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California lawmakers advanced key housing legislation late Thursday, clearing the most substantial hurdle for a package of bills aimed at addressing the state’s housing affordability crisis.

Legislators in the Assembly passed Senate Bill 2, a $75 fee on mortgage refinances and other real estate transactions except for home and commercial property sales. The measure is expected to raise $250 million a year to help finance new and rehabilitated developments for low-income residents — a key step, lawmakers said, in beginning to get housing costs under control.

The state Assembly yesterday passed a bill that could help resolve the battle over public access to Martins Beach, just south of Half Moon Bay, which was closed when a billionaire bought property along the beach.

Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) hosted the first hearing of the Assembly Committee on the Master Plan for Higher Education in Sacramento, California this passing Wednesday.

Easing overcrowding and curbing the costs of attending California’s three systems of public higher education were among the issues on the table as state legislators Thursday opened a lengthy process to update the state’s Master Plan for Higher Education.

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill proposed by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, which would have required schools to consider how zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policies keep students from seeking help when crafting suicide prevention policies. “I agree with the goal of this bill but believe this is a matter more appropriately handled at the local level,” Brown said in returning the bill without his signature.

Ten years ago, a Bay Area teenager died by suicide after being expelled from school for substance abuse. He had been doing well academically and participated in sports." All the things the general public doesn't associate with someone who takes his life," said former Palo Alto Mayor Victor Ojakian, who knew the youth.

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill Monday that would have required school districts that have zero-tolerance policies toward drugs or alcohol use to hold community-wide conversations on whether expulsions related to substance abuse deter students from seeking help for mental health problems.

The first bill proposed by a Palo Alto state assemblyman to be signed into law will make it easier for low-income California residents to access emergency food services.

Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, who was elected in November, said that the bill works to eradicate food insecurity.

The bill, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed earlier this month, allows revision to the national 2-1-1 referral service so that residents can use the free phone number or online database to find entities that provide food to needy residents, including those with pending CalFresh applications.

Assembly Bill 323, authored by Assemblyman Marc Berman, was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday, July 17, allowing counties to connect CalFresh applicants to emergency food providers through a referral from a 2-1-1 service. The new law is Berman's first bill signed in the state Legislature.

CalFresh assists low-income households in purchasing the food they need at grocery stores. Berman, D-Palo Alto, said that state residents often won't apply for CalFresh until they hit their lowest point, but the application can take up to 30 days to be approved.

Students who rack up debt attending for-profit colleges were supposed to get some additional protections this month. If their school was found to have misled them into borrowing money to attend, a new rule would have simplified the process for seeking loan forgiveness.