News Room

Today, the State Senate unanimously passed a bill by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) which would make it easier for surplus, unopened medication to be donated to uninsured Californians. The vote was 38-0.

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) announced today that he will hold his eighth annual Ice Cream Social and Open House on Thursday, May 24, from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM at his office in Santa Cruz. He invites residents of the 11th State Senate District to drop in for informal conversation and ice cream.

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) will hold a community celebration May 22 at the Los Altos History Museum to honor Monique Kane as the 11th State Senate District’s Woman of the Year. Kane is Executive Director of the Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC), a nonprofit mental health services agency in Mountain View.

Today, the California State Senate passed Senate Bill 1310, a bill by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) which would strengthen California’s hands-free and no texting laws for motorists. The vote was 24-9.

In an editorial, the San Jose Mercury News wrote:

When then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger first proposed shutting dozens of state parks to help close the deficit in 2008, it was a terrible idea. ... When Gov. Jerry Brown last year proposed closing 70 parks by July 1, it was an equally terrible idea.

Fortunately, at least some lawmakers seem to agree. Sens. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) and Noreen Evans (D-Napa) announced a plan last week that patches together funds from three sources to close a short-term gap of about $22 million and lays out a path to sustainability over the long-term.

State parks are among California’s crown jewels, and we can salvage them. Brown should jump at the chance.

A few hours later, the Senate budget subcommittee chaired by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, took up the same request. The contrast was stark. "Our job is oversight, not cheerleading," Simitian declared. And he meant it. Simitian and Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, grilled officials of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, particularly Chairman Dan Richard, about the project's finances, especially the federal government's insistence that construction begin in the San Joaquin Valley and the lack of firm funding for any expansion beyond that initial segment.

This year, access to this swift and relatively inexpensive forum for justice was expanded thanks to Senate Bill 221, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. Signed into law last year, SB221 raised the small claims court jurisdictional limit -- the maximum amount of damages that can be awarded to a plaintiff -- from $7,500 to $10,000. This builds on a previous measure by Simitian, signed into law in 2005, that raised the limit from $5,000 to $7,500

In an editorial, the San Francisco Chronicle said: The message that mammograms save lives has resulted in an increase in early detection of breast cancer. But for 40 percent of women who get mammograms, the technology might not detect early-stage cancer because their dense breast tissue masks the cancer cells. Most women do not know whether they have dense breast tissue and that, if they do, they should seek alternatives to mammography, such as ultrasound or MRI screenings. That's why state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, has reintroduced legislation to require physicians to inform their patients if they have highly dense breast tissue. Simitian's bill passed last year with broad bipartisan support, but Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it.

Gov. Brown’s latest proposal to eliminate Transitional Kindergarten hit a wall yesterday in the state Assembly. By a 3-to-1 vote along party lines, the budget subcommittee on education finance rejected the governor’s plan.