News Articles

Friday, August 16, 2019

 

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019

A proposed California tax credit to attract productions that leave a state that’s implementing fetal heartbeat anti-abortion legislation has cleared a key hurdle in the State Senate.

The bill, which would cover five years with a $50 million annual allocation, was approved by Senate Governance and Finance Committee and is now headed to the Fiscal Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Wednesday, August 7, 2019

California’s newly named film commissioner is thinking big.

Colleen Bell wants to expand the state’s production tax credit program beyond its current annual allocation of $330 million — which was tripled in size in 2014 to compete effectively with New York and Georgia, then extended a year ago to 2025 with a credit of up to 25% of qualified expenditures spent in California.

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Friday, July 26, 2019

San Fernando Valley veterans were fêted at a luncheon on Tuesday at the Orange Grove Bistro at Cal State Northridge. Four San Fernando Valley Assembly members co-hosted the event, including Laura Friedman, D-43rd District; Jesse Gabriel, D-45th District; Adrin Nazarian, D-46th District; and Luz Rivas, D-39th District.

The veterans honored for their distinguished service included Gary William Aggas, Harold Bahrke, David Chianello, Robert ‘Chef Bob’ Gale, Maria Luisa Hernandez, Joe Lozano, Mark MacCarley, Ethel Margolin, Steve Pierce, Oscar Stein, Dan Stepenosky, Nancy Sumner, Carol Ann Van Natten and Leon Waldman. Two veterans, Roscoe Frazier and Richard Kinder, were unable to attend but also received the special resolutions from the state legislature for their military service.

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Friday, June 28, 2019

A science museum in Sylmar will get a $5 million cut of the state budget to build an exhibit to teach children about what can be done to help fight climate change, a local assemblywoman said Friday.

The allocation in the budget just signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom benefits the Discovery Cube Los Angeles, which features educational exhibits on various science topics, and will go toward constructing a “sustainability park.”

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Friday, June 7, 2019
Since Republican legislators in deeply gerrymandered states like Georgia and Louisiana approved strict laws constricting access to abortion procedures, Netflix, Disney, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, and a California state assemblywoman have responded with efforts to protest by revoking in-state film and television production.
 
Addressed in a recent statement by Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, the streamer became the first major entertainment company to disavow the Georgia heartbeat bill and pledge support to the American Civil Liberties Union, which promised to challenge such laws in court. “We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,” Sarandos told Variety.
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Tuesday, June 4, 2019

After weeks of silence on Georgia’s new abortion ban, a deluge of Hollywood companies — led by the Reed Hastings-run Netflix and followed by Disney, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, AMC, Sony, CBS and Viacom — said May  30 that they may pull projects from the high-production state if the law isn’t overturned in court before it takes effect in January. If that happens, a source close to Georgia’s department of economic development tells The Hollywood Reporter, the impact of such a mass exodus would be “crippling.” With a $9.5  billion industry on the line, other states are scrambling to find ways to poach Georgia’s lucrative film and television business.

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