INDIAN WELLS – Lifestream held its sixth annual Nine Cities Blood Challenge and State Sen. Jeff Stone was in attendance.

The blood drive ran Wednesday to Friday, collecting 42 pints on Friday.

KMIR caught up with the senator about three pressing issues in the state right now: Immigration, ‘Cal 3’ and Fire Safety.

The Crisis at the Border

“I’m hoping that congress will do their job and make sure that our immigration laws are very clear and enforceable. Let’s not break up family units and try to educate people that if you’re going to come into the country, we welcome you, but you’ve got to come here the right way. Stand in line like everybody else needs to do.”

‘Cal 3’ or Proposition 9

The California Supreme Court blocked the proposal to split the state in three from the November ballot.

“It would have taken an act of congress and a presidential signature and many agreements and memorandums of understanding who’s going to take care of the debt, who’s going to get the revenue. It’s not as easy of a process of just saying ‘oh, we’re just going to put the state into three. Low and behold, that’s what happened.”

Stone said he doesn’t see the measure coming up again.

Fire Safety

Stone labeled this year as the “worst california wildfire season in history.”
The state is taking action at the capitol with a new committee.
Stone was the Republican senator appointed to that committee.

“There’s a lot of finger pointing. Five-thousand homes in Napa, Sonoma County were lost. People lost their homes, they lost their belongings and now you have the insurance companies that were insuring those homes pointing a finger at the utilities. They said it was ‘Your lines that came down and started the fires’ and the utility companies are saying ‘No, it’s insurance companies’ responsibility to pay for all these damages.’ There’s a lot of finger-pointing and I’ve been appointed to a committee to do fact-finding; to really find out what the cause of the fires are and who should be financially responsible to make our citizens that lost their homes whole in the end. That’s going to be a very challenging committee to serve on.”

The committee’s first meeting is set for Wednesday, July 25.

Catching up with State Sen. Jeff Stone