the official state sport of California under a proposal from a Los Angeles-area lawmaker.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 1782, would declare surfing California’s official sport because the state is home to world-famous surf breaks, including Malibu, Trestles, Mavericks, Rincon, Steamer Lane and Huntington and has a long history of hosting major international surfing events.

In response to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s announcement on January 4 to open federal waters along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts to new federal offshore oil and gas drilling, two California legislators are reintroducing legislation to protect the state from new federal offshore oil drilling.

Two California state assemblymen have proposed a bill that would require hotels to equip housekeepers with portable "panic buttons" they can press when threatened.

Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) co-authored the bill, which is the first of its kind to be proposed on a statewide basis. Similar initiatives have been approved in Seattle and and Chicago.

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.