Humboldt Sentinel

California in Fiscal Crisis: Half a Billion Dollars Removed From State Judiciary On Monday

‘Day of Reckoning’ for California Courts

By Maria Dinzeo
Courthouse News Service

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – In what he termed a “day of reckoning” for California, Governor Jerry Brown slashed the state’s court budget by more than a half-billion dollars on Monday. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye reacted, “The proposed cuts to the judicial branch are both devastating and disheartening.”

An immediate target for the ax was the central administrative office for the California courts which has been criticized as wasteful, bloated and arrogant.

“The Administrative Office of the Courts must immediately slash its own budget to free up any available monies for the trial courts,” said Sacramento trial judge Steve White.

Governor Brown’s May revised budget cuts a total of $544 million from the state court budget but also comes on top of huge, cumulative cuts over the last two years.

Brown calls for the courts to use $300 million of their reserves instead of getting money from the state. The rest of the $544 million will be offset by taking $240 million out of the courts’ construction fund and $4 million will be gained by increasing court employees’ retirement contributions.

In addressing reporters Monday, Brown indicated that funding for the courts is not the state’s top priority.

“The money is not in a piggy bank,” said Brown. “It comes from the people. Just like everybody else, nothing in government is an absolute, unconditioned good. Every good is relative to all the other goods, in the context of what’s available.”

“As the courts make their arguments,” he added, “the Legislature will listen and weigh that against childcare, against CalWORKs, against a lot of other things. We’ve got three branches of government and they’re all going to have some of their branches trimmed.”

California Department of Finance Director Ana Matosantos said Monday that a fundamental reorganization of the court structure carried out under former chief justice Ron George had exacerbated the financial difficulty for the courts.

“Before, we used to have local funding for the courts,” said Matosantos. “The state has now transitioned it to a state-funded court system. The May revision is asking should the state be making reductions to child care, to CalWORKs?  It basically changes the structure and uses those available reserves to avoid cuts to other areas.”

“The state will direct the Judicial Council to offset the allocation that the courts would otherwise receive with the available reserves,” she said with authority.

“The general fund share for the courts has gone down about 20 percent,” added Matosantos. “What’s happened in the past is the Legislature, the Governor and the Judicial Council have looked at other funds to backfill those reductions,” she said.

 ”Last year, trial courts had roughly $562 million in available reserves,” Matosantos explained. “The May revision says $300 million in reserves will be used to offset the allocation that the state would otherwise be providing for the courts. $240 million in additional savings come from delaying and suspending projects that were going to be moving forward next year.”

After the budget was unveiled, some trial judges said the courts’ reserves should not be used as the solution to the judiciary’s budget crisis, calling instead for severe cuts to the central bureaucracy of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

In the last nine years, the AOC lost a half-billion dollars on an IT project called the Court Case Management System, that was recently shut down. The project was widely criticized for its lack of cost controls.

 ”What the AOC needs to do is cut its staff and spending. That is what the really significant cut has to be,” said Judge Susan Lopez-Giss in Los Angeles. “It’s been clear for a while that the Legislature wasn’t going to be giving us money, not because they don’t recognize the courts but because the AOC has misspent so much of the money.”

Lopez-Giss said Los Angeles still plans to cut 300 jobs in June, and its $27 million in reserves will not even keep the court open for a month.

In Sacramento, Judge White said the AOC should cut its own budget before looking to the courts’ reserves, and was not surprised by the staggering cuts to the judiciary in the May revised budget.

“There’s no question that the judicial branch performs a critical function, and it has to continue to function. At the same time, when budget straits are as desperate as they are overall, the branch itself has to make all conceivable cuts and reductions in non court functions that it can in order to keep the courts open,” said White.

White added that the courts’ reserves were not meant to backfill funding reductions from the state, but are intended to keep courts going.

“The reserves are what the courts are living on day to day right now,” he said. “When I was presiding judge, we set aside about $14 million in reserves that we were spending every single day to keep our courthouse open. It is part of the budget that supports the court. If the AOC were to reach into the reserves rather than shutting down its own marginal operations and reducing its own staffing, it would be doing a great disservice to the courts of California. Certainly the courts would fight any effort to take those funds.”     

The Chief Justice said the burden of the cuts will fall heaviest on people trying to use court services. “They will seriously compromise the public’s access to their courts and our ability to provide equal access to justice throughout the state.” She has called for an emergency Judicial Council meeting Thursday to deliberate over how to best implement them.

The Alliance of California Judges, a reform group calling for legislation to increase local court funding issued a statement Monday saying, “Quite frankly, the day of reckoning has come to the judiciary. Years of mismanagement and misplaced priorities by the Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts have caused not only a budget crisis, but a crisis in confidence.”

The Alliance is sponsoring a bill, AB 1208, that is intended to give a hundred percent of the money allocated for the courts by the Legislature, directly to the courts. It currently goes to the Judicial Council, which decides how the money is distributed among the courts.

“The money allocated to the courts should be spent on the courts,” said Lopez-Giss in Los Angeles. “Unfortunately I think AB 1208 was justified before the May revise, when we had furloughs, when they said there would be cuts initially to the courts.”

White said, “There isn’t a single court in California that isn’t suffering mightily. Courts have made cuts right and left. The Administrative Office of the Courts has not, and simply has to now.”

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Article by Maria Dinzeo courtesy of the Courthouse News Service

‘Legislative Action on Courts Now Needed‘ by Kern County Superior Court Judge David R. Lampe details more about the fiscal reforms targeting the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Additional news on the Governor’s proposed May revise budget cutbacks can be found in William Dotinga’s ‘California’s Revised Budget Confronts Grim Realities‘

(Posted by Skippy Massey for the Humboldt Sentinel)

Humboldt County’s astounding beauty and apparent serenity disguise some truly disturbing health numbers

By Richard Kipling
California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting
University of Southern California

I don’t want to beat up on Humboldt County. I’ve driven through it a few times and it’s quintessential far northern California — beautiful, alluring, with Redwoods everywhere (the county motto is The Home of the Redwoods), a scenic coastline, pretty towns, friendly folk. The kind of place that sets an urban mind to wondering:  Could I live in this lush green paradise?

I’d like to spend more time there, for sure. But after a close look at the latest California Department of Public Health statistics, I might want to remain a visitor and not a resident. The county’s astounding beauty and apparent serenity disguise some truly disturbing health numbers.

The department recently released its County Health Status Profiles 2012, which provides a fascinating look at the leading causes of death for the years 2008-2010 for each of the state’s 58 counties. I just slalomed through 19 categories of death rates and Humboldt was a blinking neon sign. Let me take you on a tour.

In its overall death rate from all causes, Humboldt ranked next to worst, 57^th, with 865 deaths per 100,000 people. That compares to, say, Santa Clara County, with 509 deaths/100,000, or Marin County with 527. Quite a spread.

Or try the next category, deaths from all cancers. Humboldt ranked 56^th, with 185 per 100,000. I looked for another California county with a similar population number and poor, rural Imperial County fit the bill. Its numbers? 126 per 100,000, about a third lower.

Comb through the categories and there’s hardly any relief in the rankings for Humboldt County: deaths from colorectal cancer – 51^st; lung cancer – 40^th; female breast cancer – 51^st; prostate cancer – 52^nd; diabetes – 49^th; Alzheimer’s – 41^st; coronary heart disease – 39^th . Some of these constitute the county’s not-so-bad health outcomes – as if being ranked 41^st out of 58 is something to celebrate. I don’t pretend that they do.

But back to reality. For stroke, the county ranks dead last, 58^th, and is the only county in the state that failed to meet the “healthy people 2010 national objective” for that category.

The numbers are numbing. In deaths from chronic lower respiratory, it ranks 54^th; liver disease, 50^th; accidents, meaning unintentional injuries, 56^th; suicides, 55^th; firearm deaths, 52^nd; and drug-induced deaths, 57^th.

Overall, it ranks 50^th or lower in 13 of the 19 categories.

What could possibly explain this? Many of these categories line up with the characteristics explored in a 2008 study of suicide by the mental health branch of Humboldt County’s Department of Health and Human Services. It concluded that counties with high suicide rates “are largely rural, have lower median household income and 85 percent of counties had a higher proportion of people living in poverty as compared to the national percentage.”

A number of rural California counties fit this profile, Humboldt among them. The Census Bureau shows that Humboldt County’s poverty level is substantially higher than the state average, and its household income is one-third lower.  But other California counties have income and poverty profiles just as bad – in some cases considerably worse – without the widespread health problems.

Perhaps the mix of poverty and rural character is a factor, creating a physical and socio-cultural isolation that could be affecting health.  The physical isolation is made emphatically clear by Census figures: Humboldt’s density is 38 persons per square mile; the state’s average is 239.

In Humboldt County, the isolation we outsiders perceive as beauty may affect locals differently. Just think about the weather and the land. With rainfall averaging from 40 to 100 inches a year, perhaps there is a psychological dimension these statistics only hint at. The county encompasses 2.3 million acres, 80 percent of which, according to the county, “is forestlands, protected redwoods and recreation areas.” Eighty percent unsettled. Now that’s isolation.

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Reprinted by permission of the author, Mr. Richard Kipling and the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting, University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

The California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting partners with news organizations across the state to produce in-depth reporting on health-care issues of importance to consumers and policymakers.  Mr. Richard Kipling is Managing Editor.

Original article by Mr. Richard Kipling and information about the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting can be found here.

(Posted by Skippy Massey for the Humboldt Sentinel)

Only 21 days remain to qualify state initiative for November ballot

By Gabriele Fellows
Humboldt Sentinel

New developments loom on the horizon for 2012

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

NO SURPRISE HERE: The United States lead the world in GMO (genetically modified organism) plantings with 170 million acres in 2012 that produced 95% of the nation’s sugar beets, 94% of the soybeans, 90% of the cotton and 88% of the feed corn, according to The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) and USA Today.

Worldwide, 395 million acres of farmland were planted in biotech crops in 2011, 30 million more than 2010.

The ISAAA report released February 7, 2012, said a record 16.7 million farmers in 29 countries growing biotech crops on 395 million acres represents a 94-fold increase planted since 1996, making “biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history.”

The amount of land devoted to genetically engineered crops grew 8% last year, down from 10% growth in 2010. Nearly 90% of the global area planted to these crops was in just four countries – the US, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil. In contrast, less than 3% of cropland in India and China is planted almost exclusively in one crop – genetically modified cotton. Only two biotech crops are grown in the European Union: a tiny amount of its feed corn and just 245 acres of potatoes.

U.S. farmers and those in developing countries increased plantings of genetically modified crops around the globe in 2011, despite resistance from Europe and those who think such crops should carry special labels.

Genetically engineered food has had its DNA artificially altered with genes from other plants, animals, viruses, or bacteria, in order to produce foreign compounds creating desired traits in that food. Different than selective breeding or cloning, this genetic alteration is performed through experimental biotechnology and not found in nature.

BIOTECHNOLOGY’S GMO DEFENDERS AND DETRACTORS

AN INDUSTRY ADVOCATE and GMO supporter, Dr. Cathleen Enright is the Executive Vice President of Food and Agriculture for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).  In response to Tuesday’s ISAAA’s findings, Enright gave the company’s corporate line stating in a press release:

“This year’s ISAAA report further confirms what we have known all along:  that agricultural biotechnology is a key component in sustainable crop production. Biotechnology provides solutions for today’s farmers in the form of plants that yield more per acre, resist diseases and insect pests, and reduce farmers’ production costs, pesticide applications and on-farm fuel use.  History has taught us that embracing innovation and modern science can help us solve the world’s most pressing problems.  People who really want to combat hunger, to keep food costs affordable, to protect the environment and to mitigate climate change are adopting agricultural biotechnology and embracing the solutions that it provides.”

GMO advocates like Dr. Enright claim that genetic engineering boosts crop production and lowers costs. Currently the plants are often genetically modified to resist weed killers, diseases, or to generate their own insect repellent. Proponents such as Monsanto, the largest producer of GMO seeds, maintain fruits and vegetables last longer if they are genetically modified, can be stored longer and shipped farther without waste or spoilage, and be manipulated to be ‘more nutritious.’ Certain genetic modifications make plants less susceptible to common pests while drought, salt, frost and heat resistance are improved.

GMO critics, however, maintain companies like Monsanto merely desire to boost their own bottom line profits by developing these so-called ‘Frankenfoods’. Monsanto can sell more of the company’s products such as Roundup (an herbicide used in conjunction with, and specifically complementing, its ‘Roundup Ready’ GMO seeds) and control the global food supply using proprietary patents and selling its ‘terminator seeds’. Like hybrid seeds, terminator seeds saved by the farmer from a year’s previous crop will not reproduce or grow properly, forcing new seed sales from Monsanto every year. Monsanto has sued farmers who have complained that their fields were contaminated from cross-pollination by the company’s GMO plants.

Some believe GMO crops on the whole are systematically destroying food and seed biodiversity throughout the globe– and that Monsanto has been trying to monopolize the global seed market through its practices. Fears over these crops also include possible health concerns, worries about damage to traditional agricultural practices, and strong feelings that these bio-engineered foods are simply “unnatural.”

Critics point out  that government scientists have found the artificial insertion of DNA into host plants can increase the levels of known toxicants in foods, introduce new toxicants or allergens, and reduce the nutritional value of foods. The level of uncertainty surrounding the safety of genetically engineered foods has led the American Academy of Environmental Medicine to recommend that physicians prescribe a GMO-free diet to all their patients. Foods grown from genetically modified seeds have been observed to cause toxic and allergic reactions in animals consuming them, and longer term feeding studies found infertility, stunted growth, and high infant mortality in lab animals.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS: Salmon, Alfalfa, and More

TWO CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES for genetically engineered food loom on the horizon: the possibility that the Food and Drug Administration will approve in the coming year a farmed, engineered salmon species genetically designed to grow faster, and the re-introduction of genetically engineered alfalfa.

Massachusetts-based AquaBounty is seeking U.S. approval to market its engineered Atlantic salmon which contains a gene from another fish species, the Chinook salmon, to help it grow twice as fast as normal.  If approved by the FDA, it would be the first genetically altered animal for human consumption in the United States. Seeing genetically modified salmon as a potential solution to environmental concerns associated with salmon aquaculture, AquaBounty discounts fears the gene-altered salmon might accidentally escape into the wild and affect other fish because they will be sterile, all-female fish raised in land-based facilities.  AquaBounty is also developing “trout and tilapia designed to grow faster than their conventional siblings,” according to the company’s website.

Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter and two other consumer groups petitioned the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday to subject the new genetically engineered salmon to a more rigorous review process than is now in place before the fish can be approved as safe to eat.  They point out the way these salmon are created substantially alters their composition and nutritional value. AquaBounty’s own study showed that genetically engineered salmon may contain increased levels of a hormone linked to breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer.

Genetically engineered salmon is a new development. “Animals are different from plants. A genetically engineered animal is a whole different thing. Not having them labeled is disturbing,“ says Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union in Yonkers, N.Y.

Genetically modified alfalfa was banned after a lawsuit in 2007, but the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the ban in 2010. Opposition came in part from organic farmers, fearing that genetically modified alfalfa pollen could contaminate organic alfalfa fields, making it impossible for that alfalfa to be sold as organic and marketed as organic cow feed. “That will really threaten one of the core organic products, which is organic milk,” Halloran said. 

Mark McCaslin of Forage Genetics, which helped create the alfalfa seed with Monsanto, is looking towards the future. “About 10 to 20 percent of the seed planted this year will be Roundup Ready—probably about 5 million acres. If we look out five years ahead, it’s reasonable to expect that one third to one half of all alfalfa fields could be Roundup Ready,” McCaslin said.

Future GMO crops likely to be commercialized by 2015 include rice, eggplant, potatoes, and wheat. While industry advocates say drought resistant, nutritionally enhanced, and higher yield crops are expected in the near future, critics insist the industry has fallen short of these promises in the past.

Companies are also developing genetically modified farm animals, although none have been approved by the FDA. Proponents argue that faster growing, healthier, more nutritious and disease-resistant animals would help feed the world’s growing population, but many ethical, environmental and health questions remain unanswered.

SAVING AN INDUSTRY

MEANWHILE, genetically-engineered papayas recently went on sale in Japan, according to the Voice of America news. The newly introduced “Rainbow” papayas are the only gene-altered fruit on the market today in Japan, a country with strict laws regarding GMOs including a requirement that they be labeled as such – a rule that does not exist in the United States. The papaya’s arrival in Japan comes as advocates in the United States press the government to require labels on all GMO foods.

Released in 1998, the Rainbow papaya was developed by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Dennis Gonsalves and colleagues who claim the Hawaii-grown papaya is the best in the world. “Go and taste it,” Gonsalves said.

But taste wasn’t the only reason Gonsalves developed it. In the 1990s, a ring spot virus ravaged Hawaii’s papaya groves leaving the industry bordering on collapse. They engineered the papaya’s genetic makeup to produce a small piece of the virus’s outer shell in its cells, triggering the plant’s immune system.

“It’s almost like a vaccination,” Gonsalves noted, “and just like vaccinated people, the genetically-engineered plants do not get sick with the virus,” he said. Gonsalves added the piece of virus won’t harm people because tests showed it breaks down in three seconds in the harsh environment of the human stomach.

“It virtually saved the papaya industry in Hawaii,” Gonsalves said, “So now, Rainbow papaya accounts for 80 percent of Hawaii’s papaya.”

According to Gonsalves and his colleagues, fighting the virus was only half the battle. They had to convince their biggest customer – Japan – that the fruit was safe to eat. It took more than a decade of tests before Japanese regulators were satisfied. The last hurdle was labeling. Japan requires that all GMOs be labeled. That’s also the law in the European Union and many other countries, but not in the United States.

Or in California, for that matter.  But that may change.

THE 2012 CALIFORNIA LABELING INITIATIVE

AN INITITIATIVE for the November 2012 ballot called the ‘California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act’ seeks to require labeling.

Not all Californian are convinced GMOs are either safe or ethical. While the debate over GMOs and their impacts rages on, polls indicate 80% of Californians want products with GMOs labeled as such.

Initiative supporters and consumers alike believe they have the right to know what’s in their food– and whether or not they want to eat it.

In the 150 countries around the world where labeling is required–including the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and China—GMO products are in less than 5% of the food in grocery stores. In the United States, a conservative estimate by the Grocery Manufacturers Association is that GMOs are in 80% or more of the processed food eaten every day. Currently, the only way to avoid GMOs is to buy exclusively organic products. Labeling would change this.

No matter where you are in California, initiative organizers say if you want to make labeling GMOs become a reality, you should visit the state organization’s website at labelgmos.org. and contact your local group about gathering signatures.

LOCAL EFFORTS IN HUMBOLDT

LOCALLY, Southern and Northern Humboldt County organizers will be joining the statewide coalition of 150 groups gathering 800,000 signatures for the ‘Right to Know’ GMO labeling effort starting February 21.  Community members are invited to join together, meet other volunteers, watch a short film about the importance of labeling GMO foods, and receive signature gathering training, instructions, and petitions.

The Southern Humboldt branch will have a signature gathering workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 21, from 5 to 6 p.m. at Calico’s restaurant in Garberville. Call Rosa Rashall at #986-7469 for more information.

The Northern Humboldt group is hosting their signature gathering orientation at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) on the Humboldt State University campus, 1 Harpst Street, in Arcata on Friday, February 25, at 5 p.m. The Northern Humboldt group also holds campaign initiative meetings every Sunday at 4 p.m. at Sun Yi’s Academy of Tae Kwon Do in Arcata. Call #707-223-0424 for more information.

For more details on the local campaign and how to participate, visit http://www.labelgmos.org/humboldt or find them on Facebook.

THE POSSIBILITIES of better living through science and technology are as endless as they are controversial. Perhaps many genetically modified foods introduced in the near future will prove to be safe. Will most or all of them be safe? Nobody knows.  A 2011 Canadian study indicated the blood of 93% of pregnant women sampled and 80% of their umbilical-cord blood contained a pesticide put into GMO corn by Monsanto.  Further studies are necessary  to validate these controversial and non-peer reviewed findings.

“We’ll see in 20 years, after the guinea pigs”—consumers—”have all used these products,” says George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley, the nation’s largest organic-farming cooperative. “I’m really disillusioned.”

Scientists and FDA regulators have concluded time and time again that labeling is unnecessary and bioengineered foods are perfectly safe. “The FDA has no basis for concluding that bioengineered foods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way, or that, as a class, foods developed by the new techniques present any different or greater safety concern than foods developed by traditional plant breeding,” the agency said in their 2001 guidance document.

One thing is for certain, however. The GMO advocates, their lobbyists, and food manufacturers will fight tooth and nail against California’s labeling efforts. The industry knows that if foods are labeled “genetically engineered,” the public will shy away and won’t take them. The industry’s not stupid.

They already know what Birke Baehr, an 11-year old homeschooled kid from North Carolina, thinks.

Additional Reading and Sources for this Report:

YouTube Primer: ‘What is Genetically Modified Food?‘
Why We Don’t Need GM Food
Latest GMO News, Articles, and Information
Facts About GMOs
Fun Facts About GMOs
California Initiative to Label GMOs
USA Today: ‘Genetically Modified Foods Had Bumper Year for 2011’
Voice of America: ‘Genetically-Modified Papaya Hits Shelves in Japan’
GM Crops: Top Ten Figures and Facts (a GMO pro-industry piece)
Huffington Post: ‘GMO Salmon: US Consumer Groups Petition FDA for Tougher Probe of Engineered Salmon’
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) press release: ‘More Farmers Favor Biotech Crops’
The Daily Beast: ‘Obama’s Organic Game’
NPR: ‘Politics Heating Up Over Labeling GMO Foods’
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Bioengineering Draft Guidance Report, 2001 (updated 2009)
ISAAA Executive Summary released February 7, 2012: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops, 2011

See for yourself the future of plant and animal biotechnology: here’s the Monsanto website and the biotech seeds they sell, AquaBounty’s GM Salmon page, and ISAAA’s Genetically Modified Plant Approval Database. Looking safely from a distance is good.

Sacramento makes things that much more complicated

By Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

Out with the old– and in with the new.  California Governor Brown signed 760 bills with the majority of laws taking effect on or before January 1st, 2012.  Happy New Year, Humboldt.

Say goodbye to shark fin soup, openly carrying weapons, and buying alcohol through self serve checkout stands.  Minors are protected from expired baby food, strapped into car booster seats until the age of 8 (or at 4 feet, 9 inches tall), and banned from tanning beds until the age of 18.

Insurance providers must include coverage for autism, cities and municipalities cannot ban circumcision, and human trafficking isn’t as easy as it used to be.

Here are some of the A-Z legislative highlights compiled by the Los Angeles Times:

Athlete safety: requires school districts to develop a process for identifying cases in which students suffer concussions in sports mishaps and require a parent to give written permission for the athlete to return to the lineup.

Audits: gives the state auditor broad new powers to investigate misuse of taxpayer funds by cities and counties, in response to the financial scandal in the city of Bell.

Autism:  requires health insurers to include coverage for autism.

Baby food: bans stores from selling expired infant food and formula.

Bail: requires that people extradited to California to face criminal charges face $100,000 in bail in addition to any bail already issued for the underlying offense.

Ballot measures: requires all ballot initiatives and referenda to be decided in November general elections, which typically have higher turnout — and more liberal voters casting ballots — than do June primaries. Excludes measures placed on the ballot by the Legislature.

Beer: bars the importation, production and sale of beer to which caffeine has been directly added as a separate ingredient, in response to incidents in which young people have been hospitalized with severe intoxication after drinking the beverages.

Bullet train: provides $4 million for planning work on a section of a high-speed rail system proposed between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Child actors: streamlines the process for obtaining state permission for minors to work in the entertainment industry by allowing parents to get temporary permits online rather than through the mail.

Clemency: requires governors to give prosecutors a chance to weigh in at least 10 days before acting on requests for commutation of prison terms. The law was proposed after former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger acted on his last day in office to reduce a prison sentence for the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez.

Cyber-bullying: allows schools to suspend students for bullying classmates on social networking sites such as Facebook.

Development projects: grants large construction projects chosen by the governor faster judicial reviews of environmental challenges.

Dream Act: The portion of the California Dream Act taking effect this year makes illegal immigrants accepted at California public universities and community colleges eligible for privately funded scholarships administered by the schools.

Drugs: outlaws the supplying of a drug or compound containing dextromethorphan to a person younger than 18 without a prescription.

Drunk drivers: authorizes courts to revoke, for up to a decade, the driver’s license of any person convicted of three or more DUIs in a 10-year period. Another law bars police agencies that set up drunk-driving checkpoints from impounding cars from sober but unlicensed drivers if there is a legal driver available to take the wheel.

Elder abuse: allows wage garnishments against anyone convicted of elder abuse or financial abuse of a dependent adult.

Farmworkers: requires that, if the Agricultural Labor Relations Board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct, the affected labor organization shall be certified as the exclusive bargaining representative.

Food stamps: eliminates the requirement that food stamp recipients be fingerprinted to prevent fraud. Another law calls for state agencies to promote more enrollment in the federal food stamp program.

Foster care: allows foster care for eligible youths to extend beyond age 18, up to age 21, when the Legislature provides the money. Another measure requires California State University campuses and community colleges to give foster youths priority to enroll in classes.

Gas pipelines: mandates automatic shut-off valves and improved maintenance in vulnerable sections of pipelines, in response to the deadly explosion in San Bruno in 2010.

Human trafficking: requires large retailers and manufacturers to publicly report what steps they take to make sure those providing their supplies and products are not engaging in slavery and human trafficking.

Infused drinks: allows bars to infuse alcohol with fruits and vegetables for use in cocktails.

Insurance: prohibits doctors, when treating workers’ compensation patients, from prescribing drugs in which they have a financial interest.

Iran:  mandates that the state’s pension boards divest their funds from companies that are part of the defense or nuclear industries in Iran.

Job applicants: bars employers from using credit reports in deciding whether to hire someone.

Labor: prohibits local officials from banning union labor agreements for publicly funded construction projects.

Lap-Bands: requires periodic inspections of outpatient surgery centers that perform Lap-Band operations and other procedures. The law is a response to the 2007 death of singer Kanye West’s mother after liposuction and breast augmentation surgery at a Westside clinic.

Libraries: restricts the privatization of public libraries by requiring that they continue to pay government-scale wages.

Lying politicians: forces elected officials to forfeit office if convicted of falsely claiming they have been awarded military decorations.

Marijuana: gives cities and counties clearer authority to regulate the location and operation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Another law creates new penalties for the possession of synthetic cannabis products, which have been sold in convenience stores and tobacco shops.

Maternity leave: requires employers to maintain and pay for health coverage while women are on maternity leave.

Medical consent: gives children 12 and older the authority to get medical care for the prevention of sexually transmitted disease, including the HPV vaccine, without parental consent.

Missing persons: requires law enforcement agencies to submit a missing persons report to the state attorney general when the person being sought is 21 or younger, a change from the current cutoff age of 16.

Needles: empowers cities and counties to allow pharmacists to furnish a customer with up to 30 hypodermic needles and syringes without a prescription. Another law permits the state Department of Public Health to allow select groups to provide hypodermic needles and syringe exchange services in any area where it determines that conditions exist for the rapid spread of HIV.

Presidential primary: moves the state’s presidential primary election from February to June and consolidates it with the statewide primary election to save $100 million.

Prison phones: makes it a crime for cell phones to be smuggled into state prisons and allows increased time behind bars for inmates caught with them.

Prostitution: imposes a special court fine of $25,000 on defendants convicted of prostitution involving a minor.

Protests: makes it a misdemeanor to create a disturbance on or next to an elementary or middle school campus where the action threatens the physical safety of students.

Puppies: outlaws the selling of live animals on any street, sidewalk, parking lot or other public right-of-way.

Raves: requires any state agency that plans an event with more than 10,000 people on state property to conduct a threat assessment before the event.

Recycling: establishes state policy that 75% of solid waste should be diverted from landfills to recycling and other processes by 2020.

Restaurants: may use up their supplies of shark fins — a delicacy in Chinese cooking — purchased before Jan. 1. After that, sale and possession of shark fins will be illegal.

Saving parks: allows nonprofits to take over the operation of state parks that otherwise would be closed because of budget problems.

Senior care: mandates that residential care facilities for the elderly notify residents within 10 days if the state determines that a serious health and safety violation occurred at the facility.

Sexual orientation: encourages state university systems to collect data on students’ sexual orientation and encourages the legislative analyst to use it to recommend improvements in the quality of life for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

Student government: authorizes illegal immigrants who are students to receive grants, fee waivers and reimbursement for serving in student government at public colleges.

Tax break: provides a tax credit to California farmers for the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables donated to California food banks.

Work rules: establishes an employee’s right to as many as three days of bereavement leave within three months following the death of a spouse, child, parent, grandchild, sibling or domestic partner.

Wine: provides a special permit that makes it easier for California firms to sell wine over the Internet, by phone or by direct mail.