Asm. Ash Kalra

This measure would recognize the 50th anniversary of hip hop on August 11, 2023, as a time of celebration, pride, and nostalgia for the citizens of California.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 prohibits a business from selling the personal information of a consumer if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer, in the case of a consumer at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age, or the consumer's parent or guardian, in the case of a consumer who is less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the sale of the consumer's personal information. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act requires, beginning July 1, 2024, a business that provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children to comply with specified requirements, including a requirement to configure all default privacy settings offered by the online service, product, or feature to the settings that offer a high level of privacy, as prescribed, and requires a business, before any new online services, products, or features are offered to the public, to complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment for any online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children and maintain documentation of this assessment as long as the online service, product, or feature is likely to be accessed by children. This bill would prohibit a social media platform, as defined, from using a design, algorithm, or feature that the platform knows, or by the exercise of reasonable care should have known, causes child users, as defined, to do any of certain things, including experience addiction to the social media platform. This bill would provide that a social media platform is not in violation of the bill if the social media platform instituted and maintained a program of at least quarterly audits, as defined, of its designs, algorithms, and features that have the potential to cause violations of the provision described above, and the social media platform corrected, within 60 days of the completion of the audit, any design, algorithm, or feature discovered by the audit to present more than a de minimis risk of violating that provision. This bill would subject a social media platform that knowingly and willfully violates these provisions to a civil penalty not to exceed $250,000 per violation, an injunction, and an award of litigation costs and attorney's fees in an action brought only by certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General.

(1) Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to willfully fail to appear in court, as specified. Existing law, when a person has failed to appear and has not posted bail, requires the magistrate to issue a warrant for the person's arrest within 20 days of the failure to appear. This bill would make those sections only apply when the underlying charge is not an infraction. (2) Existing law authorizes the issuance of a bench warrant of arrest when a person fails to appear in court as promised in specified criminal proceedings. This bill would prohibit the issuance of a bench warrant of arrest when the underlying crime is an infraction. (3) Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to willfully fail to appear in court for a violation of the Vehicle Code, and requires the court to report a conviction of this offense to the Department of Motor Vehicles. This bill would make that misdemeanor only apply when the underlying charge is not an infraction. The bill would also remove the requirement for the court to report a conviction of this offense to the department. (4) Existing law authorizes the imposition of a civil assessment or the issuance of an arrest warrant when a person fails to make an installment payment on bail imposed by the court for an infraction violation of the Vehicle Code. Existing law also makes it a misdemeanor to fail to pay bail in installments or to fail to pay a fine imposed for the violation of a state or local traffic law, and requires the court to report a conviction of this offense to the department. This bill would repeal the misdemeanor for failure to pay a bail installment or fine. The bill would remove the authorization to issue an arrest warrant for failure to pay a bail installment. The bill would also remove the requirement for the court to report a conviction of these offenses to the department. (5) Existing law, if a defendant does not appear at the time the case is called for a violation of the Vehicle Code, authorizes the court to declare the bail forfeited and order that no further proceedings be had in the case, or to issue a warrant for the arrest of the defendant. However, if a defendant is charged with specified crimes, including disposing of a flaming or glowing substance on or near a road and littering a highway, has previously been convicted of the same crime, and fails to appear at the time the case is called to trial, existing law authorizes the court to declare the bail forfeited and requires the court to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the person charged, unless the magistrate finds that undue hardship will be imposed by requiring the defendant to appear. This bill would remove the requirement that the magistrate issue a bench warrant when the person has committed one of the crimes specified above.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to incorporate materials relating to civil rights, human rights violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science and other requirements. Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum frameworks to the State Board of Education. This bill would require the commission, when the history-social science curriculum framework is next revised, to consider providing for inclusion of, in its recommended history-social science curriculum framework, related evaluation criteria, and accompanying instructional materials, instruction on both (1) the historical, social, economic, and political contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States and (2) examples of racism, discrimination, and violence perpetrated against Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States, as provided.

Existing law regulates the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. Existing law authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and the Attorney General, at the request of the Department of Toxic Substances Control or a unified program agency, to bring an action seeking to enjoin a violation of laws and regulations governing the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. Existing law specifies that every civil action brought at the request of the department or a unified program agency is to be brought by the city attorney, the county attorney, the district attorney, or the Attorney General in the name of the people of the State of California and that those actions relating to the same processing or disposal of hazardous waste may be joined or consolidated. This bill would authorize the county counsel to bring an action seeking to enjoin a violation of laws and regulations governing the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. The bill would specify that county counsel, at the request of the department or a unified program agency, is authorized to bring a civil action in the name of the people of the State of California to enforce laws and regulations governing the generation, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials. Existing law requires certain businesses that handle hazardous materials to prepare a business and area plan relating to the handling and release or threatened release of hazardous materials and authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and Attorney General to bring an action to enforce these requirements. Existing law regulates the operation of underground storage tanks and aboveground storage tanks and authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce these requirements. Existing law regulates the handling, storage, and disposal of medical waste and authorizes the city attorney, district attorney, and the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce these requirements. This bill would authorize the county counsel to bring an action to enforce the requirements related to the business and area plans, underground storage tanks, aboveground storage tanks, or medical waste. This bill would, if a county counsel or the district attorney brings an action described above, require the county counsel or district attorney, within 7 days of the filing of the action, to give notice to the district attorney or county counsel, as applicable, of the related county and would make various conforming changes.

Existing law establishes the Atmospheric Rivers: Research, Mitigation, and Climate Forecasting Program in the Department of Water Resources. Existing law requires the department, upon an appropriation for purposes of the program, to research climate forecasting and the causes and impacts that climate change has on atmospheric rivers, to operate reservoirs in a manner that improves flood protection, and to reoperate flood control and water storage facilities to capture water generated by atmospheric rivers. This bill would rename that program the Atmospheric Rivers Research and Forecast Improvement Program: Enabling Climate Adaptation Through Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations and Hazard Resiliency (AR/FIRO) Program. The bill would require the department to research, develop, and implement new observations, prediction models, novel forecasting methods, and tailored decision support systems to improve predictions of atmospheric rivers and their impacts on water supply, flooding, post-wildfire debris flows, and environmental conditions. The bill would also require the department to utilize relevant information to operate reservoirs in a manner that improves flood protection in the state and to reoperate flood control and water storage facilities to capture water generated by atmospheric rivers and other storms.

Existing law requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to promote and protect the agricultural industry of the state. Existing law under Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters. This bill would enact the Climate-resilient Farms, Sustainable Healthy Food Access, and Farmworker Protection Bond Act of 2024, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $3,650,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law, to finance programs related to, among other things, agricultural lands, food and fiber infrastructure, climate resilience, agricultural professionals, including farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers, workforce development and training, air quality, tribes, disadvantaged communities, nutrition, food aid, meat processing facilities, and fishing facilities. The bill would make its provisions severable. The bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law authorizes the head of a department in state government to make investigations and prosecute actions concerning all matters relating to the business activities and subjects under the jurisdiction of the department, violations of any law or rule or order of the department, and other matters as may be provided by law. Existing law requires the head of a department, in any hearing in any part of the state or in any investigation conducted pursuant to the law described above, to issue process and subpoenas in a manner consistent with the California Constitution and the United States Constitution. Existing law requires the process and subpoenas to be served in the same manner as provided for the service of a summons, as prescribed. Existing law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, prohibits a government entity from compelling the production of, or access to, electronic communication information from a service provider, subject to certain exceptions, including by authorizing a government entity to compel the production of, or access to, electronic communication information from a service provider pursuant to a subpoena if the information is not sought for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting a criminal offense and compelling the production of, or access to, the information via the subpoena is not otherwise prohibited by state or federal law. This bill would authorize a department to use an administrative subpoena to obtain electronic communication information from a service provider only if certain conditions are met, including that the department has served notice of the administrative subpoena on the customer, as prescribed, and a copy of the administrative subpoena is attached to the notice. This bill would require a service provider to make a copy of any electronic communication information within the scope of the subpoena and to retain it only until the information is disclosed pursuant to the subpoena, or the subpoena is quashed or modified. The bill would require a service provider to maintain, for a period of 5 years, a record of any disclosure pursuant to the bill. The bill would require a service provider to provide to a customer, upon request and the payment of the reasonable cost of reproduction and delivery, any part of the record maintained pursuant to the bill that relates to the customer.