Sen. Ellen Corbett

This measure would proclaim April 2014 as the "California Wines: Down to Earth" month, to celebrate the sustainable leadership of California wineries and winegrape growers.

This measure would proclaim the Legislature's support for the extension of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program and would memorialize the United States Congress to promptly renew the extension of unemployment benefits.

This measure would designate March 2014 as Irish American Heritage Month in honor of the multitude of contributions that Irish Americans have made to the country and state.

This measure would recognize the week of March 23, 2014, to March 29, 2014, inclusive, as National Agriculture Week, and would designate March 19, 2014, as California Agriculture Day.

Existing law requires the local registrar of births and deaths, if the certificate of death is properly executed and completed, to issue a permit for disposition that specifies where the burial or interment will take place. This bill, notwithstanding the above requirement or any other law, would authorize the local registrar of births and deaths in the County of Alameda to issue a disposition permit for the burial of Abbot, Archimandrite Theodor Micka, on the grounds of the Holy Cross Monastery in the County of Alameda and would allow those remains to be so interred. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Alameda. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Pharmacy Law provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacists by the California State Board of Pharmacy. Existing law defines a prescription as including a legible, clear notice of the condition or purpose for which the drug is prescribed, if requested by the patient. Existing law prohibits a pharmacist from dispensing any prescription unless it is in a specified container that is correctly labeled to include, among other information, the condition or purpose for which the drug was prescribed if the condition or purpose is indicated on the prescription. A violation of the Pharmacy Law is a crime. This bill, beginning January 1, 2016, would require certain portions of the required information on the prescription label, including the name of the patient or patients, to be printed in at least a 12-point typeface. Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 4076 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 493, that would become operative only if SB 493 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2014, and this bill is chaptered last. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

(1) The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating a debt or liability that singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities exceeds the sum of $300,000, except by an act that (A) authorizes the debt for a single object or work specified in the act, (B) has been passed by a 23 vote of all the Members elected to each house of the Legislature, (C) has been submitted to the people at a statewide general or primary election, and (D) has received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at that election. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would create the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2014, to become operative only if approved by the voters at the next statewide general election, and that would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at that election. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Education, upon request of any school district, to provide assistance in the evaluation and utilization of existing school facilities and the justification of the need for schoolsites, new facilities, and the rehabilitation or replacement of existing facilities, in accordance with State Allocation Board regulations. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

(1) Existing law establishes a statewide system of courts with a superior court of one or more judges in each county. Existing law requires the presiding judge of each superior court to distribute the business of the court among the judges, and to prescribe the order of business, subject to the rules of the Judicial Council. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2014, require the Judicial Council to direct the creation of an environmental and land use division within 2 or more superior courts within each of the appellate districts of the state to process civil proceedings brought pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act or in specified subject areas, including air quality, biological resources, climate change, hazards and hazardous materials, land use planning, and water quality. The bill would require the Judicial Council, by rule of court, to identify statutes in those specified areas that would be within the jurisdiction of the environmental and land use court division. The bill would require the Judicial Council, by rule of court, to establish appropriate standards and protocols for the environmental and land use court division to accomplish the objectives of consistency, expediency, and expertise, including educational requirements and other qualifications for specialized judges assigned to the division. (2) Existing law authorizes the issuance of environmental license plates, as defined, for vehicles, upon application and upon payment of certain fees. Existing law requires all revenue derived from the fees for issuance, renewal, retention, duplication, and transfer of the plates to be deposited in the California Environmental License Plate Fund in the State Treasury. Existing law requires the Legislature to make an annual appropriation to the Judicial Council for the general operations of the trial courts based on the request of the Judicial Council, which is submitted to the Governor and the Legislature. This bill would increase the fees for the issuance, renewal, retention, duplication, and transfer of environmental license plates by $10. The bill would create the Environmental and Land Use Court Support Account within the California Environmental License Plate Fund. The bill would, notwithstanding the above-described provisions pertaining to the annual appropriation to the Judicial Council or any other law, authorize the Controller to transfer $10 of each fee collected for an environmental license plate on or after January 1, 2014, to the Environmental and Land Use Court Support Account for the exclusive use, upon appropriation by the Legislature, of the Judicial Council to supplement funding for the operation of the environmental and land use court division. The bill would also make conforming changes.

Existing law, known as the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, contains provisions relating to employer-employee relations between the state and the employees of state institutions of higher education, including the University of California and the California State University, as well as the Hastings College of the Law. These provisions assign major responsibilities for implementation to the Public Employment Relations Board. Under the act, an "employee" or "higher education employee" is defined as any employee of the Regents of the University of California, the Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, or the Trustees of the California State University. The act further provides that the board may find student employees whose employment is contingent on their status as students are employees only if the services they provide are unrelated to their educational objectives, or that those educational objectives are subordinate to the services they perform and that coverage under this act would further the purposes of the act. This bill would provide that student employees whose employment is contingent upon their status as students are employees or higher education employees for purposes of the act. The act prohibits "scope of representation," for purposes of the University of California only, from including, among other things, conditions for the award of certificates and degrees to students. This bill would provide that the conditions for the award of certificates and degrees to students that are outside of the scope of representation include what is required for students to achieve satisfactory progress toward their degrees.