Capitol Dispatch: Buckets of Beer, Mountain Lions and More

Brewers and Beer Lovers Toast Bucket Bill

The growler lobby is growing. For those of you under 90 and/or not hip to the argot of beer connoisseurship, a growler is the bucket drinkers use to tote beer home from the bar or the brewery. Growlers were as common as coffee grinders in homes before Prohibition, and they’re making a comeback now along with the rise of craft brewing. This week, the State Senate passed a bill that would let people use their own growlers at any microbrewery, according to the Mercury News. In the old days, fetching beer with the growler was often a chore for children. However, more legislation will be needed before we hear dads say “Here’s two bits kid, now go get Pops a growler of pale ale with aggressive hoppy overtones and subtle notes of citrus.”

Better Options for Wayward for Mountain Lions

The killing of two half-starved mountain lion cubs in Half Moon Bay last year has spawned legislation that would give wildlife officials more non-lethal options when big cats wander into human habitats. The Legislature approved SB 132 Wednesday, and the bill by Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that since 1986 there have been 13 verified cases of mountain lions attacking people, of which three were fatal. Hunters in California killed 2,255 mountain lions during the same period.

Bill Seeks to Expand Abortion in Rural Areas

The State Senate approved a bill Monday that would allow nurses and midwives to perform a specific type of abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. While opponents of the bill told the Associated Press that the proposed law would imperil public health, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate said it would help women in rural counties where doctors are scarce. Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said a six-year-old pilot program has resulted in 8,000 aspiration abortions by non-doctors with an error rate of less than 2 percent, which is comparable to the error rate of doctors performing the same procedure.

Minority Rule in California

Whites are no longer a majority in California, but they continue to represent the biggest share of likely voters in the state. Consider these numbers from the Public Policy Institute of California in the Sacramento Bee. Whites are 44 percent of the state’s adult population, but are 62 percent of likely voters. Meanwhile, Latinos account for one out three adults in California, but less than 20 percent of likely voters.

Brown’s Prison Problem

This month, the United States Supreme Court rejected a request by Gov. Brown to delay a four-year-old federal order to bring the state’s seriously jam-packed prisons down to only 137.5 percent of capacity. To comply with the order, Brown’s office proposed shunting thousands of prisoners to local facilities and to cells out of state. The idea has the backing of Assembly boss John Perez (D-Los Angeles), but Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has his own ideas, according to the Sacramento Bee. And Bee columnist Dan Walters muses whether Brown runs into trouble when he encounters the ideas of others, especially when those ideas might be better. Walters points to a recent Rolling Stone profile of the governor in which the old radical Tom Hayden says that Brown argues harder when he knows he’s wrong.