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?

Extending the Border Fence

The Federal government is sponsoring a $4.3 million project to extend the border fence between California and Mexico 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean. Is this a wise use of funds? What are the trade-offs and opportunity costs?

Making Online Retailers Pay Taxes

As you know, the state of California is facing some serious fiscal challenges in its budget. One item the state government decided to go after was online retailers such as Amazon. Why? Those companies have not been paying state sales taxes for purchases made online. Some predictions put the amount of uncollected taxes on e-commerce around this country at $12 billion! Many states are pushing e-commerce companies to pony up. Other states are opting not to do much about it.

Would you support a federal law on e-commerce companies? Do you believe that e-commerce companies should pay sales taxes at all? You do understand who will probably pay higher prices as a result of states enforcing these tax rules, right?

Presidential Debates

The Republican party is holding a series of presidential debates in advance of the Republican primary elections that are coming up in early 2012. The winner of the Republican primary will square off against Barack Obama in the general election later in 2012.

It seems, however, that the Republican field is suffering a bunch of self-inflicted wounds. Rick Perry can't seem to remember which agencies he wants to cut. Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, has to deal with the fact that when he was governor of Massachusetts he implemented a health care law that looks suspiciously like the one Obama pushed through Congress. Also, will his religion be an issue with voters? Another candidate, Herman Cain, has been accused of sexual harassment by a number of women that he used to work with.

All of this begs the questions: should any of these issues matter for individuals running for president? And, what qualities matter for someone interested in running for president?

School Unification

There is a citizen group in Galt that is pushing to have the Galt elementary district and the Galt high school district to unify into one district. Would this be a good idea? If unification did NOT save money, would you still think it was a good idea?

The citizen group is prepared to collect signatures to put this issue on the local ballot. Would you sign the petition? Would you vote for unification when/if it is on a future ballot?