• Local and state representatives signed a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke urging him and the Department of the Interior to protect and preserve California’s National Monuments at the behest of state residents and the business community. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), along with Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), Santa Barbara County 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, 1st District Supervisor Das Williams, and San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon, signed the letter along with other state representatives, which urged Zinke to safeguard the state’s monuments, including the Carrizo Plain in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. “Throughout the national monument review comment period, Californians repeatedly requested that you come to visit the places under review and meet the communities who have for years enjoyed these lands and worked to protect them, keep them in public hands, and keep them accessible. These invitations have thus far gone unanswered,” the letter said. “Today, on behalf of our residents, we invite you once more to visit our state, meet face to face with the communities who love and protect our treasured landscapes before making a recommendation that might reduce or revoke monument status.”
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other Senate Democrats sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Acting Secretary Elaine Duke, pressing the secretary and department with questions on President Donald Trump and his administration’s “apparent de-emphasis on protecting Americans from domestic terrorism” following the events in Charlottesville, Va., according to a release from Feinstein’s office. The letter questioned whether the DHS was adequately addressing sources of domestic terrorism, pointing to recently revoked funding for Life After Hate, an organization that works to rehabilitate former neo-Nazis and other extremists. “Several new grantees were added, but it now appears that focus on far-right extremism has been significantly reduced, if not completely eliminated,” the letter said. The letter also pointed to Trump’s response following the attack in Charlottesville, saying, “Far-right extremist groups, including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists, and other groups motivated by racial and ethnic hatred, present a significant risk of violence and domestic terrorism. It is critical that the administration’s policies and priorities reflect this risk, and protect all Americans from violence and domestic terrorism.”
• State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) announced the introduction of legislation designed to prohibit sexual harassment in the venture capital industry. Once the California Legislature returned from summer recess on Aug. 21, Jackson said she planned to amend a prior bill authored to address the issue, SB 224. Current law prohibits sexual harassment, but SB 224 would specifically prohibit sexual harassment between entrepreneurs and venture capital investors. “Every woman deserves a workplace free from harassment, especially women who are starting their business and may be even more vulnerable to inappropriate coercion,” Jackson said in a statement. “Many of these investors act as gatekeepers to an industry. The brave women who have come forward in recent investors act as gate keepers to an industry. The brave women who have come forward in recent weeks to share their stories and experiences have peeled back the shroud of secrecy and exposed behaviors that are not acceptable in any industry, let alone the growing tech industry, which is so important to our economy.” The national civil rights organization Equal Rights Advocates has sponsored the bill. The organization’s executive director, Noreen Farrell, said in a statement from Jackson’s office, “Sexual harassment can no longer stand between a great woman entrepreneur and the launch of her company. If we want to see the venture capital industry change and an end to sexual harassment of women in technology, we need strong legal protections.”
This article appears in Aug 24-31, 2017.