Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Year, New Laws

With the coming of a new year, new laws are scheduled to start as well. Here is a small sampling:

Athlete safety: requires school districts to develop a process for identifying cases in which students suffer concussions in sports mishaps and require a parent to give written permission for the athlete to return to the lineup.

Baby food: bans stores from selling expired infant food and formula.

Bail: requires that people extradited to California to face criminal charges face $100,000 in bail in addition to any bail already issued for the underlying offense.

Beer: bars the importation, production and sale of beer to which caffeine has been directly added as a separate ingredient, in response to incidents in which young people have been hospitalized with severe intoxication after drinking the beverages.

Child actors: streamlines the process for obtaining state permission for minors to work in the entertainment industry by allowing parents to get temporary permits online rather than through the mail.

Drunk drivers: authorizes courts to revoke, for up to a decade, the driver's license of any person convicted of three or more DUIs in a 10-year period. Another law bars police agencies that set up drunk-driving checkpoints from impounding cars from sober but unlicensed drivers if there is a legal driver available to take the wheel.

Elder abuse: allows wage garnishments against anyone convicted of elder abuse or financial abuse of a dependent adult.

Food stamps: eliminates the requirement that food stamp recipients be fingerprinted to prevent fraud. Another law calls for state agencies to promote more enrollment in the federal food stamp program.

Infused drinks:
allows bars to infuse alcohol with fruits and vegetables for use in cocktails.

Lying politicians: forces elected officials to forfeit office if convicted of falsely claiming they have been awarded military decorations.

Marijuana: gives cities and counties clearer authority to regulate the location and operation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Another law creates new penalties for the possession of synthetic cannabis products, which have been sold in convenience stores and tobacco shops.

Puppies: outlaws the selling of live animals on any street, sidewalk, parking lot or other public right-of-way.

Raves: requires any state agency that plans an event with more than 10,000 people on state property to conduct a threat assessment before the event.

Restaurants: may use up their supplies of shark fins — a delicacy in Chinese cooking — purchased before Jan. 1. After that, sale and possession of shark fins will be illegal.

Student government: authorizes illegal immigrants who are students to receive grants, fee waivers and reimbursement for serving in student government at public colleges.

What are your thoughts on these new laws? Would you like to suggest a law of your own?

7 comments:

  1. Hello Bauer,
    i went into further research and found out about a new law that took place on Jan 2,2012. President Obama signed a bill that would define the whole of the United States as a"Battlefield" and also allow the U.S military to arrest American citizens in there own backyard without charge or trial.I think that this is against our constitutional rights. This is definately unconstitutional and should not take place in the freedom of the "United States". Obama is contradicting himself by saying that "his" administration will not support certain previsions of the law, although he signed the law which leaves it up to interpretation for every administration after his. My question is, why would he sign something into law that he doesn't 100% support. My personal opinion on this law, it is against our constitutional rights and freedoms.Violation of our civil liberties and also Tears holes into the constitution. It can and will create a civil war. I think our government should repeal it asap and have the senate and congress fix this and make things right to our constitution.

    sincerely,
    mason weaver

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  2. hi!Bauer! its,.. Janett,... what i think about these laws is that every year there's more and more laws created to keep us safe",..I think that it would prevent people from messing up and killing other people.Like drunk driving , less people would do it. As for the athletic department parental control is always needed,. Medical MARIJUANA is has penalties for being sold at Smoke shops is good so that we get money off of it,..It also is bad for those who use it because the price is higher at the actual club.And i thought for one that the rave assessment was pretty cool to make sure that anything would go wrong.As for the sharks man poor things the just sink to the bottom of the ocean all lonely i think that its a good thing that we start leaving the sharks alone so they don't go extinct.:)

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  3. The newest law that i would have to agree with is the Drunk Driver law, the fact that people still drink and drive is completely idiotic and redundant. I also thought laws like the Puppies law and the Rave law were completely unnecessary, the fact that Obama is letting these laws be passed is completely retarded. Another good law is the Lying Politicians, even though politicians shouldn't lie anyways, is a good reason to pass this law.

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  4. In all honesty, I like a lot of these laws, however I think the real question is, who is going to be there to enforce EACH AND EVERY one of these laws? You can't rely on law enforcement because they've been majorly cut back. With all the cut-backs in state, county, and federal jobs, who is going to be there to enforce and regulate these new laws? It's already hard enough as it is for them to enforce our current laws. I think our society as a whole needs to take a few steps back and practice actually enforcing and even following these laws. That is all. Good day.

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  5. Alex Abbott
    Period 2

    I think that these laws are good and that they would not have been voted in if they were not good for the people. i think that since every year more and more people are being born therefore the population is growing so society is harder to control.These new laws (drunk driving, food stamps, athlete safety, etc) can help out a lot because it applies to a lot of people in society.

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  6. This is dayna from your 2nd period and i think all the new laws are just unneeded,and all the government wants is money.

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  7. I agree with Erica. Although these laws are clever and work in our favor to protect society, it is almost impossible to really take action and enforce them with barely anybody employed in the law enforcement. Population grows and it becomes harder to really protect EVERYONE the irony in it is that unfortuntely we need laws to protect us from ourselves. Why do people still drink and drive? Why would stores sell expired BABY FOOD? & Why wouldn't kids who participate in student government and work hard to maintain a positive position deserve to be recognized and rewarded? Obviously there was a failure for anybody else to deserve & achieve it. Every year is different and every year people come up with new ways to harm society and act stupid. So every year we need new laws to prevent it from happening again.

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