A bipartisan group of San Joaquin Valley legislators gathered Friday on a Friant-Kern Canal bank to announce their push for state money to fix one of the region’s major irrigation arteries.
Tulare and Kern Counties have some of the highest teen suicide rates in the state and suicide rates for teenage girls are at a 40-year high.
In effort to address this startling statistic, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) and state legislators from other areas with high rates of youth suicide co-authored a bill to help turn the tide of teen suicides.
State Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) is proposing a $400 million bill to lift the sinking Friant-Kern Canal.
On Wednesday, Hurtado said Senate Bill 559, will "help secure California’s water supply by investing $400 million toward restoring lost (delivery) capacity on the Friant-Kern Canal, one of the San Joaquin Valley’s most critical water delivery facilities."
Today, more than 100 rural communities in the San Joaquin Valley have limited access to clean water, while many others have seen their wells go dry. At the same time, water deliveries and water infrastructure required to fuel the Valley’s economic engine have become unreliable, and in some areas, broken.
On Wednesday, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), along with principal co-author Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) and co-author Sen.
Today, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), along with principal co-author Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) and co-author Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose), introduced SB 331, legislation that emphasizes a more proactive approach on preventing suicides.
SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) introduced legislation to expand asthma preventive services to low-income families.