(1) Existing law classifies certain controlled substances into designated schedules. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) for the electronic monitoring of the prescribing and dispensing of Schedule II, Schedule III, and Schedule IV controlled substances by all practitioners authorized to prescribe or dispense these controlled substances. Existing law requires dispensing pharmacies and clinics to report, on a weekly basis, specified information for each prescription of Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV controlled substances, to the department, as specified. This bill would establish the CURES Fund within the State Treasury to receive funds to be allocated, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Department of Justice for the purposes of funding CURES, and would make related findings and declarations. This bill would, beginning April 1, 2014, require an annual fee of $6 to be assessed on specified licensees, including licensees authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense controlled substances, and require the regulating agency of each of those licensees to bill and collect that fee at the time of license renewal. The bill would authorize the Department of Consumer Affairs to reduce, by regulation, that fee to the reasonable cost of operating and maintaining CURES for the purpose of regulating those licensees, if the reasonable regulatory cost is less than $6 per licensee. The bill would require the proceeds of the fee to be deposited into the CURES Fund for the support of CURES, as specified. The bill would also permit specified insurers, health care service plans, qualified manufacturers, and other donors to voluntarily contribute to the CURES Fund, as described. (2) Existing law requires the Medical Board of California to periodically develop and disseminate information and educational materials regarding various subjects, including pain management techniques, to each licensed physician and surgeon and to each general acute care hospital in California. This bill would additionally require the board to periodically develop and disseminate to each licensed physician and surgeon and to each general acute care hospital in California information and educational materials relating to the assessment of a patient's risk of abusing or diverting controlled substances and information relating to CURES. (3) Existing law permits a licensed health care practitioner, as specified, or a pharmacist to apply to the Department of Justice to obtain approval to access information stored on the Internet regarding the controlled substance history of a patient under his or her care. Existing law also authorizes the Department of Justice to provide the history of controlled substances dispensed to an individual to licensed health care practitioners, pharmacists, or both, providing care or services to the individual. This bill would require, by January 1, 2016, or upon receipt of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration registration, whichever occurs later, health care practitioners authorized to prescribe, order, administer, furnish, or dispense controlled substances, as specified, and pharmacists to apply to the Department of Justice to obtain approval to access information stored on the Internet regarding the controlled substance history of a patient under their care. The bill would require the Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Department of Consumer Affairs and certain licensing boards, to, among other things, develop a streamlined application and approval process to provide access to the CURES database for licensed health care practitioners and pharmacists. The bill would make other related and conforming changes.
Sponsored bills
(1) Under existing law, the Legislature finds and declares that middle college high schools have proven to be a highly effective collaborative effort between local school districts and community colleges. This bill would provide that the Legislature finds and declares that early college high schools are innovative partnerships between charter or noncharter public secondary schools and a local community college, the California State University, or the University of California that allow pupils to earn a high school diploma and up to 2 years of college credit in 4 years or less. (2) Existing law provides that a day of attendance for a pupil enrolled in grades 11 and 12 at an early college high school or middle college high school is 180 minutes of attendance if the pupil is also enrolled in a community college, classes of the California State University, or classes of the University of California, as specified. Existing law, the Charter Schools Act of 1992, requires, as a condition of apportionment, among other things, a charter school to offer 64,800 minutes of instruction in a fiscal year for pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, and, for classroom-based instruction, as defined, to have at least 80% of the instructional time offered to be at the schoolsite. This bill would require a charter school that operates as an early college high school or middle college high school, for purposes of calculating classroom-based average daily attendance for classroom-based instruction apportionments, to offer at least 80% of the instructional time at the charter school schoolsite, and to require a pupil enrolled in grade 11 or 12 who is also enrolled in courses of the California State University, or courses of the University of California, as specified, or a pupil enrolled who is also enrolled as a special part-time student in a community college, as specified, to attend the charter school for a minimum of 50% of the minimum number of minutes of instruction the charter school is required to offer in a fiscal year. The bill would require a pupil enrolled in a charter school that operates as an early college high school or middle college high school who is not enrolled in courses of the California State University or the University of California, or who is not a special part-time student in a community college, to attend the charter school for a minimum of 67% of the minimum number of minutes of instruction the charter school is required to offer in a fiscal year. The bill would subject these requirements to annual audits, as specified.
There is in state government, pursuant to the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 2, operative July 1, 2013, the Office of Emergency Services. Existing law requires the office to develop and distribute an educational pamphlet for use by kindergarten, any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and community college personnel to identify and mitigate the risks posed by nonstructural earthquake hazards. This bill would require the office, in collaboration with various entities, including the United States Geological Survey, to develop a comprehensive statewide earthquake early warning system in California through a public-private partnership and would require the system to include certain features, including the installation of field sensors. The bill would require the office to develop an approval mechanism, as provided, to review compliance with earthquake early warning standards as they are developed. The bill would require the office to identify funding sources for the system. The bill would prohibit the office from identifying the General Fund as a funding source to establish the system, beyond those components or programs that are currently funded. The bill would make these provisions contingent upon the office identifying funding sources for the system, as provided. If no funding sources are identified by January 1, 2016, the bill would repeal these provisions.
Under existing law, the family temporary disability insurance program provides up to 6 weeks of wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, domestic partner, or to bond with a minor child within one year of the birth or placement of the child in connection with foster care or adoption. These benefits are payable for family temporary disability leaves that begin on and after July 1, 2004. This bill would, beginning on July 1, 2014, expand the scope of the family temporary disability program to include time off to care for a seriously ill grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or parent-in-law, as defined. The bill would also make conforming and clarifying changes in provisions relating to family temporary disability compensation. Under existing law, workers are required to pay contributions to the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund, a special fund in the State Treasury, and those funds are continuously appropriated for the purpose of providing disability benefits and making payment of expenses in administering those provisions. This bill, by authorizing expenditure of money in the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund for a new purpose, would make an appropriation.
This measure would encourage equitable and diverse gender representation on corporate boards, and urge that, within a 3-year period from January 2014 to December 2016, inclusive, every publicly held corporation in California with 9 or more director seats have a minimum of 3 women on its board, every publicly held corporation in California with 5 to 8 director seats have a minimum of 2 women on its board, and every publicly held corporation in California with fewer than 5 director seats have a minimum of one woman on its board.
This measure would designate September 2013 as School Attendance Awareness Month, and would encourage public officials, educators, and communities in California to observe the month with appropriate activities and programs.
This measure would designate the Willow Avenue Overcrossing over State Highway Route 4 in Contra Costa County as the Joe Eddy McDonald Memorial Overcrossing. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
Existing law provides that the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the Board of Parole Hearings, or both, may, for specified reasons, recommend to the court that a prisoner's sentence be recalled, and that a court may recall a prisoner's sentence. When a defendant who was under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of a crime has served at least 15 years of his or her sentence, existing law allows the defendant to submit a petition for recall and resentencing, and authorizes the court, in its discretion, to recall the sentence and to resentence the defendant, provided that the new sentence is not greater than the initial sentence. This bill would require the Board of Parole Hearings to conduct a youth offender parole hearing to consider release of offenders who committed specified crimes prior to being 18 years of age and who were sentenced to state prison. The bill would make a person eligible for release on parole at a youth offender parole hearing during the 15th year of incarceration if the person meeting these criteria received a determinate sentence, during the 20th year if the person received a sentence that was less than 25 years to life, and during the 25th year of incarceration if the person received a sentence that was 25 years to life. The bill would require the board, in reviewing a prisoner's suitability for parole, to give great weight to the diminished culpability of juveniles as compared to adults, the hallmark features of youth, and any subsequent growth and increased maturity of the prisoner in accordance with relevant case law. The bill would require that, in assessing growth and maturity, psychological evaluations and risk assessment instruments, if used by the board, be administered by licensed psychologists employed by the board and take into consideration the diminished culpability of juveniles as compared to that of adults, the hallmark features of youth, and any subsequent growth and increased maturity of the individual. The bill would permit family members, friends, school personnel, faith leaders, and representatives from community-based organizations with knowledge about the young person prior to the crime or his or her growth and maturity since the commission of the crime to submit statements for review by the board. Existing law requires the board to meet with each inmate sentenced pursuant to certain provisions of law during his or her 3rd year of incarceration for the purpose of reviewing his or her file, making recommendations, and documenting activities and conduct pertinent to granting or withholding postconviction credit. This bill would instead require the board to meet with those inmates, including those who are eligible to be considered for parole pursuant to a youth offender parole hearing, during the 6th year prior to the inmate's minimum eligible parole release date. The bill would also require the board to provide an inmate additional, specified information during this consultation, including individualized recommendations regarding the inmate's work assignments, rehabilitative programs, and institutional behavior, and to provide those findings and recommendations, in writing, to the inmate within 30 days following the consultation. Existing law, added by Proposition 8, adopted June 8, 1982, and amended by Proposition 36, adopted November 6, 2012, commonly known as the Three Strikes law, requires increased penalties for certain recidivist offenders in addition to any other enhancement or penalty provisions that may apply, including individuals with current and prior convictions of a serious felony, as specified. Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, adopted November 7, 2006, commonly known as Jessica's Law, requires a person convicted of certain felonies under specified circumstances to be committed to prison for a term of years to life. This bill would exempt from its provisions inmates who were sentenced pursuant to the Three Strikes law or Jessica's Law, or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The bill would not apply to an individual to whom the bill would otherwise apply, but who, subsequent to attaining 18 years of age, commits an additional crime for which malice aforethought is a necessary element of the crime or for which the individual is sentenced to life in prison.
Existing law authorizes the board of supervisors of Alameda County to establish an independent hospital authority strictly and exclusively dedicated to the management, administration, and control of the Alameda County Medical Center, and sets forth the powers and duties of the hospital authority, including, but not limited to, the power to contract for services required to meet its obligations. This bill would prohibit the hospital authority from entering into any contract with any private person or entity before January 1, 2024, to replace services being provided by physicians and surgeons who are employed by the hospital authority and in a recognized collective bargaining unit as of March 31, 2013, with services provided by a private person or entity without clear and convincing evidence that the needed medical care can only be delivered cost-effectively by a private contractor. The bill would require that the authority, prior to entering into a contract for any of those services, negotiate with the representative of the recognized collective bargaining unit of its physician and surgeon employees over the decision to privatize, and would require unresolved disputes to be submitted to final binding arbitration. Existing law establishes the hospital authority as a district for the purposes of providing retirement benefits under the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 and provides that employees of the hospital authority are eligible to participate in the county employees' retirement system to the extent permitted by law. Existing law establishes the Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association as a retirement system pursuant to the provisions of the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937. This bill would limit the participation of certain employees of the hospital authority, including those who are employees of a facility that is acquired by, or merged into, the hospital authority, in the Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association, subject to specified criteria. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for resolving the unique needs faced by the county with respect to the operation and administration of the medical center. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to pass legislation that reflects the value and intent set forth in the Postal Service Protection Act of 2013, as introduced, in order to ensure the modernization and preservation of the United States Postal Service.