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SACRAMENTO — One of Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia’s most high-profile pieces of legislation this session was Assembly Bill 2439, which proposed to designate the LGBTQ Veterans Memorial at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City as the official state LGBTQ veterans memorial.

With Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature safely secured, the granite obelisk is now the state’s official LGBTQ Veterans Memorial. California is the first state in the nation to designate such a memorial.

It was an accomplishment years in the making, but it is not the only victory the assemblyman scored.

IMPERIAL — An additional $1 million in funding from the state this year will help Imperial Valley College provide additional opportunities for students.

The money will be used to help launch a new correctional academy, create a full-time medical assistant program and provide funding for lighting around the running track on campus, said Dr. Martha Garcia, the college’s president and superintendent.

Dr. Garcia worked with Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia to secure the funding, which was included in the 2018-19 state budget, approved by Gov. Jerry Brown on June 27.

WESTMORLAND — Isaiah Torres had never expected that his career as a boxer would take him anywhere past Imperial County limits.

To his surprise, Torres, 15, has had the ability to travel and compete in many places throughout country since first entering the ring at age 7.

Most recently, Torres traveled to Charleston, W.Va., to compete in the annual USA Boxing National Junior Olympics, during which he fought in the 15-to-16-year-old, 95-pound division and represented Region 14, California and Nevada.

SACRAMENTO — A state Assembly bill that would require retail sellers of electricity and each local publicly owned electric utility to procure a proportionate share of new geothermal capacity has successfully moved out of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

If the bill is passed, affected public utilities and retail sellers of electricity would be required to procure at least half of the 3,000 megawatts mandated by statute by Dec. 31, 2021. The other half would need to be obtained by contracts with deliveries commencing no later than Jan. 1, 2030.