SACRAMENTO- Assemblyman Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) today voted to memorialize the lives of Chelsea King and Amber Dubois by naming a portion of State Highway Route 15 (Interstate 15) as the Chelsea King Memorial Bridge and a portion of State Highway Route 78 as the Amber Dubois Memorial Highway. Chelsea King and Amber Dubois were assaulted and murdered by a known sex offender.

Assemblyman Cook stated, “With Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, we have two young women who will never be able to enjoy the fullness of life because we allowed a known sex offender to commit additional crimes, which resulted in their murders. As lawmakers, we must commit to protecting children from experiencing the same fate, especially by repeat offenders.  These two memorials will serve as a reminder that we must remain vigilant in our resolve to protect children.”

Since 2009, Assemblyman Cook has worked with Moe Dubois, father of Amber Dubois, to change California laws in order to protect children from predators and to overhaul recovery efforts for cases of missing children.

In 2010, Assemblyman Cook and More Kids, an organization Moe Dubois founded, sponsored and passed three bills to improve the law enforcement response to missing children. The Dubois bills improved the training of peace officers responding to reports of missing children, streamlined the filing of missing persons reports with the state and national law enforcement, and established a California Missing Child Rapid Response Team (CMCRRT). The CMCRRT is designed to assist local law enforcement agencies that may lack the full resources to recover missing children. The bills became law on January 1, 2011.

Assemblyman Paul Cook represents the Inland Empire, including portions of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.