On a bipartisan 60-11 vote by the 80-member lower house, AB 1581 (Wieckowski) passed the Assembly and heads to the Senate.   The focus of the bill is to inform consumer on where their florist is located to prevent call centers, potentially located hundreds or thousands of miles away, from using a local city or neighborhood in their name and duping consumers into believing they are patronizing a "local" florist. "If they have a choice, many people want to support their local small businesses by purchasing from their hometown stores," Wieckowski said in a statement after the Assembly vote.

Twenty-eight other states have similar truth-in-floral-advertising laws including Arizona, Washington and New Jersey. Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation last year to require such location disclosure. A website created by local florists, Florist Detective, offers tips on how to avoid inadvertently buying from floral telemarketing such as checking the address and googling the listed phone number. Wieckowski and the floral association say California customers who unwittingly do business with an out-of-state call center get less for their money and deprive the state of sales tax revenue.

On a party line vote, a bill that would place hest stress rules in statute for ag workers moved through the Assembly labor committee. In 2005, agriculture and other employers of outside workers, negotiated a set of heat stress regulation with labor representatives at the request of Governor Schwarzenegger. These rules apply across all industries where employees can be exposed to heat related illnesses. The regulations have worked. According to the Labor Agency, agricultural compliance has grown every year and illness and deaths have declines. However, this legislation would greatly expand the regulations by requiring water within 10 feet of every employee, enough shade for every employee to use at the same time, shade required within 200 feet. More concerning are the other elements of the bill including a private right of action for employees to sue for enforcement and collect attorney's fees, a death benefit outside workers compensation and joint liability. The association is coordinating with a cross section of entities to oppose the legislation.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
"Hand Tied and Cascading Bouquet Workshop"

Create hand-tied and cascading bouquets that enhance the bride and her gown. Blend the ideal flowers, foliage and accessories. Learn to work with bouquet holders & wire. Elevate your image to increase revenue with your signature bouquets.

9 am - 12 pm OR 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Each session is identical. Participants only need to attend one session for complete content.

*$125 *All materials included
Payable by cash or credit. No account charges.

Full registration only. Enrollment limited to 25 guests per class; no visitors please.
Supplies: please bring pruners and floral knife.

MT. EDEN FLORAL COMPANY

Workshop location: 
658 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
To Register, contact Joylani at 408 213 6064

Click here for website 

Abandoning all hope of negotiating a compromise set of changes to proposed federal child labor protections that would limit a good share of on-farm and related enterprise youth employment, the Department of Labor (DOL) late last week formally withdrew its controversial proposed rulemaking. The proposed rule would have restricted significantly any work done by youth under 16 years old on their parents' farm, operations owned by relatives or in related employment within the ag community. A coalition of producer, processor, feed, grain and other ag interests, led by the Michigan Farm Bureau, opposed the DOL proposal, saying it would not only restrict the traditional role of youth labor on farms and ranches - including barring kids under 16 from herding animals on horseback or operating any machinery - but would have prohibited teenagers from working in grain elevators and other related ag businesses. Reps. Denny Rehberg (R, MT), Tom Latham (R, IA) and Dan Boren (D, OK) introduced legislation to block the DOL rulemaking, and House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) said, "I hope this will serve as a lesson to the administration that they should seek input from the agriculture sector before continuing to move forward with unworkable regulations." Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, long a champion of migrant labor protections, said she was only trying to modernize federal child labor protections, but it's apparent she and her department seriously misunderstood the impact of the proposed restrictions.

In what can be described as the war between the crops, midwestern and northern tier farm Senators carried the day as the Senate Agriculture Committee approved its version of the 2012 Farm Bill 16-5 late last week, losing all votes from southern Senators. The bill started the markup boasting almost $27 billion in savings over 10 years, but wound up when the final vote was taken saving only a bit more than $23 billion. A subsequent cost score by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says savings amount to only $17.4 billion, with another analysis expected soon. The attacks from cotton, rice, sugar and peanut interests were swift, alleging the approved commodity title favors corn and soybeans and larger midwestern farmers - with greater experience with crop insurance benefits - over their Deep South cousins. At one point, the unrest was enough to postpone the scheduled markup for 24 hours as committee staff tried to mollify southern crop producers.  

The core of the crop program dispute is the end of $5 billion in conventional direct payments, counter-cyclical payments and the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program, replaced by the Agricultural Risk Coverage program (ARC). ARC, built off an assumption prices will not dip significantly over the life of the bill and including an end to per-farm payment eligibility loopholes, is a "shallow loss" federally subsidized insurance program. ARC pays out when producers suffer crop and/or price losses of 11-21%, predicated on a per-farm acreage option (65%) or a county acreage option (80%) loss. Any loss over 21% would be paid for by conventional crop insurance. However, should prices drop dramatically, any budget savings from eliminating direct payments would be quickly erased, say independent analysts. Overall commodity payments by the government would drop by about 33% under the new scheme, with corn and soybean farmers seeing less reduction, while cotton, rice, peanuts and wheat would see a greater reduction in benefits.  

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, GA), former chair and ranking member of the ag committee, said, "It is neither equitable nor fair and attempts to redistribute resources from one region to another. By squeezing all crops into a program especially designed for one or two crops, this bill will force many growers, particularly in our region, to switch to those crops in order to have an effective safety net, and isn't this the very planting distortion caused by farm policy we ought to avoid?" The bill will continue to evolve on the way to the Senate floor as changes designed to stem southern opposition are explored as part of a substitute "managers' amendment." Sen. Charles Grassley (R, IA), however, said this week the bill may not need the southerners to pass given its bipartisan approval in committee. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV), on record pledging floor action if the committee passed a strongly bipartisan Farm Bill, has given no indication when or if he plans to bring the bill to the floor. House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) said the Senate panel's approved program "is not the commodity title that is ready to be part of a final Farm Bill."  

He commended committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) and ranking member Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS) for making good on their pledge to get an omnibus farm package out of their committee before Memorial Day - and with a strong bipartisan vote - but added, "I look forward to working with them to end up with a final bill that continues the committee's history of providing equitable coverage for all commodities in all regions." Lucas' committee this week announced two more Washington, DC, Farm Bill hearings; the first will be May 8 to look at specialty crops and nutrition programs, and the second will be May 10 to review credit provisions. Back in the Senate, Chambliss was joined in his "nay" vote by Sen. Thad Cochran (R, MS), another former committee chair Sen. Mitch McConnell (R, KY), Sen. John Boozman (R, AR) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY), who voted against the bill based on its cuts to food stamp funding.

1. If they aren't convulsing, it's not serious: Convulsions are not the only sign of a serious heat injury (for example, heat stroke), and convulsions aren't always present when an employee is in serious heat-related trouble.
   
   Symptoms of a serious heat-related injury include hot, dry, flushed skin; lack of sweating; bizarre/confused behavior; high temperature; staggering; and a strong rapid pulse. If an employee has been working in the heat and exhibits any of these symptoms, he or she should be moved to a cool area and medical assistance summoned immediately-employees suffering heat stroke can die if not treated promptly.   
2. Sports drinks are necessary when working in the heat: Maybe. Whether an employee needs to replenish the salt and other electrolytes found in the drinks depends on the duration of symptoms and the temperature. If profuse sweating occurs over long periods of time, for example, providing sports drinks may be appropriate. Often, though, simply having employees drink water frequently throughout the day is sufficient.
   
   Some important points to remember about sports drinks: They tend to be sugar-filled and therefore generally a poor choice but particularly so for employees with Type 2 diabetes. The drinks can also cause stomach upset in some people (it can help to dilute the sports drink with water before serving). And sports drinks can be unpalatable when not served cold, causing some employees to avoid them.
   
   Remember, too, that liquids provided to employees working in the heat should be cool and not ice cold. Ice cold liquids can cause stomach cramps in some people and are absorbed more slowly by the body.   
3. Heat affects everyone equally: Individual variations can cause employees to be affected differently by the heat. Workers who are older, recovering from a recent injury or illness, obese, taking certain medications, pregnant, less physically fit, or new to a position are among those likely to be affected by the heat to a greater degree. Make these workers aware that they are at a higher risk from suffering heat-related injuries and should take steps accordingly.
   
   Note also that heat injury does not necessarily require heavy physical exertion. In high temperatures and humidity, exposure with only minor physical activity can cause a heat-related injury, particularly in the high-risk employees described above.

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Not sure how to protect your workers from the heat? Join in on  May 9 for the 90-minute webinar "Heat Illness: How To Keep Your Workers Safe and Productive When the Mercury Rises."