SACRAMENTO – On January 5, during one of the first days of the 2017 State Assembly’s Regular Session, Asm. Jim Wood honored the life of Judge Harold E. Neville, Jr. by adjourning in his memory. Judge Neville died December 6, 2016. He served as one of the most respected judges in Humboldt County for many years.

“Judge Neville was a larger-than-life personality,” said Asm. Jim Wood, who represents Humboldt County. “I was proud to honor Judge Neville and the positive impact he had on so many people.”

SACRAMENTO – Today Speaker Anthony Rendon announced the reappointment of Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) as chair of the Assembly Health Committee.

“I am grateful to be given the privilege of continuing to serve as chair of the Assembly Health Committee,” said Wood. “We tackled some difficult issues last session, and working with our colleagues from across the aisle, we tightened restrictions on the sale of tobacco to young people, protected consumers from unwarranted billing when receiving care from in-network health care providers, increased children’s access to preventive health care and mental health services, improved access to investigational drugs for seriously ill patients and improved food safety, to name a few.”

SACRAMENTO – On Friday Assemblymember Jim Wood’s (D-Healdsburg) legislation to improve access to broadband technology, AB 1549, was signed by the Governor.

This bill requires the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to notify companies and organizations working on broadband deployment, such as the Redwood Coast Connect Consortium and the Broadband Alliance of Mendocino County, of projects that involve construction methods suitable for installing broadband conduit and to place these notifications on the Caltrans website. It also allows interested companies and organizations to collaborate with Caltrans to install broadband conduit as part of each project. In addition, Caltrans, beginning in 2018, must develop guidelines to facilitate the installation of broadband conduit on state highway rights-of-way.

Sacramento – Today AB 72 by Assemblymembers Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), Rob Bonta (D-Alameda), Susan Bonilla (D-Concord), Brian Maienschein (R-San Diego), Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), and Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) was signed by the Governor. Beginning January 1, 2017, this law will protect patients from the unfair practice of receiving surprise bills for healthcare when it was provided, unknowingly to the patient, by providers outside their health plan’s network.