With all the hoopla, yes hoopla..... around the Iowa, New Hampshire and S. Carolina caucuses and debates over the ideal Republican Presidential candidate (if there even is one) a few new California Laws may have slipped by without being noticed.There are 760 new laws that became effective January 1st 2012 including revoking drunk driver's licenses for 10 years on the 3rd offense. Everyone should know by now that Booster Seats are required for children under 8 or under 4"9' and they must ride in the back seat.
Autism: Health Insurers are now required to include coverage for Autism. Disappointing to learn this was not previously covered.
Baby Food: Stores are banned from selling expired infant food and formula. Wait, stores can sell expired non baby food?
Cyber-bullying: Schools are 'allowed' to suspend students for bullying classmates on social networking sites. It's about time they are 'allowed' but it is not mandatory.
Infused Drinks: This is a good one. Bars are now allowed to infuse fruits and vegetables with alcohol for use in cocktails. Now the olive floating in your martini or the pineapple slice in your Pina Colada can be soaked in alcohol too for an extra kick.Job Applicants: No longer can employers use credit reports as part of the decision making process for job applicants. This is a long time coming and way overdue. A person's credit has no place on a resume. Hopefully, this will help many of the folks out of work find employment if previously denied based on their credit score.
Medical Consent: Many will cringe in learning children 12 and older do not need parent's permission to get medical care for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including the HPV vaccine.Puppies & Kittens: No longer can live animals be sold on any street, sidewalk, parking lot or other public right-of-way. This will hopefully help minimize the adoption of unwanted pets. If pets are harder to adopt, they will more likely go to people that really want to care for them.
Sexual Orientation: State university systems are encouraged to collect data on students' sexual orientation and encourages the legislative analyst to use it to recommend improvements in the quality of life for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. This appears to be a creative tactic to invade privacy. Curious to see how this data is ultimately used.Work Place Bereavement Policy: Establishes an employee's right to as many as three days of bereavement leave within three months following the death of a spouse, child, parent, grandchild, sibling or domestic partner.
These are just a few of the many new laws. Some will improve our lives while others may seem like more of an inconvenience. At the end of the day, these are a few of the new changes in California thanks to your tax dollars. For a complete list visit http://www.californiality.com/2010/12/new-california-laws-2011.html.
