Senate Floor

Members, the Senate will come to order. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

All right, quorum as President, Members, Senate Rule 55 will be waived to allow guests on the floor for today's session. Members, can I ask everyone to come to their desks, please? Would the Members and guests be on the rail and in the gallery? Please rise. We will be led in prayer this afternoon by our guest chaplain, Rabbi Mychal Copeland, after which, please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance to the flag and the mourners kaddish prayer by Senator Newman. Rabbi Copeland.

We're coming to the close of the Jewish holiday of Passover, in which we eat matzah, a flat bread that recalls our ancestors fleeing slavery centuries ago, so quickly that they didn't have time to let their dough rise. Passover tells a triumphant story of overcoming oppression. Yet at our Passover ritual, we split a piece of matzah in half to symbolize brokenness. This year, our breaking apart ritual reflects our very broken world. Where do we feel that brokenness today?

We feel that across our state, on our college campuses, in our city halls, and at the tents that line our streets. In Jewish communities, we're feeling it everywhere. Since the horrors of October 7 massacre in Israel and the war in Gaza, where so many are suffering. In the largely LGBTQI community I serve, we feel torn, lonely, and targeted. Jewish mystical tradition teaches that the universe is fractured. It is our job as human beings to notice the broken pieces all around us and put them back together.

Whether we reach out to someone in pain with kindness or enact just laws, we ask of each of our actions. How will this mend our broken world? Today we recognize in this space Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the horrors that began with Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass in which Jewish businesses and communities were literally shattered by the Nazis. We grieve the millions of Jews and others who were killed.

As we recall the progression during the 1930s, from anti semitic rhetoric to violence to anti Jewish laws, we all know where the story was headed, but they did not. Europe's Jews thought they were at home. Today in the United States, after years of relative calm my entire lifetime, we struggle with the recent spike in anti semitic acts. All of us can continue to pick up the broken shards of this world for ourselves and others. Where do you see brokenness around you?

What actions will you take to mend this world? The book of Psalms reads, God is close to the brokenhearted. God of compassion. I pray that you can hold us in our brokenness and give us the strength to hold one another in compassion. God who encourages us to question, grant us the ability to pause when we think we're right, to listen to other voices that might be difficult to hear. God of the in between spaces. Teach us to see nuance and complexity when we're surrounded by slogans. God of the brokenhearted, guide us to mend this broken world with strength and resilience.

Members and guests, please join me in the pledge of allegiance to our nation's flag. I pledge allegiance to. Please. If you would remain standing, I'm going to read the traditional mourners Kaddish in memory of all of those souls lost to the holocaust.

Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba b’alma di v’ra chir’utei; v’yamlich malchutei b’hayeichon u-v’yomeichon, uv’hayei d’chol beit yisrael, ba-agala u-vi-z’man kariv, v’imru amen. Y’hei sh’mei raba m’varach l’alam u-l’almei almaya. Yitbarach v’yishtabah, v’yitpa’ar v’yitromam, v’yitnasei v’yit-hadar, v’yit’aleh v’yit’halal sh’mei d’kudsha, b’rich hu, l’ela min kol birchata v’shirata, tushb’hata v’nehemata, da-amiran b’alma, v’imru amen. Y’hei sh’lama raba min sh’maya, v’hayim, aleinu v’al koi yisrael, v’imru amen. Oseh shalom bi-m’romav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yisrael, v’imru amen.

Thank you, Senator Newman. You can be seated. Now, Members, without objection, we will take up the following resolution out of order. That's SCR 135. This is file item eight. After adoption or consideration of the resolution, we'll return to privileges of the floor for the author to introduce their guests. So we are going to begin with Senator Wiener at his desk. Senator Wiener, let the file Clerk read the resolution. Secretary, please read

Senate Concurrent Resolution 135 by Senator Wiener relative to California Holocaust Memorial Day.

Let's give Senator Wiener your attention. Members. Senator Wiener, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Mister President. Colleagues arrive today as co chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to present SCR 135. Every year, we bring forward this resolution and hold a ceremony to commemorate Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's something that our caucus views as a duty, a solemn responsibility, as integral to our role, to bear witness to the horrors of the past so that they may not be repeated.

This is an opportunity for all of us to learn and gain a deeper understanding for what is truly among the darkest moments in human history. In the past, a survivor of the Holocaust would sit at every single desk in both the Senate and the Assembly. But as they have aged and passed, we have been unable to repeat this tradition. There are so few Holocaust survivors remaining.

As this history moves further into the past, it is essential that we rededicate ourselves to ensuring the the lessons of the Holocaust are not forgotten. Our youth today display shockingly little knowledge about the Holocaust. Some even question whether it even happened at all. We see continued conspiracy theories pushed by bad actors stating that the Holocaust never actually happened. Holocaust denial is not new, but for this noxious, despicable belief to be gaining followers today as it is is a deeply distressing sign of our times.

We do not remember the Holocaust. In order to relive its trauma. We take on the sacred responsibility to ensure that never again will a community of people, any people, be subjected to the same kind of treatment, prejudice, and brutality that the Jewish people suffered. The Holocaust refers to the 6 million Jews who were exterminated in Nazi Germany and in Europe in General.

But we also honor the millions of Roma, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities, along with prisoners of war and political prisoners who also suffered and were killed or murdered under Nazi rule in concentration camps. The scale of the destruction is hard to imagine. 6 million Jews, 12 million in total. It's vital that we remember these are lives, not a number. Every year, I and others participate in reading names to commemorate just pages and pages of names and entire families. And those names are incredibly important.

It's not just a number. Every single life that was taken was a Member of a community, a family. It's soul crushing. Poland was home to the largest Jewish population on the planet, other than the United States before the Nazi invasion. 3.3 million Jews, 10% of Poland's population. In the six years that the nation's Jewish community was over a six year period, Poland's Jewish community was reduced from 3.3 million Jews to a few 100,000.

In 1950, the Jewish population of Poland stood at just 45,000, compared to 3.3 million. Two thirds of Jews in Europe lost their lives in Lithuania, where part of my family came from. Fortunately, decades before the Holocaust, or I would not be here, approximately 90% of the Jewish population was exterminated. Survivors of the Holocaust primarily settled in the United States and in Israel, though in other countries as well.

Beyond the deaths were the horrors of the concentration camps, the cruelty that was suffered for simple amusement, the disease, the forced labor, the medical experimentation, and the starvation. It's really easy just to default into thinking this horrific thing happened, and it was just one of those terrible things that happened. It just sort of randomly happened.

And we need to be really, really crystal clear that although the Holocaust stands at the very extreme end of this incredible oppression and this incredible and horrific attack and mass extermination of Jews, it sits at the far end. The Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum. The Holocaust was the culmination of thousands of years of ingrained anti semitism in Europe. Not only in Europe, but in this case, in Europe. Millennia of massacres of Jews.

My family came to the US to escape the pogroms in eastern Europe, where they would just kill jews and burn down villages, massacre and expulsions. The history of Jews, the history of being expelled, whether expelled from Israel by the Romans, whether expelled from Spain or Portugal or England, or whether expelled from middle eastern countries like Yemen, it's a history of massacre and expulsion.

And the Holocaust was in some ways, the culmination of those millennia of society tolerating hate against Jews, tolerating conspiracy theories against Jews, tolerating the same tropes that we hear today, that we heard a thousand years ago. And we hear today that Jews control everything, that Jews are trying to take everyone's money, that Jews are to blame for all of society's ills, the same tropes from 1000 years ago, we still hear today.

The horrors of the Holocaust have informed every jew's values and our deep sense of justice, of the need to protect those whose voices have been suppressed. As you will see, many of our honorees today are educators on the Holocaust, those who have done the work to ensure that these lessons do not die out. Colleagues, this year has been a trying one for the Jewish community. Antisemitism, which was already on the rise, is now at a fever pitch.

Many in our community never thought that we would see this level of hate again. It's a painful reminder. I want to thank all of you colleagues, so many colleagues who have stood in solidarity with us through these difficult times in the spirit of fostering a greater connection to remembering and honoring the Holocaust. We've placed on your desks a children's book that tells the story of a family that fled to America and of their grandmother who was unable to join them in that flight.

In addition, you will see a framed tweet from the Auschwitz memorial. These tweets commemorate. Each of them commemorates a victim of the Holocaust who shares a birthday with you. It's impossible to remember the names of all 6 million who died and the millions beyond, nor to meet every survivor. But we ask that you at least remember this one. We honor those whose names have been lost and may never be recovered.

And before I close, please join me in a moment of silence as we remember everyone who perished in the shoha.

Thank you. May their memory be a blessing. And I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Wiener. We'll begin with discussion and debate on SCR 135. I see microphones up from Senator Min and Rubio. Begin with Senator Min.

Thank you, Mister President. On behalf of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, I rise in support of SCR 135 to recognize Yom Hoshoa and to stand in solidarity with both the Jewish caucus and the Jewish community to recognize Holocaust Remembrance Day every year.

We acknowledge this important day, and I just want to reaffirm how important this is at this time and echo the comments of my colleague from San Francisco. He articulated the horrors of that event, something that we know can never happen again. And yet we also know that it can happen again if we forget the lessons that we learned from that time. And at a time when so many young people have forgotten those lessons, I think this day is really imperative.

We see a rise in authoritarianism, in hate, in anti semitism. Alarming rises here in America and around the world. And we must do more to continue educating people, future generations, about the horrors of the more than 6 million victims of the Holocaust. Our caucus, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, know the importance of standing together to reject racism, ethnic hatred, religious bigotry, and prejudice, to stop the propagation of these evils, to support human rights, and to ensure equal protection under the law.

I hope we all can draw inspiration from the resilience and courage of our Holocaust survivors in the Jewish community, whose stories serve as a beacon of hope in our pursuit of justice and peace. I respectfully ask for your support in supporting SCR 135. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Min. I have Senator Rubio, followed by Senator Smallwood-Cuevas. Senator Rubio.

Thank you, Mister President, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, today I rise in strong support of SCR 135. As a proud co author and as a Member of the California Legislative Jewish caucus. And it is my privilege to speak this afternoon also on behalf of the Latino caucus and the woman's caucus. Words cannot adequately describe the gravity and impact of the horrors that happened during the Holocaust.

Over 6 million Jewish people and over 5 million other people who were deemed racially inferior were murdered as part of a state sanctioned effort of annihilation. The Latino caucus and the Women's Caucus speak today with one voice to remember all those who are no longer with us. In particular, we speak on behalf of women and girls in concentration camps that were often subjected to forced labor, sexual coercion, sexual assault, and extermination. Today we recall not only these horrific acts.

But we also celebrate the countless instances of bravery, compassion, and humanity during those dark times. The University of Southern California's Show Up foundation, founded by Director Steven Spielberg, houses 55,000 audio and visual testimonies about the Holocaust, many from firsthand witnesses of those events. These testimonies are invaluable resources for educators and researchers, helping to ensure that future generations recognize that that even in the darkest moments, hope persisted.

Both the Legislative Women's Caucus and the Latino Legislative caucus stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and with all those who suffer directly or indirectly, during the Holocaust. Today, I'm happy that we are honoring survivors and educators as we know that education is key. The pain and suffering of that dark, horrific time caused generational trauma and we must never forget. We are here to share with the families, surviving families today that we stand with you and we support you. Together, we commit to remembering our history through education, understanding, and we need to stay vigilant. I urge an aye vote thank you.

Thank you, Senator Rubio. Next up is Senator Smallwood-Cuevas, followed by Senators Padilla Grove and Jones. Senator Smallwood Cuevas.

Thank you, Mister President, and good afternoon, colleagues. And I rise on behalf of the California Legislative Black Caucus in support of SCR 135 that observes Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance Day. As we recognize Yom Hashoah and the millions of lives of, and the millions of lives, particularly our Jewish loved ones, who were brutally murdered in the Holocaust, we must never forget the profound lessons, learn from this evil act of genocide and stand united against all forms of hatred and bigotry.

As a black woman whose ancestors were enslaved in this country, I'm deeply aware of the parallels between the Holocaust and historic struggles of black Americans and our two communities that have stood together for generations for justice in this country, a relationship that will and must continue in this 21st century and into the future. Just as the Jewish people experienced horrific violence and persecution in Nazi Germany, black people have endured the horrors of slavery, racial terror, oppression, and systemic racism in America.

In fact, it was the American practices of racism, oppression, and racialized terror that became a model for the Nazi Party. The party traveled to the American south to better learn how to run a nation with a legalized system of oppression with the goal of genocide. In the late 19th century and 20th century, America led the world in race based law making, essentially legalizing white supremacy, nationalism, and the dehumanization of black people.

Showing to the world how hate can be exported, US Congress passed immigration laws that guaranteed the entrance of immigrants, predominantly from northern European countries. While largely banning what Americans at the time deemed undesirables, like Jews and Asians and immigrants of ethnic descent. Thanks to the black freedom struggle, led in deep partnership with the Jewish community, these anti immigration laws were eventually reversed as part of the 1965 Civil Rights Act. Excuse me, 64 Civil Rights Act.

Meanwhile, Jim Crow segregation that had dominated much of the south, the north, and now we know California had established laws that denied black Americans their rights and created a system of division that our communities continue today. These lessons learned of the Holocaust help us understand that if we don't learn from our history, we are bound to repeat it.

And we have to know, as my good colleagues from Orange County said, that we are in a moment of an authoritarian rule that is perpetuating hate and put so many of our families in danger. We only need to look that after Hitler took power in 1933, that the Nazis used race based pseudoscience and eugenics to justify their persecution of the Jews. The Nuremberg laws that deprived Jews of their human rights were taken from the one drop rule used against black people in America.

Historic accounts like these remind us that we must always fight against bigotry. We must always stand against oppression. We must always denounce violence to ensure that atrocities never happen again. And decades later in the 20th century, black and Jewish communities in the US continue to work together in fighting against terrorizing hate, recognizing that that is the sole foundation for hope, the hope for a society of belonging, a hope for a society that is truly free and for a justice that covers all of us.

No matter your religion, no matter your race or creed. Today, in the 21st century, we have to lean in to the lessons of the past. We have to have the moral courage to transform our pain into peace and to turn bombs into tools of humanitarian that build our communities of brother and sisterhood. And that's why any acts of bloodshed and genocide, many, like the ones that we're experiencing around the world, must not be ignored. The terrible tragedy and pain of October 7 should never be forgotten.

And may the memory of the loved ones who are with us today from the Holocaust inspire us to strive for a world where peace prevails for the sake of all of our generations to come. As we recognize Holocaust Remembrance Day, let it serve as a beacon to guide us toward a future of greater compassion, inclusion, tolerance, and, most of all, love. Thank you. And I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Smallwood-Cuevas. Next up, Senator Padilla.

Thank you very much, Mister President. I rise today on behalf of the California Legislative LGBTQ caucus in support of SCR 135 California Holocaust Memorial Day.

Today, as has been said many times and could never be said enough, we remember those who lost their lives during the Holocaust and honor those who survived this heinous, unprecedented, and tragic attempt at extermination, along with our Jewish Members of our human family, who, it must be said and never forgotten, were the focus of the Holocaust and who have endured millennia of systematic oppression and displacement. Others were also targeted and persecuted in that terrible time, including the LGBTQ community.

In the 20th century, Hitler and the Nazi Party targeted gay men because they believed they were, quote, unfit to defend the nation in combat and would diminish German reproductive potential, unquote. In concentration camps, LGBTQ inmates were kept in separate facilities for fear that homosexuality would spread to other prisoners. Rudolf Brasda was one such survivor. He was interned in Buchenwald as pink triangle number 7952 until his liberation by us forces in 1945.

Before his passing in 2011, Brodstad was the last known concentration camp survivor to wear the pink triangle, the emblem homosexuals had to wear in the Holocaust, the LGBTQ equivalent of the yellow Jewish star. While he made it a point to share his story, the story of LGBTQ victims and survivors of the Holocaust is often omitted from all Holocaust literature and education.

In fact, it was not until 2002, in the early 21st century, that Germany acknowledged and apologized for the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis targeting the LGBTQ community. Today, we must spread awareness of Rudolf's story and many others like his. And we must also share this sad connection to our Jewish brethren persecuted in the Holocaust, especially those whose names, faces, and stories we will never know.

In that spirit, we reclaim and lift up the pink triangle as a symbol of perseverance and as a symbol of solidarity with the Jewish community. As we acknowledge the Holocaust at this time in history, we must also recognize that hate and antisemitism is still too much alive and present in our modern day society.

And above all, we must continue to stand in solidarity with other minority communities to collectively fight against anyone who claims their identity as supreme and for a free, equitable, and safe society and world for all. With that, I would respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Padilla. Senator Grove, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mister President. I too's rise in support of SCR 135. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically killed 6 million Jews, two thirds of the European Jewish population. My father, estranged as our relationship was, was a medic that served over in Germany and was assigned to Auschwitz. I can't even imagine what he witnessed, but I can tell you that what he witnessed as a young 21 year old medic in World War two haunted him until his death.

I can also tell you that my husband and I took a trip to Europe. And one of the things that the organization we went with took us to Poland, and we went to Birkenau, and we stood on the tracks where the trains dropped hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people off. Young families, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, children. We walked down the train tracks and we went.

The tour actually took us on the same route that they were taken from when they offloaded them off the trains. And the first room that you went into with all the glass so that you could see what the room actually looked like at that time, or as depicted, as good as well as possible at that time, was luggage and personal belongings, dishes, household things, suitcases.

And then the second room you went to was hundreds of thousands of pairs of shoes, adult shoes, children's shoes, worn out shoes, boots just stacked all the way to the ceiling. Then the next room that you went into was human hair, where they shaved everybody's head. You saw long blonde hair, long dark hair. You saw hair that was evidently just shavings from men's scalps. Then you saw hair that was put together with little ponytails or braids, where they also shaved children's hair.

I want to tell you, colleagues, that the next two rooms that I went into were just horrific. And I can tell you that going back to the hotel that night, I don't even think my husband and I said two words to each other. We just went to bed because it was so impactful to think that atrocities like that could be committed against another human being.

So I stand in support of SCR 135, and I really do believe that this resolution is more important than ever in light of the anti semitic protesters on college campuses over the last several months. The hatred towards Jewish students and the chance of genocide are all outrageous actions. Our Jewish students and faculty and Members, they don't feel safe on the college campuses anymore. And it's a moral failure of our school administrators and our own failure if we don't do anything about it.

This hate speech should not. It's hate speech, and it should be called out as such. Why aren't we ordering these college University leaders to come our Committee rooms and demanding them explore their tolerance on the events that are chants going on on their campuses about murder and harassment? If you think I'm being dramatic, I'm not. Just two weeks ago, a pro Hamas protester threatened to murder the Bakersfield City Council, one of my main cities.

She was arrested, put in jail, and got out on $1.0 million bail. That person is being held accountable for her accusations and her threats. Why aren't we doing the same for those that are threatening to kill our Jewish students and faculty? They're calling for their murder, and we're standing by and doing nothing about it. On October 7, Jewish people were attacked, killed, raped, kidnapped, and beaten, and some are still hostages. Just because they're Jewish? That's it. Just because they're Jewish. Mothers, fathers, children, babies.

There was no discrimination in age or anything. Again, attacked and beaten and murdered and kidnapped, raped, just because of their religion. If learning about the Holocaust is not required of each student in this state, it absolutely should be because of the profound ignorance and hatred coming from these student protests are shocking, and so much so in what we call a progressive state.

I want to thank the Senator from San Francisco who's been a vocal on this subject matter, who's been very vocal and in his own right. He's received many vile threats against him because of it. I also want to thank the Jewish legislative caucus for this framed photograph. If you didn't realize, they're all dated for the birthday of your birthday. So mine in particular. My birthday is March 18, and this is a photo of Edith Mueller, who was also born on March 18. So cherish that.

Put it in your office. I strongly support and urge you all to an aye vote on SCR 135. And may the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob divinely protect his people that have been his people since the beginning of time.

Thank you, Senator Grove, Senator Jones.

Thank you, Mister President and Senators and guests. I arise also to support strongly SCR 135 proclaiming May 6 as California Holocaust Memorial Day. As you have heard in the past, share my experience visiting the Holocaust memorial display traveling display at the San Diego County Del Mar Fair one year. Obviously, my stories don't come close to the experiences that our previous Senator shared actually being there.

But if you haven't been there and you have an opportunity to see the traveling display wherever you may be when it's on displays, I would strongly encourage you to do that this year. Holocaust Memorial Day carries an even deeper resonance for many of us here on the floor today. As we all know, after the horrific October 7 terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas on innocent Israel, Israeli civilians, anti Semitism across California, the US, and the world has skyrocketed.

Just last week, we saw stark examples of anti Semitism on college campuses in this country. That are reminiscent of the dark days of Nazi Germany. Jewish students faced harassment and were barred from campus, while cause for death of Jews echoed through the halls, causing many of our institutes of higher education in the United States of America to actually cancel their graduations.

Sinners and guests, think about that for a minute, that the anti Semitism has grown so severe in the United States of America that our colleges, our universities that are revered across the world.

Are actually having to cancel graduation ceremonies. Nearly 100 Jewish synagogues in California have received bomb threats this year alone. While anti semitism is becoming more prevalent since October 7, it's been growing in our communities for years. Just a few days ago in San Diego, county, we remembered the fifth anniversary of the Poway synagogue shootings in my district. Four innocent people were shot that day. An uncle and a niece, a rabbi shot in the hand trying to care for his flock. And Laurie Gilbert Kay lost her life.

I am sickened to see such blatant anti semitic behavior in modern America. That shooting that day, fortunately, and thank God, was stopped by an off duty US border Patrol officer that happened to be in the synagogue that day. While those four lives were impacted forever, hundreds of other and thousands, many more lives were impacted by that day as well. Senators, now more than ever, we must send a strong message that hate has no place in our country.

Many use the phrase never again when referring to the Holocaust, serving as a solemn promise to prevent the recurrence of such atrocities. Colleagues, never again is now. Now is the time to stand firm and condemn every manifestation of anti Semitism in all its insidious forms. They say those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Less than half of Americans know that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Less than half of Americans.

The numbers are even worse among millennials and Gen. Z. It is up to each of us to help educate the next generation. And I also want to thank the Jewish caucus for all of the presentations today and making sure that this is an annual remembrance that this body takes up every year. Because I can tell you, before I got elected to the Legislature, I didn't have a full understanding of this.

And it's thanks to this body and the Jewish caucus that have reaffirmed the importance to me that we never forget and never again. Therefore, on this Holocaust Memorial Day, I challenge each of us to take a moment to educate ourselves about the horrors of the past so that we may work towards ensuring never again remains an unwavering truth.

Let us honor the memory of 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust by committing ourselves to creating a world free of hatred where the light of tolerance and understanding guides our path forward. I ask for an aye vote on SCR 135.

Thank you, Senator Jones. Any further discussion, Members seeing none, Senator Wiener, you may close the debate.

Thank you very much, Mister President and colleagues. Thank you for the really powerful words today. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

On a vote of 33 to zero, the resolution is adopted. Members, we are joined today by some special guests we have returning here to the Senate. Let us recognize Senator Alan Lowenthal. Senator Marty Block. Senator Hannah Beth Jackson. Senator Robert Hertzberg. We are also joined by some special guests. Former Assembly Members are here in the House. Let's recognize Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield. Assemblymember Mike Fuhrer, Assemblymember John Perez, Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, Assemblymember Mark Levine. Assemblymember Adrian Nazarian, and Assemblymember Jose Medina. Welcome to the Senate.

We are now going to recognize Senator Wiener, who is going to introduce survivors and survivor descendants of the Holocaust. Recognizing the California Holocaust Memorial Day and the Jewish caucus's Yom Hashoah floor ceremony. Senator Wiener from the majority leaders desk.

Thank you very much, Mister President, colleagues, for recognizing a number of great leaders and educators today. And first, I have the honor of presenting to you our Superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond. Tony Thurmond has been a longtime supporter of Holocaust education and an ally to the the Jewish community. As Superintendent of public instruction, he's led the charge in ensuring that all of California's youth are learning comprehensive Holocaust education.

Of course, we all, many of us, served with Tony in the Legislature and work closely with him in his role as Superintendent. He is an alumnus, Member of our legislative Jewish Caucus, and a constant ally to our community. As co chair of the governor's Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education, he has done the hard work to ensure that California schools are meeting their obligations to teach our students about the past.

I serve on this council and have watched the care and thoughtfulness that he brings to these incredibly impactful discussions. At the California Department of Education, Tony has launched an oral history speaker series for Holocaust survivors. We know that today's youth will be the last generation to meet survivors of the Holocaust. And this program works with schools and school districts to ensure that we do not miss this moment in history. Please join me in thanking and welcoming Superintendent of public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

Members, we're going to take individual pictures and then we'll invite all Members of the Senate to join a group photo at the end. Senator Becker, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Members. And I'll mention that my family also escaped pogroms and my grandfather coming here was 14. But not all of his family was so fortunate. Today I have the great honor of presenting Leah Fenster Williams Wells who lives in my district in Palo Alto. Leah is a Holocaust survivor, born in Berlin in 1938.

Following the harrowing events of Kristallnacht, which was the breaking of the glass of the destruction destroying of Jewish homes and businesses, Leah and her family fled their homeland, securing passage from Genoa, Italy to Shanghai, China. Lived in a refugee camp known as the Communal Association of Central European Jews in Shanghai for approximately 10 years. Leah's grandparents and their family chose to stay in Berlin and suffered tremendous losses. Sadly, most of them died during the Holocaust, getting found while hiding and taken to concentration camps.

Leah's aunt Lydia was in Auschwitz for approximately one year. She survived the death march and lived underneath bodies for days until a Nazi soldier saw her and miraculously helped her escape. We're just so fortunate to have Leah here with us today to be that living history for all of us. I want to thank her daughter Wendy. And we have a whole family, four generations with us. Earlier. Please join me in honoring Leah.

Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Mister President. Colleagues. Our next honoree unfortunately woke up ill this morning. So she is here in spirit and she is truly a force. And so we miss her. Doctor Anita Friedman is widely acclaimed for her expertise on Holocaust and genocide education. Like Superintendent Thurman, she's a co chair of the governor's council on Holocaust and genocide education. In addition, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that she is a champion who spearheaded the creation of the council.

She's also the Executive Director of Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma counties, which provides critical services. The Holocaust survivors operates the JFCS Holocaust center critical education resource and archive, and also oversees the California Teachers collaborative for Holocaust and genocide education. She's the editor of Rivka's Diary, now translated into 15 languages and the subject of a forthcoming film. And she's also currently a Member of the board of counselors of the USC Shoah foundation. So thank you, Doctor Anita Friedman.

Senator Allen.

Thank you, Members. As was mentioned by our, by the good Senator from San Francisco, so many, we were losing so many survivors. This whole event is getting smaller and smaller every year since we were involved with this. In the early days of the Jewish caucus, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate somebody whose beautiful photograph is in your booklets. Her name is Mary Bauer and she's in 96. She wanted to come up, but she just ultimately wasn't well enough to come up for the ceremony.

She lives down in Los Angeles, but she is, she's watching today's ceremony virtually. She was born in 1927 in Budapest, Hungary. She was an only child, yet she never felt alone because of the closeness of her extended family. Until her teenage years, she lived a happy and well to do life, focused on her schooling and the simple joys of youth, and largely insulated from the horrors unfolding across German occupied Europe.

However, the rise of Nazi Germany led to exceedingly limiting anti Jewish laws and measures in Hungary, and they worsened when Nazi forces occupied her hometown of Budapest. In 1944, when she was just 16 years old, her father was suddenly taken by soldiers and was never seen again. Shortly thereafter, even as allied forces landed on the Beaches of Normandy and Nazi Germany, their days became numbered. Mary, her mother, her grandparents, along with nearly 450,000 hungarian Jews, were deported to Auschwitz without notice.

One of the wildest things about this whole story is that the Nazi German machine was so focused on killing as many jews as possible that they would take trains that were supposed to supply their own troops on the Russian front and on the French front to focus on this mass slaughter. Such was the sickness of these people. She would see her grandparents for the final time upon arrival at the concentration camp that was mentioned by our colleague.

In the following months, Mary was forced to weave the shorn hair of fellow prisoners into items for the nazi war effort. She recalls that practically every day she would witness someone perish beside her in the barracks. The young girls would promise each other that if they survived their subjugation, they would dedicate their lives to sharing their stories in educating the world as to the horrors that had transpired.

It was not until the spring of 1945, after she and her mother endured the famous death marches following the evacuation of Auschwitz, that they were liberated by the Russian army. And five years after the end of the war, Mary immigrated to Los Angeles, settling in the wonderfully diverse neighborhood of Boyle Heights. She learned English at Fairfax High School, met her husband at a social event just off Sunset Boulevard not long after, and she's now a resident of West Hollywood, my district. She has two grown children.

She continues to be an active and cherished Member of the Los Angeles and Jewish communities. She's well known at the Museum of the Holocaust in Los Angeles. And just this past December, I met her for the first time when we were having a gathering that included survivors of the October 7 attacks in Israel and relatives of the hostages taken by Hamas that day.

As you might imagine, the discussion was profoundly moving, deeply emotionally, and by far the most powerful moment of the morning was when young Ella, who at age 14 talked of her experiences, barricaded in her room at the kibbutz for hours and hours on end. It was by happenstance and basic luck and the attackers giving up on trying to get into her shelter room that she survived.

And then she was rushed out of her house about 32 hours into the ordeal, stepping over family Members, their bodies, pools of blood. During that event, Mary jumped up. She'd been sitting in the back, hadn't said a word. And she came up to Ella, and they realized they were just about the same age that Mary was, just about the same age when she was deported to Hungary as Ella was when she experienced this terrible act of violence and depravity. They embraced in front of us.

It was a very powerful moment of shared pain, of this heritage that had been passed down. I ended up spending several more hours with Mary. Afterwards, she took me around the museum. She talked about her own experiences, all that which I've described. She told me specifically about the promise that she made to the other young women that they'd all made together in the barracks, that they were. They promised each other, if we get out of here, we're going to spend our entire lives telling this story.

And that's exactly what Mary has done. She's devoted herself to the Holocaust museum. She is a talkative, cheerful, bright, inquisitive, engaging tour guide who has told the story of her experience and the story of the Holocaust to countless young people from all over the Los Angeles region, students who come to visit the museum, and they're able to experience this terrible history through her eyes and ask her questions, and she's so open to them and so engaging. So it was.

I was very anxious to bring Mary up here today after my wonderful day with her at the museum. Sad that she wasn't able to make it, but I know she's watching us here today from her home, and she's a very, very special person who deserves our honor today.

I'd next like to recognize Morgan Blum Schneider. Morgan has been an instrumental leader in the development and success of Jewish Family and Children's Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco. As Director since 2005, Morgan has published articles and appeared in the press on topics such as the patterns of genocide, best practices for teaching the Holocaust, and the future of Holocaust education in the post survival era.

She's deeply invested in the California education system, often serving as advisor to school districts, California legislators, and civic leaders on Holocaust and genocide education, confronting anti semitism, and best practices for teaching about the Holocaust. She's currently on the advisory board of the Genocide Education Project and helps manage the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide education. Please join me in honoring Morgan Blum Snyder.

Senator Rubio at the majority leader's desk.

Thank you, Mister President. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, today I have the honor of introducing Steve Zimmer. Steve Zimmer recently stepped down from his position as deputy Superintendent of public instructions instruction at the California Department of Education to join the community schools team at Los Angeles County Office of Education. Anyone that knows Steve knows he's dedicated a lifetime to service, in particular education. Steve has been a trusted ally and champion of Jewish policies.

This includes his work to support the governor's Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education. As a Member of the governor's council, I have the privilege of working with Steve. His knowledge of the California school system is key in implementing a first of its kind survey to track Holocaust education across our state. Steve has also previously served from 2009 to 2017 as a trustee on the Los Angeles Unified School District and board of directors. In that role, he worked on programs to increase education and awareness.

As stated many times before, education is key. And so he's brought forward other important tragic events that we must remember, such as the American genocide, I'm sorry, Armenian genocide. Please, Members, help me welcome Steve Zimmer to the California State Senate.

And finally, let's recognize Senator Becker from the majority leader's desk.

Thank you. This is our final honoree. And what we are able to see now is that the children of survivors are involved in this education in many different ways. And our last honoree is the son of an Auschwitz survivor. Roger Grunwald took that experience and created the Mitzvah Project a theatrical education program presented at educational institutions and communities across America. The three part program engages sociology, historical questions such as who decides the meaning of culture, race, and ethnicity? Why do we demonize each other?

The presenter segues to American history and examines the role that, as we heard from our colleague from Los Angeles, the role that America's Jim Crow laws played in providing a model for the Nuremberg laws of the Nazis. They go on to explore the failed insurrection of January 6, our nation's capital, and its connection to the recent upsurge in white supremacism, and the ways in which prejudice, in many forms, is manifesting most tragically in our schools. Friends, Members, please join me in honoring Roger Grunwald.

We would now like to invite Members of the Senate to join the honorees in a group picture, if you wish, in the back of the chambers.

Can we have all the honorees front and center so we can have you with your plaques facing the photographer that. Okay, everyone looking this way, please. Thank you very. Thank you all very much. And congratulations to the honorees. Members, we have more business to conduct. Please return to your seats, please. We're next going to. Under privileges of the floor, we're going to recognize Senator Skinner. I'll wait a moment.

Okay, Members, we're next going to turn to Senator Skinner at the majority leader's desk for an important announcement. Senator Skinner, please give her your attention.

Thank you. Members, this is a loud mic. Whoo. The town is in the house. I ask that you welcome the California State basketball champion teams from Oakland High and Oakland Tech high schools. I think by now, since I have interested, introduced different Oakland high school teams on this floor for four years in a row, that when it comes to high school basketball, Oakland is the town of champions. So over the last four years, as I mentioned, high school teams in Oakland wonder seven state championships.

The last time I brought to the Senate Floor two high school championship teams, the Oakland Tech girls and the Oakland High boys. But this year we learned the opposite. We've got the state champion boys team from Oakland Tech and the state champion girls team from Oakland High. You can clap again. And what an amazing year both of these teams had in the court. Let's start with Oakland High girls Wildcats. This is their second state title in the past four seasons.

And in their division five championship game, Oakland High Wildcats defeated Montgomery High of San Diego 56 to 50. The Wildcats were led by senior sensation dejatigue, who nearly pulled off a triple double, scoring 15 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and dishing seven assists. Ojibu Igonu added 15 points. So I gotta look over here. And Tylianna Velasquez scored 43 pointers. Now for our Oakland Tech Bulldogs. This was their first ever state title.

The Tech Bulldogs have been a great team for many years, but their crosstown rivals, the Oakland Highboys, took last year's title from them. Bulldogs coach Carriga Hart, who is with us today, compared the Oakland Tech and the Oakland High rivalry as kind of like Duke in North Carolina. The atmosphere is always electric. In this year's division two championship game, the Tech Bulldogs trounced Centennial High School of Bakersfield 79 to 55.

The Tech Bulldogs were led by Ardarius Grayson, the Oakland Athletic League player of the year, who scored 20 points in the game, and Caleb Rollins also had 20 points, and Ahmed Gulade added 16. The Bulldogs wowed the crown with quick crowd with quick passes and electrifying finishes at the bucket. By game's end, the trademark chant of all the school was being yelled OT. OT echoed throughout the crowd. Standing with me are the starting five players of each team, along with their head coaches.

And from Oakland High, we have head coach Nita Simpson, Deja Teague, Ojugo Igonu, Tyliana Velasquez, Kyla Smith and remember Chitt. And from Oakland Tech, we have coach head coach Carriga Hart, Lee Kariga. And the players are Darius Grayson, Ahmed Gulade, Zan Meyer Pletner, Asher Kramer and Sadiq Alaresh. The rest of the player and the coaches from the teams are in the gallery. And then let me wrap it up with these champions. Not only excelled on the court, their seniors are going to college this fall.

For the Oakland high girls, dejatigue is deciding between Howard, Cal and UC San Diego. Arela Buena Vista was accepted to northeastern with a full ride scholarship. She's also figuring out between UC San Diego and UC Irvine. Unique Robinson was accepted to Drake University, Cal State East Bay and Cal State Northridge. And for the Tech boys, Asher Kramer, going to the University of Michigan, Dylan Lux, UC Berkeley and Demerius Grayson to Los Medanos.

So let me end with a quote from co Tart in the City of Oakland, we have had a lot of rough times. To be able to celebrate and shine a positive light on Oakland means a lot because there are a lot of good things going on in Oakland. Amen to that. Congratulations again to both teams. Go, Wildcats. Go, Bulldogs. Go, Oakland.

Congratulations to both teams. We may call Senator Skinner back to give that chant one more time.

Congratulations again. And a shout out to Asher Kramer in the back. All right. All right, Members, we're going to continue with the business of the Senate. Messages from the Governor will be deemed read. Messages from the Assembly will be deemed read, reports of Committee will be deemed read, and amendments adopted. Under motions, resolutions and notices without objection. The Senate journals for April 22, 2024 through April 25, 2024 will be approved as corrected by the minute Clerk.

All right, Members, we're going to move on to consideration of the daily file. Everybody's ready for that. We'll begin with second reading, please. Secretary, please read Senate concurrent Resolution 101, 104. Senate Bill 1178 with amendments 1306, with amendments 1140.

The second reading file will be deemed read. Members, we're going to have. We have one item under Senate third reading. This is file item 49, SCR 100 by Senator Nguyen. She's prepared. Secretary, please read.

Senate concurrent Resolution 100. By Senator Nguyen, relative to Black April Memorial Month.

Senator Nguyen, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President. Today I rise to present Senate concurrent Resolution 100. SCR 100 recognizes the month of April, 2024 as Black April Memorial Month and marks April 30, 2024 as the 49th anniversary of the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. For many Vietnamese, Vietnamese Americans and Vietnam veterans, the cost of the war was immense. In total, the United States and South Vietnamese army armed forces lost over half a million troops in the war, along with 800,000 troops who were wounded in combat.

Of those were 58,000 American soldiers and many of my families, including my uncle, an officer of the South Vietnam army, who was executed days before Saigon fell. Millions of Vietnamese civilians suffered casualties as a result of the extended conflict and the chaos that consumed the country in the following days. After the fall of Saigon, millions of Vietnamese families, including mine, fled Vietnam for surrounding areas abroad. Small wooden boats before finding our way to the United States.

California is home to over half a million Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans. More specifically, my district, which is home to Little Saigon and the largest Vietnamese residence outside of Vietnam. We must continue to remember and teach our children the lessons that came from the Vietnam War, including the flight of the Vietnamese refugees following the end of the war and the fight for democracy and freedom.

Stories like mine and my family fleeing from Vietnam as a young child in search for freedom serves as a reminder why we must remember Black April and the sacrifices for freedom and democracy. Black April Memorial Month is a time for Vietnamese Americans communities throughout California to remember the lives lost during the Vietnam War, learn their stories, and rededicate themselves to the principle of freedom and democracy that endure even in the worst circumstances. At this time, I would also like to say a few words in Vietnamese. ... at this time, I respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Nguyen. I see microphones up from Senator Umberg, Newman and Min. We'll begin with Senator Umberg.

Thank you, Mister President and colleagues. I have the distinct honor of representing a large Vietnamese population since 1990, represented little Saigon, and have been privileged to see that community grow every way possible. And I want to thank my colleague from Huntington Beach for bringing this forward. April 30 marks the end of one of the most devastating conflicts in modern history. American soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, blood was shelled with our Vietnamese comrades in arms and the pursuit of freedom.

It's a time of mourning in a time of remembrance, not just for the lives lost, but also for the sacrifices of the Vietnamese people in their historic struggle for freedom and human rights, which continues today.

It's critically important for those, I think, of Vietnamese heritage to know that struggle, know of the 500,000 people who left Vietnam, so many of them killed leaving Vietnam, so many of those folks, sometimes known as boat people, coming here to the United States again in pursuit of freedom, but not just for the children and the grandchildren, the great grandchildren of those who sacrificed so much to come to United States and those who sacrificed so much in Vietnam, but also for all Californians.

It's appropriate that the California State Senate recognize that that struggle, because we're all enriched. We're all enriched from those who have come from Vietnam, who've made that sacrifice. We're enriched culturally, politically, economically, gastronomically. We are so grateful for those who have sacrificed to come here to enrich our lives. I join my colleague from Huntington Beach in urging, an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Umberg, Senator Newman.

Thank you, Mister President. I, too, rise in support of SCR 100. My State Senate district includes large and active Vietnamese communities in the cities of Stanton and Anaheim. As my colleagues from Orange County have noted, for Vietnamese, California's estate marks the fall of Saigon and the beginning of an often long and challenging journey away from the country they loved. And unlike most annual remembrances, this is not a celebratory day.

Rather, it's a sad day, a day to remember and honor the approximately quarter of a million Members of the South Vietnamese army who died defending their nation, as well as the nearly 60,000 American soldiers who lost their lives in that conflict. As well as my colleagues from Orange County have noted, the black in black April symbolizes the pain, suffering and defeat of Vietnamese refugees as they fled their nation in the aftermath of Saigon's historic fall.

In the words of USC Professor and author Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose Pulitzer Prize winning novel the Sympathizer is now a hit series on Netflix. For Members of the Vietnamese diaspora, April was a month that meant everything to all the people in our small part of the world and nothing to most people in the rest of the world.

In the cities of North Orange County, in the vibrant communities created by Vietnamese refugees, their children and their children's children, Black April means a great deal, and I'm proud as one of the representatives to the Senate to stand with them in remembering the sacrifice and suffering that the fall of Saigon visited upon them, as well as to commend and salute them for their courage and their resilience and for the invaluable contributions Vietnamese Californians have made and continue to make to our region and to our great state. I thank my colleague from Huntington Beach for bringing this measure forward, and I respectfully urge your aye vote today.

Thank you, Senator Newman. Senator Min.

Thank you, Mister President. I guess I want to echo the comments of my colleagues from Orange County and thank my colleague from Huntington Beach for bringing this forward. On behalf of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, I, too, rise and support SCR 100 to recognize Black April Memorial Month. As has been stated, this is a sad dedication.

The name itself, Black April Memorial Month, symbolizes the pain, suffering, and defeat of Vietnamese refugees as they fled their nation during Saigon's historic fall to communism on April 301975 after the fall of Saigon, it was estimated that as many as 125,000 Vietnamese left the country, with an additional 112,000 fleeing through operation new life and Operation Babylift.

Out of the 112,000 Vietnamese that left the country, over 90,000 of them came here to the United States, with many of them settling in California and many of those settling within Orange County in places like Westminster and Garden Grove. In fact, Westminster in 2019 was the first city in the United States to recognize this particular memorial week. And we, of course, benefit from the contributions of our vibrant Vietnamese community.

As of 2022, 40% of the Vietnamese population in the United States lives in California, with around 200,000 of those living in the Little Saigon region. We are all better off, I think, with the Banh mi, the pho, but also the cultural contributions of our Vietnamese community. And I just want to also, as a point of privilege, recognize the importance of symbolizing this day. This was a dark day in our history. It was a time when Us troops, our intervention was not successful.

We saw the success of communism here and the unfortunate results of that. And at a time when we see authoritarianism around the world coming to the fore, when the United States and our intervention in foreign policy is often questioned, I think it's really, really important that we recognize our own history. As a son of Korean immigrants who also were able to fight off communism, I think this is important to recognize. So I ask for your support in joining me in supporting SCR 100. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Min. All debate having ceased. Senator Nguyen, you may close.

Thank you, Mister President. I also want to recognize all the American troops from the Vietnam War who came back home here in America at that time. They weren't honored, nor were they recognized. And I wanted to say to them, thank you. Welcome home. Because of what they've done, it gave an opportunity for a young girl who fled Vietnam with my family as boat people, who has been given a chance to come to this country, spoke no English, was poor.

I mean, I was on food stamps, welfare, you name it. And 30 years later, I get to step and come to this floor as a state Senator. Only in America can that happen. Only in America. And so I'm so grateful because of those who have fought in that war and those who believe in freedom of democracy, which led for someone like me to come here. If not, I would not be here. And I won't be alive.

The scarf that I'm wearing today symbolizes the South Vietnam army. And this is our country, the flag that we lost. And so I want to honor my uncle. Half of our family vanish. My dad, who served in the South Vietnam army as well. And so thank you. And I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Nguyen. This is eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objections, ayes 32, noes 0. The resolution is adopted. Members, we're going to return now to motions and resolutions. We have two adjourn in memory. The first one up is Senator Durazzo. Senator Durazzo, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister President. It was with heavy heart I ask that we adjourn the memory of a dear friend and a longtime social justice champion, Peter Shea. He passed away in April at 77 years old, Peter was destined to become a social justice advocate. He was born in South Africa to parents who fled Germany, his father himself having been social justice advocate as a Jewish anti Nazi organizer.

The Shea family eventually found their way to California, and Mister Shea went on to later attend UC Berkeley and subsequently the California Western School of Law in San Diego. Following graduation, he got his start at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego as a legal representative primarily for Low income people. A trailblazer, Peter embarked into the advocacy space, being the founder of the first National Immigrant Support center, the National Immigrant Law center, in 1978.

He served as legal counsel in the 1982 Pleyler v. Doe, a landmark Supreme Court decision that found states cannot deny children access to public education, regardless of status. Peter also served as counsel on Flores v. Reno, an early nineties case that established minimum national standards for the treatment of detained immigrant children. Arguably the brightest highlight of his professional life, Peter served as lead counsel on the successful case that overturned California's infamous Proposition 187 in 1994.

As a result of his efforts here, having extended beyond his efforts, extended beyond the immediate battle of the Proposition, as the mobilization around this Proposition contributed towards greater civic engagement and voter participation increased enormously within the Latino community. In addition to his highly publicized efforts, Peter's compassion for others was portrayed through how he would offer smaller acts of kindness to this less fortunate in his community. He ventured on to take on other legal efforts.

This past year, he traveled to Tanzania to advocate on behalf of the United nations. The maasai herders displaced big game hunters. Mister Hsieh's legacy is one that will be remembered in our community for generations to come. When speaking about his loss, many sentiments were shared. Los Angeles based father Richard Estrada simply said, we lost an icon of human rights. US Senator Padilla referred to him as a trailblazer for the constitutional rights of immigrants. As an organizer in the garment worker industry, I met Peter.

There was a common practice at that time for immigration to just drive up in their vans, their famous green vans, and just drive up, walk into a factory and literally raid it, sending everybody running, both citizen legal residents as well as undocumented. That was a common practice that employers would use to keep workers afraid of reporting any kind of wage theft and other illegal working conditions.

He challenged that practice and won the case, which then forced employers to have the I immigration ins known at that time to have a specific warrant with specific names of anyone that they wished to be arrested. That then was applied to immigrants as well. We lost him. We remember him. His spirit will remain in our hearts. Rest in power. You will be. Never will you be forgotten. Thank you for what you have done for our communities. Thank you. And I ask you to adjourn in his memory.

Thank you. Senator Durazzo. The Senate extends its condolences to the many friends and family of Mister Shea. Please bring his name forward so he can be properly memorialized in the journal and that we may adjourn in his memory. Next up, we'd like to recognize Senator Grove.

Thank you, Mister President. Colleagues, today I would like to ask you all to adjourn in the memory of Ray Misha, a world war two veteran from Kern. County. Ray had an infectious smile and he brought joy to everyone, everywhere, all the time. He was known for his friendliness, his wild red scooter, where you needed to get out of the way very quickly. His character and his service for his country and his community.

Re enlisted in the United States army in 1941 at the age of 17, where he served until he was on honorably discharged due to an injury. Then he came to California to pursue a higher education, earning a degree in business and mortuary science. Ray moved to Bakersfield in 1947 and worked for two local mortuaries. And in 1960, he opened his first funeral home. He would be the first of many that established throughout the years of his service.

Ray credited his success to this business, to his business motto that he lived by and taught every one of his employees. Never ask a family to spend more than they can afford, never cheat a family, never be dishonest, and never, ever turn away anyone who could not afford a funeral for their loved one. Ray also went on to help form an honor guard through the American Legion with the help of more than a dozen other Legion Members.

And they became the first volunteer veterans to organize the ongoing honor guard that we have in Kern County for veteran burials in Kern. county. In Kern, county, paying tribute to those who gave their all during service or after. Ray was an amazing man, a pillar in our community, and the loss of his life was felt by many throughout our district. He passed away on April 3. He was just a few weeks away from celebrating his 100th birthday. I know.

The Gates of Heaven opened wide when Ray wheeled in on a scooter. He is survived by his wife, his two children, and his son and daughter. Please join me in remembering this wonderful man who served our country and served our community in so many ways. Mister Ray Mish. Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you. Senator Grove. Senate extends its condolences to the many friends and family of Mister Mish. Please bring his name forward so he can be properly memorialized in the Senate Journal and that we may adjourn in his memory. Members, we're going to turn next to Committee announcements. We have one to make today. Senator Blakespear. Yes.

Thank you. The LOSSAN Rail corridor Subcommitee will meet in room 113 immediately after the close here.

Room 113 immediately after the adjournment of the Senate. If there's no other business before the Senate, Senator Grove, the desk is clear.

Thank you, Mister President. Colleagues, the Senate will be in recess until 03:30 p.m. This afternoon when an adjournment motion will be made. We will reconvene on Thursday at 09:00 a.m. Enjoy the rest of your week.

The Senate will be adjourned. We will reconvene Thursday at 09:00 a.m. It.