Texting while driving, smoking in public and cooking with artery-clogging trans fats will be that much harder under a bevy of state laws set to take effect around the country on Friday.
Faced with huge budget shortfalls
and little extra money to throw around, state lawmakers exercised their
(inexpensive) power to clamp down on impolite, unhealthy and sometimes
dangerous behaviors in 2009.
Even toy guns were targeted.
Among the most surprising new laws set to take effect in 2010 is a smoking ban for bars and restaurants in North Carolina, the country's largest tobacco producer that has a history steeped in tradition around the golden leaf.
Starting
Saturday — stragglers get a one-day reprieve to puff away after their
New Year's Day meals — smokers will no longer be allowed to light up in
North Carolina bars and restaurants. There are exceptions for country clubs, Elks lodges and the like, but the change is a dramatic one for North Carolina, whose tax coffers long depended on Big Tobacco.
Virginia
approved a similar law that took effect Dec. 1, but it's more
accommodating to smokers because it allows establishments to offer
areas in which to light up as long as they have separate ventilating
systems.
Not including Virginia and its partial
ban, smoking will be banned in restaurants in 29 states and in bars in
25, according to the American Lung Association.
And 12 more states — including Florida, Michigan and Arkansas — have passed laws requiring manufacturers to make their cigarettes less likely to start fires, leaving Wyoming as the only state without such laws, according to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes.
America's roads should be safer in 2010, as bans on texting while driving go into effect in New Hampshire, Oregon and Illinois.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, that will make
19 states that have outlawed the practice, not including six states
that prohibit using hand-held cell phones while behind the wheel.
'This
legislation is important and will make our roads safer. No driver has
any business text messaging while they are driving,' said Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, whose office regulates drivers.
Tina
Derby, 42, of Warner, N.H., said she has no intention to stop texting
while driving, despite the possible $100 fine she could receive.
'I'd better start saving my money,' Derby said.
A
new Arkansas law prohibits retailers from selling toy guns that look
like they real thing. But it may not have that big of an effect.
Imitation guns used for theater productions and other events are exempted, as are replicas of firearms produced before 1898, BB guns, paintball or pellet guns.
Major retailers in the state also say they don't expect any major changes from the new ban. Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it already follows similar federal restrictions prohibiting the sale of realistic-looking toy guns.
California will be the first state to partially ban the use of artificial trans fats
in restaurants in 2010, following several major cities and fast-food
chains that have erased the notorious artery-clogger from menus.
Starting
Friday, the state's restaurants, bakeries and other retail food
establishments will no longer be allowed to use products with trans
fats in spreads or for frying. Restaurants will still be allowed to use
trans fats to deep-fry yeast dough and in cake batter until Jan. 1,
2011.
And a new anti-paparazzi law is set to
take effect Friday in the state with the movie star governor that will
make it easier for celebrities to sue media outlets claiming invasion
of privacy.
Fans of dog races will have to find another form of entertainment in Massachusetts, as the 75-year-old tradition has been outlawed starting Friday.
In New Hampshire, a new gay marriage law will replace a law that allows civil unions, which already provided gay couples with all the rights and responsibilities of marriage.
Starting Friday, a gay couple in a civil union can get a marriage license
and have a new ceremony, if they choose. They also can convert their
civil union into marriage without going through another ceremony.
Couples who do nothing will have their civil unions automatically
converted to marriages in 2011. Conservatives are seeking to repeal the
law.
In Wisconsin,
both same-sex and unwed opposite-sex domestic partners who work for the
state and University of Wisconsin can sign up to receive health
insurance benefits. A law that allowed same-sex partners to sign a
registry to receive other benefits similar to what married couples get
took effect in August.
Some other laws set to take effect:
• Teenagers going to a tanning bed in Texas will have to be accompanied by an adult.
• Oregon employers are prohibited from restricting employees
from wearing religious clothing on the job, taking time off for holy
days or participating in a religious observance or practice.
• The sale of "novelty" lighters — devices designed to look
like cartoon characters, toys or guns or that play musical notes or
have flashing lights — are banned in Nevada and Louisiana.
'They're cute, they're little, but they can be deadly,' said
the Nevada bill's co-sponsor, Assembly Majority Floor Leader John
Oceguera, D-Las Vegas.
Source: AP
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