Earlier this year the Mercury News told the story of a dozen tenants crammed into a single home, being victimized by a landlord who was making thousands of dollars by continuing to rent rooms despite having lost the house to the bank in foreclosure.

As I discovered through my own experience, it’s shocking not only what some landlords will do, but also how little protection state law offers people looking to rent a room, a house or an apartment. Fortunately, state Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) is working to arm prospective tenants with better information by authoring legislation, Senate Bill 1191, that would require landlords to inform prospective tenants that the property is subject to foreclosure.

Today, as some major Bay Area school districts begin a new school year, the youngest of students are entering a new grade, the first new level in California primary education in over a century—it’s called Transitional Kindergarten.

11th District Senator Joe Simitian was a driving force behind the new grade. He says it benefits the children and the entire educational community.

“Over all the years we have had too many kids who have been held back over the years unnecessarily, too many kids who need remedial help, too many kids who were placed in special education unnecessarily and not only has that been a struggle for them and their families, but it has been a cost to the schools and the public at large,” said Simitian.

In an oped article in the Contra Costa Times, breast cancer survivor Amy Colton writes:
In 2009, at age 47, I was shocked to be diagnosed with a later stage breast cancer. I was what you would describe as a “health nut.”. . . I followed my doctor’s instructions for regular checkups and screenings, including annual mammograms, starting when I was 40. Every year I received a form letter telling me that no cancer was found.

Mammography was unable to detect my cancer in an early stage because I have a condition called “dense breast tissue.”

The shock of my diagnosis and the ordeal of treatment I endured have made me determined to give other women a better chance of being diagnosed before their cancer has spread. That is why I am so heartened by the legislative approval of a resolution authored by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, to declare Aug. 8 to be “Are You Dense? Day.”

Silicon Valley state Sen. Joe Simitian hopes he’s dead-wrong on high-speed rail.

Ten years ago, he enthusiastically co-authored a bill to put the bullet train on the ballot. On Friday, after years leading intense oversight hearings on the polarizing $69 billion plan, he stunned listeners on the Senate floor and voted against the start of construction—nearly killing the project altogether.

A bill from Palo Alto State Senator Joe Simitian would crack down on red light cameras and would make it easier for drivers to fight tickets, reports CBS Channel 5.

In an editorial, the San Jose Mercury News said:

Death and injuries from traffic accidents have plummeted in California, a trend tied to the 2008 law that bans gabbing on handheld cellphones while driving. Memo to all those drivers still yakking away: Wake up. Distracted driving can kill.

The number of deaths caused by driving while chattering on handheld cellphones dropped by half in the two years after the law took effect compared with the two years before, according to a study released by the state Office of Traffic Safety. That dramatic improvement should persuade 41 other states to enact similar laws. The rest already have.

State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, take a bow. He pushed the bill until his reluctant colleagues agreed to pass it. Credit also goes to the California Highway Patrol and local police throughout the state for aggressively enforcing the ban. They seem to have wholeheartedly embraced it, probably because they have to deal with the heartbreak of fatal accidents.

According to a study announced Monday by the state Office of Traffic Safety, since a state law forbidding the use of handheld phones on the road went into effect in 2008, the number of traffic deaths in California declined by 22 percent. With fewer drivers yakking into handheld phones, the death-by-cellphone rate dropped an even more stunning 47 percent.

“Those are huge numbers,” said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, author of the bill whose outcome the study tracked, while taking a (hands-free) victory lap after the announcement.
During a two-year period after the law was implemented, there were 53 deaths caused by drivers holding cellphones, compared with 100 in the two years before the law took effect. This came as total accidents and fatalities were down overall for reasons as varied as more cars having air bags.

“The drop in collisions was the biggest, single, year-to-year drop in the history of the state since the CHP began keeping the data,” Simitian said.

Senator Simitian appeared on MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan show to discuss high-speed rail.

State Senator Joe Simitian of California, who succeeded in getting a law passed in 2006 that bans drivers there from talking on a hand-held phone, called the board’s recommendation “a wake-up call about the dangers of distracted driving.”

Yet, he also said he doubted it would achieve the desired result because it was unlikely that legislators in California or elsewhere would be able to pass such a ban. Mr. Simitian noted that he spent five years trying to push a ban on hand-held devices, and faced intense opposition from the phone industry.

“It’s a political nonstarter,” he said, adding that he would not attempt to propose a total ban on drivers using their devices. “I don’t believe you’ll see such a ban in my lifetime.” For all his skepticism, though, he acknowledged that political winds could shift. “A decade ago, people didn’t think we’d have a hands-free law in California. Only time will tell.”

Texting, talking and tweeting behind the wheel - even using hands-free devices - should be banned, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday, but any such prohibition in California seems far down the road.

While state law enforcement and traffic safety officials agreed with the recommendation, the state’s main champion of cell phone regulations for drivers said legislation imposing a ban “would be a nonstarter politically.”

“The notion of an outright ban is hard to imagine,” said state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, and author of three laws restricting the use of cell phones by drivers. “I don’t predict it to happen in my lifetime. But then, a decade ago, I couldn’t even get a hands-free bill out of the Legislature.”

Simitian said he would continue to press for increased penalties for violating the bans on handheld phones and texting, and for stepped-up enforcement.

Gov. Jerry Brown probably made more good than bad decisions on various bills this fall. But it was infuriating to see him veto Sen. Joe Simitian’s bill requiring full disclosure to women whose mammograms may be ineffective.

It was so simple, so certain to save lives that we could not imagine a veto. But the medical establishment pulled out all the stops to kill it.

Amy Colton persuaded Simitian to carry the bill after she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer despite years of supposedly clear mammograms. She learned, too late, that her dense breast tissue obscured the cancer. This condition is noted in reports to doctors but not in reports sent to patients, who develop a false sense of security.

In his veto statement, Brown said women should have the information, but he objected to the notification suggesting women talk to their physicians about further screening. Good grief. If women learn mammograms aren’t effective for them, they’d be crazy not to ask about alternatives.

When the Legislature reconvenes, Simitian should resubmit the bill minus the offending suggestion to consult doctors. The original bill got broad bipartisan support. In the meantime, Colton and Simitian may have saved lives just by airing the issue: All women should ask their doctors about dense breast tissue. And—sorry, governor—about alternative screening.

Next year, California’s population will surpass 40 million. That’s twice as many people as were here in 1970 when the state passed its landmark resource protection law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

CEQA, which governs the environmental review process for most construction and infrastructure projects, has been at the heart of some notable achievements, such as saving Mono Lake and looking at the cumulative impacts of proposed development. While the law has protected the environment by improving planning processes and stopping many ill-conceived projects, critics can fairly point to cases where competitors have used it to obstruct projects, even where the environmental benefits and job creation opportunities were obvious.

Forty years later, it’s time to make changes to CEQA to better align the law that governs most growth decisions in the state with 21st century challenges, like climate change and how to support a rapidly growing population.

One such reform is on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk now. He should sign it.

Senate Bill 226 by Senators Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, and Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, allows infill projects—that is, projects within already-developed areas—that meet state-of-the-art environmental standards to take advantage of a streamlined review process. The bill rewards applicants whose projects have the best environmental features with faster and lower cost approval, and it provides other projects with a meaningful incentive to improve. It also eliminates duplicative levels of review, eliminating waste and allowing sponsors of infill projects to take advantage of previous environmental analyses and rely on good local planning.

California lawmakers passed 600 bills in recent weeks, and Jerry Brown vows to veto most of them, explaining simply, “not every human problem deserves a law.”

NBC Bay Area couldn’t agree more.

But, we’re sorry the governor vetoed a bill that would have toughened the hands-free, no-texting laws for drivers.

As we see on the roads, compliance with our current law is low — the bill’s author, State Senator Joe Simitian, hoped to raise deterrence by raising the base fine from $20 to $50, the same fine as rolling through a stop sign.

Governor Brown said “no.”

So we ask him - if you won’t raise fines, Governor, how will you get drivers to put away their cell phones?

Hundreds of lives are at stake.