Asm. Tom Lackey

This measure would recognize June 2015 as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, and June 21, 2015, as The Longest Day in California, and would urge all residents to wear purple on this day to help spread global awareness of the Alzheimer's Association's vision of imagining a world without Alzheimer's disease.

This measure would request the Congress of the United States of America to further amend the GI Bill of Rights to make benefits available to veterans for use as startup capital in the establishment of first businesses.

This measure would proclaim June 2015 as California-Grown Flower Month to recognize and honor the men and women of the California-grown flower industry for their dedication and productivity.

This measure would designate a 5-mile portion of Interstate 10 as the CAL FIRE Firefighter Christopher Lee Douglas Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to erect appropriate signs, consistent with the signing requirements for the state highway system, showing this special designation and to cover the cost of those signs from nonstate sources previously secured.

Existing law requires a vehicle to be driven on the right half of a roadway, subject to specified exceptions. On a highway that has been divided into 2 or more roadways by means of intermittent barriers or by means of specified kinds of dividing sections, existing law makes it unlawful to drive a vehicle on that highway, except to the right of the intermittent barrier or dividing section that separates 2 or more opposing lanes of traffic. This bill would require the Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to update a 1989 report on wrong-way driving on state highways to account for technological advancements and innovation, to include a review of methods studied or implemented by other jurisdictions and entities to prevent wrong-way drivers from entering state highways, and to provide a preliminary version of the report to specified legislative committees on or before December 1, 2015, and the final report on or before July 1, 2016. The bill would require the report to identify any additional treatments and technologies with the potential to reduce the number of instances of wrong-way driving on state highways and to include a plan to incorporate those treatments and technologies into the Department of Transportation's wrong way monitoring and mitigation program. The bill would make related findings and declarations. The bill would provide that its provisions are repealed as of January 1, 2021. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law requires a person who weighs, measures, or counts a commodity and issues a statement or memorandum of the weight, measure, or count that is used as the basis for either the purchase or sale of that commodity or charge for service, to obtain a license as a weighmaster from the Department of Food and Agriculture, and imposes a license fee and various other requirements on weighmasters. Existing law exempts specified persons from those provisions by establishing a list of persons who are not weighmasters. Existing law, until January 1, 2019, requires the department to require a recycler or junk dealer who is an applicant for a new weighmaster license or a renewal of a weighmaster license to furnish specified additional information on the application. This bill would add licensed pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers to the list of persons who are not weighmasters and would specify that pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers are exempt from the above-described provision applicable to a junk dealer or recycler who is an applicant for a weighmaster license.

Existing law requires that whenever a person is arrested for a vehicle-related infraction or misdemeanor, he or she be taken immediately before a magistrate if he or she fails to present his or her driver's license or other satisfactory evidence of identity for examination. This bill would additionally require that the arrested person be taken immediately before a magistrate if he or she fails to present both his or her driver's license or other evidence of identity and an unobstructed view of his or her full face for examination.

Existing law, as amended by the DNA Act, requires a person who has been convicted of a felony offense to provide buccal swab samples, right thumbprints, and a full palm print impression of each hand, and any blood specimens or other biological samples required for law enforcement identification analysis. Existing law makes these provisions retroactive, regardless of when the crime charged or committed became a qualifying offense. This bill would expand these provisions to require persons convicted of specified misdemeanors to provide buccal swab samples, right thumbprints, and a full palm print impression of each hand, and any blood specimens or other biological samples required for law enforcement identification analysis. By imposing additional duties on local law enforcement agencies to collect and forward these samples, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law prohibits a judge from relieving a person of the separate administrative duty to provide specimens, samples, or print impressions required by the DNA Act if the person has been found guilty of an offense for which DNA collection is required. Existing law, added by Proposition 47, allows a person to petition the court for resentencing if he or she was convicted of a felony that was reduced to a misdemeanor by Proposition 47. Existing law requires the court to resentence the petitioner, unless the court determines that the person would pose an unreasonable risk to public safety. This bill would clarify that the prohibition on judges relieving a person of the duty to provide specimens, samples, or print impressions is not affected by resentencing under Proposition 47. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.

Existing property tax law establishes a veterans' organization exemption under which property is exempt from taxation if, among other things, that property is used exclusively for charitable purposes and is owned by a veterans' organization. This bill would provide that the veterans' organization exemption shall not be denied to a property on the basis that the property is used for fraternal, lodge, or social club purposes, and would make specific findings and declarations in that regard. The bill would also provide that the exemption shall not apply to any portion of a property that consists of a bar where alcoholic beverages are served. Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code requires the Legislature to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2229 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.