A group of state and local officials gathered at the Be Well OC mental health services hub in Orange on Friday, Aug. 19, to applaud the on-site programs that began operating in January and celebrate an infusion of $5 million in state funds to help build a second campus.

Sen. Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) said she remembers when she met Cummings, who had just been named the institute’s director. Then a member of the Orange County Junior League, she was looking for a worthy project.

The 12 state lawmakers who represent portions of Orange County wrote 81 bills that advanced through a recent critical deadline this session, with legislation that addresses everything from unemployment fraud to packaging for cannabis-infused drinks to caps on mobile home park rent spikes now one...

“It’s an insult to California’s drivers to force them to pay the nation’s highest gas taxes and then say it’s not enough, especially at a time when Sacramento is supposedly enjoying a budget surplus,” Bates said.

State Sen. Pat Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, was once a social worker. She saw the devastation wrought by mental illness and addiction up close, long before she started pushing for reforms to California’s addiction treatment system in the Legislature.