Louisiana residents, beginning at the stroke of midnight Sunday, became subject to 660 new laws ranging from a prohibition on texting (and “sexting”) while driving, smoking “incense” products that mimic the effects of marijuana, keeping our dogs on short chains and attending cockfights. Other laws increase penalties for infractions that were already on the books, including tagging historic buildings with graffiti. A bill by our own Rep. Rickey Hardy doubles the drug-free zone around schools to 2,000 feet.
Two laws designed to make abortions less likely, as we’ve previously reported, are on hold pending court challenges: One requires abortion patients to obtain an ultrasound before terminating a pregnancy; the other bars physicians who perform abortions from participating in the state’s medical malpractice program.
Lawmakers also voted in the spring session to remove from the criminal and civil codes some measures deemed out-of-date by today’s standards. Among them, a law passed in 1961 during the depths of the Cold War requiring the state Department of Education to host seminars for select teachers and high-school upperclassmen delineating the “evils of socialism, and the basic philosophy of communism and the strategy and tactics used by communists in their efforts to achieve world domination.” You’d think with the apoplexy occasioned by the Obama presidency, that law would be more requisite than ever.
For an overview of the new laws now in effect, read an article published Sunday in The Advocate. And see Wednesday’s print issue of The Independent for more.
... written by Mr. Ed , August 16, 2010 - 05:20 pm
660 new laws? Great! All citizens will be required to memorize them. Testing will begin January 1, 2011. If you fail to pass, there is a $100 fine and you will have to take a Chris Williams, PhD class on responsible citizenship.
... written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , August 16, 2010 - 06:58 pm
I suggest a law to mandate all 99.99 % of politicians presently in office to take a lie-detector test every six weeks while in office and be made to file on their taxes any/all graft ,kickbacks, dishonest ill-gains, mistressess expense may be deucted only if filing taxes jointly with the legal Missus at years end, and all dishonest ill-gains to be taxed with a 99.99 percent penalty tag. Over and above the expenses for the cost of mistress/mistresses ! POLITICIANS FOUND GUILTY OF Same SEX,"SHEM" partner, a set in stone mandate carrying a 150 % penalty !
... written by The Original Northsidian , August 16, 2010 - 07:33 pm
Who and what agencies are exempt from the texting law?
... written by ragin_cajun , August 17, 2010 - 04:20 pm
"You’d think with the apoplexy occasioned by the Obama presidency, that law would be more requisite than ever."
Walter, are you hinting that you think Obama is a Socialist?
... written by BoFred , August 17, 2010 - 06:40 pm
I'm glad to know the "legal weed" the convenience stores have been selling will be taken off the shelves. Good to know you can't mix "herbs" and smoke them in place of weed.
You must be logged in to post a comment. Log in using your Facebook account or register if you do not have an account yet.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
Subscribe to this comment's feed