In the News

Local and state leaders gathered under the 6th Street Bridge on Monday to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign AB 476, a bill aimed at curbing copper wire theft across California.

Authored by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez, the bill seeks to address a growing issue that has affected a vital part of infrastructure, particularly in communities like Boyle Heights, where copper wire theft has left the 6th Street Bridge dark for nearly two years.

My mom is no stranger to hardship. She raised me as a single mother working long hours, living paycheck to paycheck, while facing the loss of three sons — one to drowning, one to an aneurysm and one to an epileptic seizure.

She turned her grief into strength and taught me what resilience looks like, even when it feels like the world is against you.

"When ICE grabbed me, they never showed a warrant or explained why," the lead plaintiff, Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, said in a statement released by his lawyers. "I was treated like I didn't matter — locked up, cold, hungry and without a lawyer. Now, the Supreme Court says that's OK? That's not justice. That's racism with a badge."

"This ruling puts millions of citizens and immigrants under suspicion simply for existing," said Assembly Member Mark Gonzalez, D-Los Angeles.  "That's not law and order — that's discrimination wearing the mask of justice."

"When I see them on the street, I'm not their assigned primary care provider, and I can't order basic things for them," Feldman said. "Only the person who they're not seeing can order those things."

Assembly Bill 543, which Feldman helped craft with the bill's author Assemblymember Mark González, would change that. Co-authors include Assemblymembers Sade Elhawary, John Harabedian, Celeste Rodriguez, Pilar Schiavo and Matt Haney.

AB 543 (Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez) would prohibit care delays based on managed care network assignments and provide patients four to six weeks of care while their Medi-Cal eligibility is verified. Feldman said this change would allow doctors to make an immediate and large impact on patient health. The bill also seeks to create a patient identification and data-sharing network so street medicine teams can more quickly identify patients most in need of care.

"It's so hard because you just don't know what's going to happen next," said state Assemblymember Mark González, a Democrat who represents Boyle Heights and other Latino communities downtown. "It's like a game of Whac-A-Mole."

Just as the city has been perceptibly changed by Trump's migrant clampdown, so has its mayor. Bass, who's long operated as an understated consensus-builder, has assumed the role of combatant for her embattled hometown.

"When the Trump administration threatened and then went through with their threat to cut the program completely, that told us that we had to step up to the plate," said Democratic Assemblymember Mark González of Los Angeles, who said he introduced the legislation to ensure that queer youth receive support from counselors who can relate to their life experiences. "Our goal here is to be the safety net — especially for those individuals who are not in Los Angeles but in other parts of the state who need this hotline to survive."

"Cutting off kids' access to help is indefensible. While the Trump administration walks away from its responsibility, California will continue to expand access to life-saving resources, because the life of every child — straight, gay, trans — is worth fighting for," said Gov. Newsom.

Assembly Bill 727, introduced by Assemblymember Mark González, would aim to facilitate pupil and student safety by requiring schools and institutions to have the telephone number and text line for a specified LGBTQ suicide hotline provided by The Trevor Project, that is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

"Suicide is the second leading cause of death among LGBTQ youth. Cutting off kids' access to help is indefensible," Newsom said in a statement shared exclusively with POLITICO. "While the Trump administration walks away from its responsibility, California will continue to expand access to life-saving resources, because the life of every child — straight, gay, trans — is worth fighting for."

The California bill, AB 727 from first-term Los Angeles Assemblymember Mark González, would put the number for the Trevor Project — the crisis and suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ+ youth — on student ID

Recognizing the state’s tight finances this budget year, advocates did not push for any major initiatives. But Asians Advancing Justice worked with Assemblymember Mark González, a Los Angeles Democrat, to introduce Assembly Bill 865, which calls for $5 million over the next three years to help schools either purchase or create instructional materials for bilingual programs.