Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than 1,000 bills this year, introducing hundreds of new regulations, penalties, programs and funding sources.
Among that very large list are some that will have an outsize impact on the Bay Area. Some of them zero in on projects or issues specific to the Bay Area. Others apply to the entire state but were inspired by Bay Area events, or could resonate here because they deal with challenges that have become a fixture of life in the region.
A law written in response to a serial harasser in San Francisco
A bill that requires an individual’s history of violence be considered in mental health professionals’ evaluations used to determine if a person is safe to re-enter society was signed into law last month.
Written by Assembly Member Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, and sponsored by the San Francisco district attorney’s office, the new law is a direct response to issues highlighted by the case of Bill Gene Hobbs, a man known as a serial harasser of women in San Francisco…