Our elected officials can't pass a budget but can waste their time and our money over a stupid rock that has been the state rock for years. Who cares that the #@?## thing has asbestos. Lets get back to a part-time legislature so they only have time to work on real issues, like cutting spending to match income like the voters have to do when income goes south.

Only a bunch of stupid jackwads would think about wasting time on this idiotic subject.

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"It is my opinion that this country has lost its mind."

Lewis Black

This is a perfect example of why we need to reform our state politicians pay and make them "part-timers".  I'm thinking they could cut the crap (like banning rocks) and spend more time and less money, focusing on 'real' issues...  UNBELIEVABLE!  Give them 4 months out of the year to balance the budget and cut the fat.  Then they won't have time to save the delta smelt, the farting hoot owl and all the other political agenda "pet projects" that take up VALUABLE time...

Folks in California should stop breathing and drinking water, as they both are made of and have chemicals

I used to play with asbestos pipe insulation at a shut down army base when I was a kid. It felt so cool and tore up funny, of course that was 65 years ago, you reckon that I could sue somebody? :)

p.s. We did not have bubble wrap in those days.

This is a great example of the lunacy of most liberal government officials. Chrysotile, the type of asbestos found in serpentine rock, is not considered to be as hazardous as the five other regulated forms of asbestos, which are all amphibole minerals. Exposure to chrysotile has not been linked to mesothelioma - only the amphibole forms of asbestos have shown positive links. The next time the government wants to make decisions involving minerology, please involve scientists, not bureacrats!

California is finanially broke and they want a new state rock. What a bunch of morons! I thought there were only three stooges. Well maybe five if you count Shemp and Curly Joe. Looks like the California legistlature is full of them! Everyone please vote in November!

It seems that serpentine rock affects the brain cells of legislators.

At the risk of sounding like a cranky English major (OK OK I AM a cranky English major), I would like to know who wrote/approved the caption for that photo. Aren't you "suppose" to check a caption for "it's" grammar and spelling?

When I read that title "California May Dump State Rock......", I was eager to read the article. I was hoping they were referring to Pelosi!

It's not like getting a different state rock will make the asbestos go away.

this show the caliber of personnel we have serving us in our state and federal congressional offices.

it would seem this senator could easily find something, anything to better occupy her time and our money. but alas, it seems not!!

A state in bankruptcy. Unemployment at 20%. Taxed and regulated to death. And this is important to Californians?

They will be expecting us to bail them out even further.

Had I known that lawyers and not we the people were to decide my fate and the fate of our state rock, flag, flower and whatever else, I would not have signed up to vote so late in life. I haven't done so before because of all the bull**** that I have seen over the years. And now this, isn't it enough that we have a state lawmakers that can't even pronounce California correctly? Let the minerologists and geologists decide this and let we the people vote on it and quit making mountains out of molehills....

I am a biologist and a research biochemist specializing in natural
occurring (NOA) “asbestos” in California. The legislature is a day late
(meaning decades late) and a dollar short (meaning, well more) and
working on the complete wrong subject.

ADAO is not intentionally misleading, but they as a group are misleading.
Natural occurring forms of asbestos occur in all states in the ground
from soft friable easily airborne to hard rock hard to blow up with
dynamite. In California communities have lived on all forms of natural
occurring Chrysotile “asbestos” for well over 200 years. Intensive
studies of death certificates shows no excess lung cancer or any excess
mesothelioma at Chrysotile sites at all. San Francisco is the most
contaminated Chrysotile city on earth. Yet small communities in
California, inside El Dorado, Amador, Toulomne, who have lived on
Tremolite asbestos deposits for only short periods, show large quantities
of excess mesothelioma. Not just in humans but in animals too. Huge
levels of death from a non serpentine NOA. This news regarding Tremolite
was published in the newspapers, mostly front page news, in Sacramento
for 8 years straight! What do the legislators do? Why they OK “asbestos”
epidemics by refusing to address the problem, and they condemn the
innocent serpentine rock without even realizing what they are doing.

For those who don’t know, this exact same subject has nearly killed
entire communities in the United States. Groups such as ADAO focusing on
Chrysotile “asbestos” to the exclusion of the far more dangerous forms of
“asbestos” have lead to the communities of Libby Montana and Jefferson
Parish Louisiana having enormous non serpentine epidemics of human death.
The legislators could actually do something useful here, but not while
they are mislead by non scientists such as ADAO.

Terry Trent

Just another reason why California is broke.  Spending a fortune on lawyers to change a state rock.  Is it really that important?  Spend the money on fixing your broken infrastructure.