Confederacy names ban advances

Bill to prohibit buildings, schools and streets honoring Confederate leaders goes to governor.

SACRAMENTO — Hoping to erase some of California’s public homages to the Confederacy, state lawmakers voted Tuesday to outlaw the naming of schools and public buildings after Southern leaders from the Civil War.

The legislation, which now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, came in the wake of a deadly attack in South Carolina on June 17, when a gunman shot and killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston. A white supremacist manifesto was linked to the suspect, and photos showed him proudly holding the Confederate battle flag.

The incident prompted states and communities across the nation to examine the appropriateness of preserving Confederate symbols, long objected to by many black Americans as relics of Southern slavery.

California’s proposal “shines the light” on the practice of naming buildings in a way that celebrates “traitorous leaders” who “attempted to break our nation in two to continue to enslave black people,” said the bill’s author, state Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda).

Glazer’s bill would affect two schools named after Gen. Robert E. Lee, one in Long Beach and the other in San Diego. The ban, which would go into effect Jan. 1, 2017, if the governor signs it, also includes street names.

Republican Sen. Jim Nielsen of Gerber voted against the legislation, saying, “If anything, this is revisionist history.”

In a similar vein, lawmakers advanced a bid to bar use of the name “Redskins” by universities and schools for team names and mascots.

Sen. Ed Hernandez (DWest Covina) said the measure follows a nationwide move by schools “away from the outdated and offensive name.”

Only a few California schools still use the name. The bill would require it to be phased out by Jan. 1, 2017. The Senate passed the measure Tuesday; it is also expected to pass the Assembly, which approved an earlier version.

Still in the Legislature’s inbox as officials move toward a Friday adjournment for the year include potential restrictions on cigarettes and medical marijuana, costly improvements to California’s roadways and bridges, and the governor’s ambitious climate-change proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

On Tuesday, lawmakers sent Brown a bill that would ban the sale of personal care products containing plastic microbeads starting in 2020.

The microbeads, used in shampoos, soaps, toothpaste and exfoliating beauty products, have become a major source of pollution in the nation’s waterways, said Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), author of the bill, and been found in debris piles in the Los Angeles River, Pacific Ocean and the Great Lakes.

“We cannot afford to wait any longer to end microplastic pollution. The cost to the environment and wildlife is much too great,” Bloom said.

Researchers say that the microbeads, which are not biodegradable, are ingested by fish and other animals and could end up in the food chain. Major cosmetic companies have already pledged to phase the particles out of their products.

Legislators also sent the governor a bill intended to improve minority voter representation on city councils.

The measure would allow city councils for municipalities with fewer than 100,000 residents to switch their atlarge elections to district elections without voter approval.

In at-large elections, candidates are elected by a citywide vote. In district elections, municipalities are carved into districts and candidates run to represent one. Voters have filed lawsuits in several cities arguing that at-large elections prevent minority groups from electing candidates representing their communities.

In other legislative action, the Assembly passed a bill that would impose stricter limits on police access to emails and other electronic communications. It would require law enforcement agencies in most circumstances to obtain a warrant for digital communications, such as emails.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

Brown acted on a raft of bills Tuesday, among them a ban on discrimination by businesses against customers because of their immigration status and primary language.

He approved the measure, which was a response to complaints from people who reported being refused service at some businesses because they did not speak English.

The governor vetoed legislation that would have created a new crime for threatening unlawful violence to another person on a school campus or at a school-sponsored event.

“While I’m sympathetic and utterly committed to ensuring maximum safety for California’s schoolchildren, the offensive conduct covered by this bill is already illegal,” Brown wrote in his veto message.