(CNN) -- Beyond skateboards, Silicon Valley and hippies, California has a trendsetting streak of a different kind. The state has been first to pass major public health initiatives that have spread throughout the country. California was first to require smog checks for clean air, pass anti-tobacco initiatives and bike helmets laws. While these laws were met with skepticism and ridicule, they've often become standard practice in other states. The Golden State was first to ban smoking in workplaces, bars and restaurants in 1998. Now similar rules exist throughout the country. Some advocates tout the state as a forward-thinking vanguard in which its health and safety laws are routinely emulated by other states. "There have been progressive legislations in tobacco, environment and obesity prevention," said Mark Horton, a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. "In some respect, the rest of the country looks to California as a laboratory for moving forward with those various types of initiatives." But some critics liken the Golden State to a nanny state. California has 151,002 health and safety laws. "It never ends," said Laer Pearce, who works in public affairs in Orange County. "Every year, several hundred bills come through and dozens of them tell us how to live our lives." Starting in January, 760 new California laws went into effect -- for example, the importing of shark fins is prohibited, student athletes are required to have medical clearance after suffering a head injury, teens are banned from using tanning booths and the sale of caffeinated beer is forbidden. There's a perception that California has "more folks who are health-oriented and more health-minded," said Horton, former director of the California Department of Public Health. It's not just workout fanatics hanging out at Muscle Beach, Sierra Club members hiking mountains or the uber-health-conscious touting organic foods. Californians in general tend to have healthier habits, ranking 10th for physical activity, fourth for healthy blood pressure and fifth for a diet high in fruits and vegetables compared with other states, according to America's Health Rankings.

What are a few public health initiatives that California passed?

Roberta Adams skipped the thick how-to guide on child-custody forms and sat down at a computer at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange on Wednesday. The Garden Grove woman answered a series of questions to create and print a form to file with the court. "It's easy," said Adams, 25. "I thought I'd have all kinds of questions and have to take the forms home." A University of California, Irvine, study released Wednesday found an interactive computer system effectively helps people fill out paperwork for restraining orders, eviction defense, small-claims cases and requests for filing-fee waivers. Not only does the system make life easier for people who can't afford a lawyer, but it also might improve efficiency in the courts because the forms, which are printed out when completed, are easy to read and are being filled out correctly, the study found. Since the program started in 2000, more than 6,000 people have used the free system, located in public buildings throughout Orange County. The system was developed by the Legal Aid Society of Orange County with about $800,000 in grants. The program avoids legal jargon, offers a courthouse video tour and sticks to a fifth-grade vocabulary. Users can choose English, Spanish or Vietnamese. Kiosks are in courthouses in Fullerton and Orange, the district attorney's family-support office, the Legal Aid Society in Santa Ana, Irvine City Hall and the San Juan Capistrano Library. The program is also available online. Bob Cohen, executive director of Legal Aid, said the study should clear the way for expansion throughout California. Locally, a program for divorce petitions will be added this summer. Cohen said the system proves the benefit of technology tailored to those who aren't computer-savvy. He said much of the technology now available requires Internet skills and access. Low-income people, however, have less access to computers and less experience using them. "Our clients have to catch up, and they have to become a part of the mainstream," Cohen said.

Where can the program be accessed from?

Allan sat down at his desk and pulled the chair in close. Opening a side drawer, he took out a piece of paper and his inkpot. After filling his pen, Allan looked at his paper in the orange glow from the lantern set back in the desk's right-hand corner. His pen cast a forbidding line of shadow slanting across the page, echoing the inky darkness crouching in the edges of the lantern's struggling glow. The only other illumination came from a lurid moonlight filtered through thin branches and clouds, casting its bone-pale glow onto the pine floorboards. Allan unfolded another page, this one crowded with ranks of letters in tight formation from left to right. The lines of letters stepped into their divisions, in the shape of a story's outline: the loose, dry skeleton of a tale lay exposed beneath their feet, awaiting tendons, muscle and blushing skin. Allan reviewed the troops, all prepared to disembark, their task to form the tale of a young man returning home from Life Abroad to find his childhood friend a bride to-be, thus upsetting the apple cart of his life's plan, clarified of course by his very time away from her he loved best. Although the concept was a simple one, Allan thought it had potential. Besides, the public liked a good, simple romance. Perhaps this will be more saleable, he thought and began to write. They gazed at each other, lost in the rapture of love based so deeply within their hearts that they had never seen it before. "What about Roger?" she asked, knowing that the answer no longer mattered.
What are the two light sources Allan is using to write?