Source:
SF ChronicleOn his final day to act on more than 140 bills, Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday waded into sensitive areas of health care and law enforcement, signing a bill requiring health plans to cover a key autism treatment and another that protects illegal immigrant drivers at police checkpoints.
The governor signed a measure allowing children as young as 12 to seek prevention treatment, such as vaccinations, for sexually transmitted diseases such as HPV without parental consent. Brown vetoed a bill that would have given women additional information about their mammography results.
The governor signaled reluctance in signing the autism bill, SB946 by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. It mandates that health plans cover applied behavioral analysis therapy for children with autism, beginning in July 2012 and continuing for two years.
As a result, the mandate will either be temporary or act as a bridge to 2014, when the federal government is set to issue minimum coverage standards as part of the health care overhaul.
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/10/MN3E1LFFK4.DTL&ao=all
Regarding the unlicensed driver law (AB353): it directs law enforcement at DUI checkpoints to cite unlicensed drivers but not always impound the car. If the registered owner/licensed driver can be found, the vehicle is sent to that person instead, otherwise the car is off to the impound lot.
A study by the AAA shows that unlicensed drivers are 5x more likely to be in fatal crashes.
The reception of this bill at the previous thread was very mixed.