New Laws Coming to California in 2014
NBC Los Angeles
By Samantha Tata
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2013
New Laws Coming to California in 2014
From search warrants seeking blood to teens' texting and driving, these laws are freshly enacted or about to go into effect
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TRANSGENDER RIGHTS: Students in grades K-12 who identify as transgender will be allowed to use school bathrooms and play on sport teams “consistent with their gender identity,” starting Jan. 1, 2014.
GAY SCOUT BAN: Starting Jan. 1, 2014, the 116,000-member Boy Scouts of America will lift its ban on openly gay scouts, though the ban on openly gay leaders is still in effect.
As the New Year approaches, there are several new laws about to be enacted in California -- from transgender students' rights and a minimum wage boost, to sharing the road with bicyclists and changes to tips at restaurants.
Here is a round up of some of the new edicts:
PLASTIC BAG BAN: Shoppers in the city of Los Angeles will have to bring their own reusable bags or fork up 10 cents per sack at large retail stores, starting Jan. 1, 2014. Smaller stores have until July 1, 2014, to phase out single-use plastic bags.
TRANSGENDER RIGHTS: Students in grades K-12 who identify as transgender will be allowed to use school bathrooms and play on sport teams “consistent with their gender identity,” starting Jan. 1, 2014.
MINIMUM WAGE HIKE: Workers earning minimum wage will net $9 an hour starting July 1, 2014. The increase is part of a three-year plan that will raise the hourly minimum wage in California to $10 – one of the highest in the nation – by 2016. Under another bill, domestic workers will have to be paid time and a half if they work more than nine hours in a day or more than 45 hours in a week; baby sitters are exempt.
GAY SCOUT BAN: Starting Jan. 1, 2014, the 116,000-member Boy Scouts of America will lift its ban on openly gay scouts, though the ban on openly gay leaders is still in effect.
PAPARAZZI CRACKDOWN: Backed by actresses including Halley Berry and Jennifer Garner, a new measure will impose tougher penalties on paparazzi that harass the children of public figures, including celebrities, police officers and judges. Starting in January, violators could face up to a year in county jail and a fine of up to $10,000. Fines would increase for subsequent convictions.
MORE ROOM FOR BICYCLISTS: Drivers must give cyclists a 3-foot clearing when passing or, when that clearance isn’t possible, slow down and only pass when there’s enough room. Starting Sept. 16, 2014, passing too close to a bicyclist could result in a fine for the driver, whether there was a crash or not.
AMBER ALERT EXPANSION: Abductions by custodial parents or guardians, who may cause serious bodily injury or death to the child, now will require law enforcement to request the activation of an AMBER Alert.
TEXTING AND DRIVING: Drivers under the age of 18 are not allowed to use voice recognition software, like Apple’s “Siri,” to write, send or read a text while behind the wheel.
ON-CAMPUS SMOKING: All 10 University of California campuses will be smoke-free starting Jan. 1, 2014. The ban includes all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.
HYBRIDS RIDING HOV: Low-emission or zero-emission vehicles can continue using high-occupancy vehicle, or carpool, lanes without meeting occupancy requirements until Jan. 1, 2019.
FINDING HIT-AND-RUN DRIVERS: A new bill extends the current three-year statute of limitations for hit-and-run offenses to six years from the date of a crash that causes death or permanent, serious injuries.
GROUP GRATITUITY: Tips automatically added to a restaurant bill (usually when a table seats 6 or more diners) will now be taxable as regular wages and subject to payroll tax withholding, which means your server won’t see those tips until payday instead of taking it home as cash.
SEARCH WARRANTS: A driver suspected of DUI who refuses to submit to or fails to complete a blood test can be served a search warrant to draw blood in a “reasonable, medically approved manner.” This law went into effect Sept. 20.
VICTIM PROTECTION: Employers are now barred from firing, discriminating or retaliating against a worker because they are a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. The new law also requires employers to protect victims from their abusers, for example, by changing the employee's work number.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...238026991.html
California transgender student law could quickly face challenge
by Cheryl Wetzstein
The Washington Times
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
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Kevin Snider, chief counsel for Pacific Justice Institute, said this week that while referendum supporters are confident they have enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot, a subsidiary fight is brewing over the state’s refusal to accept signatures on a deadline technicality.
California transgender student law could quickly face challenge
Will be stayed if enough signatures collected for public vote
A first-of-its-kind California law on transgender students goes into effect Wednesday, but its authority could end in a week if state officials find that enough registered voters want to challenge it in November.
State officials are scheduled to report on Jan. 8 whether they have received enough valid signatures to put the law, AB 1266, up for a public vote. If they have enough, the law will be stayed.
A coalition called Privacy for All Students gathered some 620,000 signatures in 90 days. About 505,000 valid signatures are needed to put AB 1266 before voters in November.
Meanwhile, a separate lawsuit contests the validity of more than 5,000 of those signatures; a court hearing is scheduled for Friday.
AB 1266, enacted in August, is intended to permit transgender students to choose by themselves which bathrooms and locker rooms they will use, and which sports teams they will join.
California schools are already required not to discriminate against transgender students, and they currently work with students and their families to address pertinent issues. However, gay-rights groups and some transgender students said the old policy was not sensitive enough.
“I’ve been systematically placed in a [sports] class with all girls and my school was unwilling to change my schedule,” Ashton Lee, a biological female living as a transgender male, told a June hearing before a California Senate committee.
It is “devastating for my school to deny my identity” and “make me live as someone I’m not,” the 16-year-old said, adding that “the many other transgendered youth in California need the School Success and Opportunity Act” as well.
Other Californians, including parents of schoolchildren, said the new law — dubbed the “coed bathroom bill” — is outrageous because it would force students to share private facilities with children of the opposite sex.
This week, the California secretary of state’s office said AB 1266 will go into effect as planned on Jan. 1. If on Jan. 8, there aren’t enough valid signatures in the sampling to advance the referendum, AB 1266 will remain in effect. If enough signatures are found to be valid, AB 1266 will be immediately stayed while the referendum process continues.
Kevin Snider, chief counsel for Pacific Justice Institute, said this week that while referendum supporters are confident they have enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot, a subsidiary fight is brewing over the state’s refusal to accept signatures on a deadline technicality.
The skirmish involves Mr. Snider and attorneys with the firm Sweeney, Greene and Roberts and 5,000 signatures from Tulare and Mono counties, which Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office has declined to accept.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 3 before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen H. Sumner.
Numerically, these 5,000 signatures are “not a make or break” for the overall referendum, said Mr. Snider. “But it’s a matter of principle that each voter’s opinion counts and they shouldn’t be disenfranchised.”
The lawsuit names Ms. Bowen, Mono County Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts, Tulare County Registrar of Voters Rita Woodard and as many as 100 unnamed persons as defendants. The California attorney general’s office is named as their legal representative.
Petitioner Gina Gleason said in the lawsuit that the deadline to file signatures was Nov. 10, which was a Sunday over the Veterans Day holiday weekend.
In Tulare County, the signatures were sent to Federal Express on Nov. 7, marked for “next day delivery” to Ms. Woodard’s office. The courier arrived around 3 p.m. on Nov. 8, a Friday, and found the office closed.
The courier went to the Tulare County mailroom and found an employee still at work, but that person “refused to accept delivery of the referendum petition sections and told the Federal Express courier to return” on Tuesday, after the holiday, the lawsuit said. A Federal Express courier did so, and the petitions were accepted and signed for Nov. 12.
In Mono County, a courier for On-Trac Delivery found no one in the office on Nov. 9, a Saturday, and placed “the package in the designated mail slot” at Ms. Roberts‘ office.
Ms. Gleason’s lawsuit said both counties promptly submitted their tallies of “raw signatures” to Ms. Bowen’s office, but the secretary of state refused to accept them, saying they were not “filed” when they were delivered to the county offices.
Ms. Bowen’s office has adopted a “strained reading” of the law, and is infringing on the constitutional rights of Ms. Gleason and the voters in two counties, said the lawsuit, which asks the court to direct Ms. Bowen to accept the counties’ signatures and pay court costs.
