This is a sampling from Bay Area News Group”s Political Blotter blog. Read more and post comments at www.ibabuzz.com/politics.

Feb. 4

Top aides to former Rep. George Miller and California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson are going to work for a nonprofit that gauges how appropriate technology and media content is for children.

Daniel Weiss and Craig Cheslog will co-direct Common Sense Media”s advocacy platform.

“Danny and Craig bring enormous experience and commitment to our expanding advocacy effort to make kids and education America”s top priority,” said James Steyer, Common Sense Media”s founder and CEO.

“George Miller and Tom Torlakson are giants in the field of education and the well-being of our children, and I am very excited that two of their top staff have joined our team,” Steyer said. “I look forward to working with them and the rest of our Common Sense team and with lawmakers from both parties and our allies in the advocacy community in California and across the country to improves the lives of our children.”

Weiss — Miller”s chief of staff for 20 years and aide for six years before that — will serve as the group”s vice president for national policy, based in Washington, D.C. Weiss was a strategic adviser for Miller”s work as the House Education and the Workforce Committee”s chairman and ranking Democrat. He also worked for the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, which Miller founded and chaired for 10 years.

Cheslog — Torlakson”s principal adviser since 2011, and earlier, his district director while Torlakson served in the state Senate and Assembly — will be Common Sense Media”s co-director and vice president for California policy, based in San Francisco.

Common Sense Media screens and rates movies, television shows, games, music and other media for violence, language and other content inappropriate for children. It calls itself “the nation”s leading organization to promote the appropriate use of technology in education and at home, and fight for the protection of children”s privacy in a digital environment.”

Steyer also announced that J.R. Starrett will lead Common Sense”s state advocacy campaign as director of advocacy, based in San Francisco. Starrett most recently was regional political director for NextGen Climate Action, which promotes awareness of and solutions to global warming. The group was founded by Steyer”s brother, hedge fund billionaire and environmental activist Tom Steyer.

Feb. 6

All children enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start programs across the nation would have to be fully vaccinated unless they”re exempted for medical reasons, under a bill that U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Anna Eshoo say they”ll introduce next week.

“More than a million of our children attend Head Start programs all over the country, and we must protect every single one of these kids from preventable diseases like measles,” Boxer, D-Calif., said in a news release. “This simple bill is an important step toward strengthening our vaccination policies at all levels of government to prevent the spread of deadly diseases.”

Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, said it was “the genius of American scientists that developed vaccines to eradicate polio and many other diseases. This bill is a ”booster shot” for our nation”s vaccine policies and will mitigate the spread of deadly disease.”

Under the bill, parents of children enrolled in Head Start programs would be given three months to ensure that vaccines are up to date in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”s recommended schedule.

Parents could get a medical exemption only if a certified health care provider determines that their child has an underlying medical condition that precludes vaccination, such as an autoimmune deficiency, chemotherapy treatment or a recent transplant. Head Start programs would assist families in accessing the services they need in order to get their children fully vaccinated.