There is exciting news this week in the world of California legislative publications that you can get for free (admittedly, as a resident, this world isn’t that large)… the arrival of the 2016 edition of California’s Legislature from the Assembly Chief Clerk’s office.
The core of the book is the hundreds of pages of in-depth information about legislative process and history (there were 1,474 regular session bills chaptered in the year that Speaker Rendon was born, while there were exactly zero in the year fmr Speaker Atkins was born) and the history of the Capitol (there is a fascinating comparison of downtown Sacramento under the back cover).
New to this edition is a quick information guide including statistics on California’s largest cities and counties, an updated 27-page glossary of legislative terms (which omits the ever-popular “Legislative Bingo”, probably because it isn’t actually a legislative term), and a 1930s photo of a particularly smug-looking Governor Rolph standing next to a stack of books containing the pardons, commutations and reprieves that he had granted.
Those who remain unsatisfied can dive into the luxurious 111 pages of appendices that include information ranging from the sessions of the California Legislature (the shortest was the 60-minute 1st Extraordinary Session of December 1973) to the history of the flags that have flown over California (including the flag raised by a pirate who captured Monterey for a little over two weeks in 1818).
