Hi All,

Well the water heater retrofit bill made it through the first Assembly Committee meeting with 6 ayes and 2 no's. Believe me, that's far better than I expected.

It took two e-mails before I finally got a response from my local Assemblyman and he lives in the same town I do. But he did finally write and said when it got to his committee he would be keeping his eyes out for it. Mind you, he didn't say he would vote for it. Real nice.

While the mapping program above needs urgent attention, there is another which has not been finished yet. Next to it is the Alquist Priolo Act. As I understand it when it was adopted it got filtered down twice and ended up in the hands of the USGS who has no money to finish the map program. So as long as that is the case millions of California's will continue to be told they do not live in seismic risk zones, without advising them the maps are not finished.

I will send the necessary e-mails, however, one has to expect not to receive anything other than an auto response unless you live in their district and threaten not to re-elect them.

Going a little off topic here, I'd like to say something really good about Governor Gray Davis. Though he is not the most liked Governor this state has ever had, he has done something which I believe is extremely important. He created Healthy Families which provides medical, dental and vision coverage for families who cannot afford medical coverage for their children. For $9.00 per month children can have all of the full benefits one might enjoy on an employee based program, but not at $200.00 a month. It means kids all over this state can receive quality medical care with only a $5.00 co-payment. If he did nothing else during his term I think this program is exemplary.

Petra