News

Saturday, March 7, 2015

State Assemblyman Jim Cooper is working on a bill to clean up California’s security industry after seeing NBC 7’s February investigation that exposed the local underground industry of untrained, unlicensed security officers.

The story came after two local deaths involving bouncers – one where the bouncer was arrested and charged for involuntary manslaughter and the other where the death was ruled a homicide. The San Diego Police Department forwarded that investigation to the San Diego County District Attorney’s office for review.

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Friday, March 6, 2015

Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, on March 5 was appointed by Speaker Toni Atkins to serve as a member of 10 key select committees: Career Technical Education and Building a 21st Century Workforce; Craft Brewing and Distilling; Cybersecurity; Foster Care; Local Emergency Preparedness; Mental and Behavioral Health and Proposition 63 Implementation; Regional Approaches to Addressing the State’s Water Crisis; Urban Rivers and Streams; Wine; and Youth and California’s Future.

“I want to thank Speaker Atkins for appointing me to these committees,” Cooper said. “Many involve issues important to my district and subjects I am passionate about such as education, public safety and helping small businesses thrive. I look forward to actively participating on the select committees and further exploring these important issues.”

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

All of us must have been snoring when Proposition 47 passed. If anyone was awake and noticed a huge flaw, nothing was said. Nary a peep.

That's too often the problem with ballot initiatives. They're products of focus groups and polling to see what sells. They're not filtered through the checks and balances of the legislative process, which can detect glitches and head off unintended consequences.

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Friday, February 20, 2015

At a press conference today, Assemblymember Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, announced the introduction of AB 390 with Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos, crime victims' families and bill supporters.

The bill would allow DNA collection from criminals convicted of crimes that were previously felonies but are now reclassified as misdemeanors.

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —When voters passed Proposition 47 last November, they agreed to a law that aims to divert low-level criminals to drug and mental health treatment rather than to prison.

The law, which changes the classification of some drug crimes, theft and forgery to misdemeanors rather than felonies, also will save taxpayers money, advocates argued.

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Police officers would regain powers to collect DNA that a voter-approved initiative stripped away under legislation announced Thursday by Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, with the backing of district attorneys and lawmakers from both parties.

“Forensic DNA is the greatest tool ever given to law enforcement to find the guilty and to exonerate the innocent,” Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said at an event announcing Assembly Bill 390.

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Saturday, February 14, 2015

When California voters approved Proposition 47, they no doubt had the sincere goal of helping nonviolent offenders by diverting them from prisons into drug treatment, mental health care and educational programs.

What they probably didn’t want was to make it difficult for police to catch murderers and rapists by helping criminals evade DNA-collection requirements.

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