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U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) wants the nation's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop wearing the word "police" on their jackets and vests when they are undertaking enforment operations.

He has been joined by 41 other lawmakers in calling for the change. Thompson represents parts of Martinez in the House.

"This is a matter of public safety," Thompson said. "Suggesting ICE officers are members of local law enforcement undermines the relationships immigrant communities have established with police departments."

House Democrats are pushing back against GOP attempts to loosen the nation's gun laws.

Republican proposals to allow law-abiding gun owners to carry their firearms out of state and allow hunters to use sound suppressors are "terribly alarming," Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) said Tuesday at a press conference.

Democrats are rallying to defeat these efforts on Capitol Hill. The legislation is almost certain to pass in the House, but they might stand a chance in the Senate, where Democrats can block a vote on the bills.

California Democrats chose their guests for President Trump's speech to make pointed criticisms of the new administration's policies. Among those sitting in the House gallery as the speech began were immigrants in the country without authorization, people who benefited from President Obama's healthcare overhaul and refugees affected by Trump's travel ban.

Sonoma County's two members of Congress said President Donald Trump made expansive promises and talked about spending trillions of taxpayer dollars in a speech Tuesday night that was short on explaining how any of it will be done.

"He made a lot of lofty promises that quite honestly I don't see how they can be achieved," said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, in a telephone interview shortly after the president's first speech to a joint session of Congress.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson on Tuesday denounced "rising anti-Semitism sentiments, exemplified by multiple bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers and schools as well as vandalism in Jewish cemeteries," and called for swift, decisive action to quell it.

Some local Jewish community members expressed gratitude for the concern as well as hope that these issues won't worsen.

Sonoma Valley Federal Congressman Mike Thompson held a public meeting on health care Saturday, February 25 at Piner High School in Santa Rosa. No meeting was planned for Sonoma Valley. Sonoma Valley residents had to drive to Santa Rosa to attend to this local government business.

A capacity crowd of at least 1,000 people turned out Saturday morning in Santa Rosa at a town hall meeting organized by Democratic lawmakers to lend support to state and federal efforts to defend health care coverage received by millions of people under the Affordable Care Act.

The Affordable Care Act drew cheers and applause at Democrat-led town halls held Saturday morning in San Francisco, Oakland and Martinez.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had urged her colleagues headed home for the week-long Congressional recess to hold local events and build on the momentum from the Jan. 21 Women's March.

Pelosi held her own event Saturday near San Francisco's Embarcadero, joined by California's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Diana Dooley, and the CEO of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Susan Ehrlich.