The Sacramento Bee: Armenian Genocide dispute brings California Legislature into global policymaking

While the California Legislature can only set policy for the state's nearly 40 million residents, its ambitions are often much grander. With, we are often reminded, one of the largest economies in the world to dangle and deploy for influence, lawmakers regularly wade into issues on the global stage, thousands of miles from California's borders.

Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat from La Cañada Flintridge who represents a large Armenian-American population and will chair the hearing, said California should treat Turkey the same way it does Iran, which the state divested from a decade ago.

"If I can help highlight those human rights atrocities and use that as a justification for divestiture, I'm going to do that," Portantino said. "At the end of the day, we're talking about Californians with both human and business ties to these countries."

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