1. The state Senate passed legislation that would allow physicians in California to help terminally ill people end their lives, the Mercury News$ reports. The vote on the right-to-die bill was mostly along party lines, with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. The legislation now goes to the Democrat-controlled Assembly for approval. If the bill is signed into law, California will join Oregon, Vermont, and Washington in passing right-to-die legislation. Court rulings in New Mexico and Montana also have allowed aid-in-dying.
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3. A judge ruled that the state legislature must publicly release the official calendars of two former state Senators — Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, and Ron Calderon, D-Montebello — who were forced from office because of public corruption scandals, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. The newspaper chain, along with its sister papers in Los Angeles, sued to get access to Lee and Calderon’s calendars, which the state legislature had claimed were not public records.