Invocation: Paster Chandler
Flag Salute: Lizette Patterson
Good News & Announcements
This Pandemic threw President Ken a bone in the form of a District 5240 award for "Best Online Meeting Experience". Hopefully the first and last of this type of award. Congratulations Ken, you deserve it!
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Mini Kenny finally ran out of words of wisdom, so President Ken switched to "Ginger Facts". Below are the dubious results of the research:
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Mark Barnes was showing real Rotarian Spirit by wearing his Rotarian pin for a recent KGET interview.
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As if President Ken's head wasn't big enough, CSUB's Dr. Zelezny thanked him for his tireless efforts as the Chair of the Ambassadors Advisory Committee. Their swag bag put the Rotarian grocery sack to shame.
Dave Morton shared some good news-bad news. The bad news is some goobers celebrated an event by releasing a bunch of mylar balloons, which in turn got ensnared in some electrical lines which blew out their transformer. The good news is they use Grapevine Technology, which saved the day and got their technology back up and running toot sweet.
Sue Benham gave the "Little Begging Ginger" his first (and probably only) gift. A bottle of BBQ sauce from her cross-country road trip with her husband Herb.
Nik Boone announced that he has a new baby girl. Congratulations Nik!
Past President Garro gave out some awards LIVE this time.
Mary Castaneda received a Certificate of Appreciation for all of her behind-the-scenes hard work.
And for some unknown reason, I won Rotarian of the Year. I'm getting a chain made for it so I can wear it around my neck Flava Flav style.
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The program
Kathy Abernathy introduced Senator Shannon Grove as our speaker. Not only is she an Army vet, but she's also a Downtown Rotarian!
Probably because Shannon is a career politician, she has learned how to talk really fast. I imagine that's because a politician has to cram as much information as they can into the smallest amount of time. Think, pitching the governor on a new bill, or a news interview. So, combined with the fact I write really slow, the resulting report below may not only be inaccurate, it's definitely incomplete.
Here goes nothing:
Republicans are trying to pass a bill to find out why the governor still has emergency executive powers. When authority was given it was supposed to be for 14 days. He still ordering 400 days later!
Some stuff Dems want:
Late start for school children. Let them roll in around 8:30. That way they can stay up later playing video games and watching TikTok videos.
(Shannon didn't actually say that, but she made me think she wanted to say it.)
SB-57 is a bill that provides Safe Areas for addicts to shoot up. Taxpayer-funded, these sites will reduce the danger of injecting drugs by proving sterile needles and staff to respond to overdoses.
Dems want to pass a bill that eliminates Boys and Girls sections in retail stores. Like, it's not hard enough shopping for grandkids.
Another bill would disallow religious hospitals like Mercy and Adventist Health to work with UC Systems because of their stance against things like sterilization, sex changes, and abortions.
Regarding workman's comp, they pushed a bill through that made COVID-19 a "presumptive" disease. This means if an employee comes down with COVID, it's presumed they got it from work (without proof), therefore, they can apply for Workman's comp. Doesn't matter that they attended a maskless dinner party at the French Laundry the previous week. Republicans managed to have it amended so that it won't affect business owner's Mod rates.
Cal OSHA was weaponized under new COVID guidelines, handing out fines and sanctions like a Costco sample server.
Dems want to decriminalize hallucinogenic. Should make impaired driving interesting.
I stopped writing at this point and googled how to become a citizen of Turks and Caicos Island.
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