California’s Legislature races to the finish

la-me-legislature-bills-pictures-015  (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times )

Lawmakers bid one anotherr farewell on the last day of the Senate legislative session in Sacramento.

Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa), second from right, bids farewell to fellow lawmakers at the end of the Senate floor session in Sacramento on Sept. 11, 2015. Moorlach is a leading voice in the Legislature against skyrocketing debt being piled up by public pension systems.

Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) photographs fellow lawmakers as they near the end of the legislative session in Sacramento.

Name placards are never short in supply in the Senate chambers in Sacramento.

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), center, bids farewell to fellow lawmakers as the Assembly adjourns this year’s session.

All that is left after the legislative session in the Senate chambers are discarded piles of paperwork.

Assemblyman Matthew Harper works on the floor as lawmakers race to pass bills Friday.

Christy O’Donnell, second from left, who has terminal lung cancer, hugs Sen. Isadore Hall III, after the state Senate approved a measure to allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs.

Debbie Ziegler holds up a photograph of her daughter Brittany Maynard, who moved to Oregon to end her life after being diagnosed with brain cancer, in celebration of the aid-in-dying legislation approval.

Elizabeth Wellner gets emotional as California senators discuss the aid-in-dying bill on the Senate floor.

Senate leader Kevin de León and his colleagues have been working late into the night ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline on the 2015 legislative session.

California lawmakers work into the night as they race to vote on legislation at the Capitol building in Sacramento.

Gov. Jerry Brown has not indicated whether he will sign or veto the aid-in-dying bill that has been sent to his desk.

Sen. Jeff Stone, center, speaks out against the aid-in-dying bill on the Senate floor.

Assemblyman Brian W. Jones presents flowers to fellow GOP Assemblyman Tom Lackey to mark the first time a bill by Lackey advanced to the Assembly floor.

State senators gather in a back hallway before sessions begin at the Capitol. The 2015 legislative sessions ends at midnight on Friday, Sept. 11.

A paper cut-out of Assemblyman Mike A. Gipson’s portrait is placed on his chair during an Assembly session.

Supporters of state Senate leader Kevin de León’s climate change bill, SB 350, line up to speak during a committee hearing on Sept. 10. De León is in the foreground at right.

Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen talks to fellow lawmakers on the Assembly floor in Sacramento hours before the legislative session’s midnight deadline on Sept. 11.