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Workplace discrimination based on hairstyle is now prohibited under a new California state law just signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Newsom signed the bill earlier this week to legally protects people in workplaces and K-12 public schools from discrimination based on their natural hair. The new law takes effect Jan. 1 and prohibits grooming policies that ban certain styles, including Afros, braids, twists, cornrows and dreadlocks.

The new law came into focus in December when a referee forced a black wrestler from a New Jersey high school to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit his match.

“That is played out in workplaces, it’s played out in schools — not just in athletic competitions and settings — every single day all across America, in ways that are subtle, in ways overt,” Newsom said at the Capitol in Sacramento.

The so-called Crown Act (Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace For Natural Hair) passed unanimously in the California Assembly and Senate.

The California State Assembly’s bipartisan Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media unanimously approved an extension on the state’s film and TV tax credit. The extension, however, has yet to be debated and confirmed on the state’s legislative floors in order to pass into law. The next stop for the proposed extension is the Assembly’s Committee on Revenue and Taxation. The generous deal allows television series relocating to California and independent films to receive up to 25 percent in tax credits for filming projects in the Golden State. New television series (and series already in the program), pilots, and studio films will get a proposed 20 percent credit. On April 18, California State Sen. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles pitched her bill, California State Film Tax Credit 3.0, to her colleagues on the Governance and Finance Committee. Studios and unions alike are hoping Mitchell’s bill moves through...