Sen. Sam Blakeslee Ph.D.

This measure would proclaim February 28, 2010, as Rare Disease Day.

This measure would establish, until January 1, 2014, the California Task Force on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education for the purpose of promoting the improvement of mathematics, science, engineering, and technology education across the state. The task force would consist of Members of the Legislature and experts appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Committee on Rules. The task force would conduct its business on a volunteer basis, be able to accept private funds, and would submit an annual report on its work to the Legislature.

This measure would request that the Congress and the President of the United States enact the Medicare Secondary Payer Enhancement Act of 2010.

Existing provisions of the California Constitution prohibit the Legislature from making any gift of public money or thing of value to any person, and this prohibition applies to local government. Existing law specifies the duties of various local officials. This bill would prohibit a local official, subject to specified exceptions, from making available to an immediate family member, as defined, a vehicle or credit card provided by the local agency that the local official represents.

This measure would proclaim May 12, 2010, as California Lab Day.

This measure would designate the 2nd week of October 2010, and annually thereafter, as Disability History Week, and would encourage public and private institutions of higher education, state and local agencies, nonprofit and community-based organizations, and private businesses and corporations to observe Disability History Week by dedicating appropriate classroom instructional time or by coordinating all-inclusive activities to be conducted during that week to afford opportunities for students and the general public to learn more about the disability community and to celebrate and honor its role in contemporary American society.

This measure would recognize each 2nd week of February hereafter as African American Mental Health Awareness Week.

This measure would designate the flyover ramp at the interchange of State Highway Routes 152 and 156 as the Joseph A. Zanger Memorial Flyover. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

This measure would call upon the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to develop common core state standards in the core academic disciplines of English-language arts, mathematics, history-social science, and science, request that they replicate the process used to develop English-language arts and mathematics common core state standards to now develop common core state standards for social studies and science, and examine the viability of developing common standards in foreign language, visual and performing arts, physical education, career technical education, and other subject areas.

This measure would memorialize the United States Senate to ratify, and the President to sign, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and would memorialize the Congress of the United States and the President to enact appropriate legislation that addresses the concerns expressed in this measure.