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View Full Version : 40,000 new laws take effect in 2014




CaseyJones
12-31-2013, 08:51 PM
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/31/40000-new-laws-take-effect-in-2014/


It may have been the least productive year for Congress in history, at least in terms of passing laws – fewer than 60 of which made it through the House and Senate and were signed by President Barack Obama.

Across the country, however, state lawmakers were busy getting more than 40,000 bills passed, ones that tackle everything from drones to food stamp benefits.

In Illinois for example, teenagers will no longer get to use tanning beds without a doctor's note. If you live in Delaware, visit the shark fin buffet while you can, a new law will make it illegal to own, sale, or distribute the controversial delicacy. And in California, new laws take effect that will let students take part in school sports, or use bathrooms based on their gender identity, regardless of the gender noted in their birth certificates.

CaptUSA
12-31-2013, 08:52 PM
Name them. I dare ya.

phill4paul
12-31-2013, 08:59 PM
40,000 cuts of paper to bleed out everyman. Bah. Didn't pay any attention to last years.

Reason
12-31-2013, 09:22 PM
CA

Cars
Carpool access: Drivers of electric cars and low-emission vehicles will get an additional four years to use carpool lanes while alone.
Digital plates: The state Department of Motor Vehicles is allowed to test the use of license plates with changeable digital screens and wireless capability.
License fees: Fees paid by state legislators and members of Congress for special license plates showing their elected position increase to $48 from $12, and an annual renewal fee of $38 takes effect.
Celebrities
Paparazzi limits: Paparazzi face misdemeanor charges if they attempt to photograph or videotape a child in a harassing manner, if the image is being taken because the parent is a celebrity or other public figure.
'Swatting': Financial penalties are increased for those who commit a crime dubbed "swatting," making anonymous 911 calls to police falsely claiming a violent crime has occurred — at a celebrity's address, for example — to bring an armed police response.
Children
Child abuse: The status of a child who is homeless, or an "unaccompanied minor," is not sufficient to trigger laws that require the reporting of neglect or child abuse.
Homeless youths: The state will establish "runaway and homeless youth shelters" as a new kind of group home, requiring them to be licensed and overseen by the Department of Social Services.
Parents' rights: Courts may recognize that a child has more than two legal parents so custody and financial responsibility can be shared by all those involved in raising the child.
Crime
Expungement: Some nonviolent felons sentenced to county jail instead of state prison are given the right to have their crimes expunged from their records by a judge.
GPS devices: Sex offenders who disarm their electronic trackers while on parole are required to serve 180 days in jail once they are caught.
Recording suspects: Detectives must videotape interrogations of underage suspects in homicide cases to guard against false confessions.
Drugs
Investigations: State medical authorities investigating a doctor's prescription of drugs must have access to deceased patients' records under certain circumstances.
Penalties: "Transporting" of narcotics is redefined to explicitly mean transportation for sale, thus easing penalties for those caught with drugs meant for personal use.
Prescription drugs: Funding is restored for the operation of a database about narcotics dispensed by pharmacies in California, including such information as the identities of the prescriber and the patient.
Employment
Nanny overtime: Employers are required to provide time-and-a-half pay for nannies, private health aides and some other domestic workers if they work more than nine hours in a day or 45 hours in a week.
Refinery workers: Workers for contractors at oil refineries are required to graduate from state-approved apprenticeship programs.
Environment
Fracking: A company engaging in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — injecting water and chemicals into the ground to improve production — is required to notify the neighbors, list on the Internet each chemical it is using and test groundwater for contamination.
Water conservation: When a permit is required for alterations to single-family homes built more than 20 years ago, old toilets, faucets and shower heads must be replaced with fixtures meeting water-saving standards.
Water quality: The state Department of Public Health is required to approve water treatment devices whose manufacturers make claims that they improve health.
Gender
Changing gender: New procedures make it easier for transgender people to amend the gender and name on their birth certificates.
Infertility treatment: Health insurance companies are required to cover infertility treatment for same-sex couples.
Transgender students: Students are entitled to compete on gender-specific sports teams, and use locker rooms and restrooms, based on their gender identity rather than their sex. This law could be put on hold if a proposed referendum on it qualifies for the statewide ballot.
Government
Food stamps: The income limit for Cal-Fresh eligibility is changed, allowing 227,000 more people to participate in the food stamp program.
Open meetings: Water companies in Maywood and other cities are required to comply with open-meeting and public-record rules that apply to other public agencies.
State marketing: Creates a "Made in California" label program to aid in the marketing of consumer goods manufactured in the state.
Guns
Ammunition clips: Kits enabling ammunition magazines to be altered to hold more than 10 rounds are not allowed.
Firearm access: Guns must be locked up in homes where felons and the mentally ill reside.
Law enforcement: Police agencies must disclose in a state database when guns are sold by representatives of the agencies to licensed firearms dealers.
Rifle safety: Those who use rifles are required to undergo safety training.
Health
Abortion access: Abortions in the first trimester may be performed by nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives and physicians' assistants, in addition to physicians.
Breast feeding: Hospitals with a perinatal unit must adopt programs to promote successful breast-feeding.
Immigrants
Employer threats: It is a crime for employers to induce fear in workers by threatening to report their immigration status if they complain about working conditions.
Lawyers: People in this country unlawfully who pass the state bar exam may be licensed as attorneys.
Poll workers: Noncitizens who are permanent legal residents may serve as poll workers in California elections.
Internet
Identity theft: State agencies and businesses that operate websites are required to notify people when security information, including their user names and passwords, has been breached.
Impersonation: People who impersonate others on the Internet to embarrass a spouse or romantic partner may face a domestic-violence restraining order.
Tracking software: Website operators are required to tell users if tracking technology is collecting information about their online activities.
Law enforcement
Jail crowding: County sheriffs are allowed to reduce time behind bars for nonviolent felons assigned to jails if they complete classes intended to rehabilitate them.
LAX (http://www.latimes.com/topic/transportation/air-transportation/los-angeles-international-airport-PLTRA0000070.topic) police: The Los Angeles International Airport police officers are given the same authority as members of the LAPD.
Media
Shield law: Law enforcement agencies are required to provide five days' notice to news organizations when they subpoenarecords involving those organizations from phone companies and Internet service providers.
Schools
Bonds: School districts are restricted in how they may use long-term capital appreciation bonds that can carry debt payments many times higher than the amount borrowed. The repayment ratio may be no more than $4 in interest and principal for every $1 borrowed.
Student abuse: School superintendents may face discipline if they refuse or willfully neglect to report teacher misconduct to the state.
Taxpayer donations: Californians can donate to a Keep Arts in Schools Fund by checking a new box on their personal income tax forms.
Sports
Athlete concussions: Like public schools, private and charter schools must remove student athletes from a game or activity if they have suffered a concussion or head injury.
Injury claims: Athletes who play most of their careers on other states' professional sports teams are prevented from filing workers' compensation claims in California.
Sports arena: New restrictions will make it harder to sue to block a basketball arena proposed in downtown Sacramento. In addition, environmental regulations are streamlined for many projects, including the arena, near transit stations in California cities.
Technology
Earthquake warnings: The state authorizes expansion of a network of sensors that detect seismic waves seconds before earthquakes are felt. Development of ways to relay that information to the public is also authorized.
Ticket bots: Scalpers cannot use ticket-buying software, or "bots," that can purchase hundreds of the best seats to concerts and sporting events seconds after they go on sale online.
Transit tracking: Transit agencies issuing electronic fare cards to bus and train riders are barred from selling personal information, including travel data, that is collected each time a card is swiped.
Wildlife
Bobcats: Commercial trapping of bobcats is prohibited in areas adjacent to national and state parks, national monuments or wildlife refuges in which trapping is currently prohibited.
Mountain lions: The state Department of Fish and Wildlife, when responding to public sightings of mountain lions, must use nonlethal methods, including capturing and tranquilizing, to remove the animal if it has not been designated as an imminent threat to the public.
Pet protection: To keep pets from being killed in traps designed to catch small wild animals, the state limits the size of "body-crushing traps" used on dry land to 6 inches by 6 inches.

FindLiberty
12-31-2013, 09:24 PM
40,000 cuts of paper to bleed out everyman. Bah. Didn't pay any attention to last years.

RE: 40k new laws, they'll eat out your substance too.

phill4paul
12-31-2013, 09:28 PM
RE: 40k new laws, they'll eat out your substance too.

The pen is mightier than the sword. As long as your outside the swords reach.

ClydeCoulter
12-31-2013, 09:53 PM
The pen is mightier than the sword. As long as your outside the swords reach.

^^^ This^^^^

Lucille
12-31-2013, 10:12 PM
"Prosperity depends entirely upon a minority being allowed to function. We do not mean a class, but a certain type of mind. It exists in various degrees and forms-business men and farmers and foremen and housewives, the people who always somehow get things done, get some practicable result from whatever material is at hand and whatever other people they must work with. They are self-starters. And they are seldom conspicuous.

The self-starters are never college professors nor politicians. Neither do we mean inventors, intellectuals, artists or writers-the creative artist is naturally anti-social. The self-starters, of course, use what more original minds discover, and their particular function is to hold everything together. One can't always see how they do it...

In an effort to regulate everything those people may be easily eliminated. They have been very nearly exterminated in Russia. Bureaucracy smothers them. And the set-up goes with them."
--Isabel Paterson (http://mises.org/document/3363/)

Ronin Truth
12-31-2013, 11:25 PM
Maybe NOW everything will be perfect. :rolleyes:

Czolgosz
01-01-2014, 03:54 PM
And only one law is necessary to repel (no, I didn't mean to say 'repeal') them.

DFF
01-01-2014, 04:04 PM
The pen is mightier than the sword. As long as your outside the swords reach.

http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110320032157/princessbride/images/5/50/Count_Rugen.png

Well spoken, sir.

Occam's Banana
01-01-2014, 04:08 PM
Is any further evidence needed that democrazy is the single best vehicle ever devised for totalitarianism ... ?

Dr.3D
01-01-2014, 04:14 PM
The pen is mightier than the sword. As long as your outside the swords reach.
Oh I remember those Bic commercials where they were showing how great those pens were, by shooting them through a board and then writing with them.
You can bet you won't see those commercials on TV ever again.

Suzanimal
01-01-2014, 04:25 PM
Infertility treatment: Health insurance companies are required to cover infertility treatment for same-sex couples.

http://i.imgur.com/u86GHXj.gif

Dr.3D
01-01-2014, 04:34 PM
http://i.imgur.com/u86GHXj.gif
Maybe that involves covering the cost of in vitro fertilization and implantation into a surrogate.