August 15, 2003
Reported by Associated Press
700 new Louisiana laws go into effect. The state Legislature passed hundreds of new laws in the legislative session that ended in June that cover a host of items from tiny, local matters to overarching state changes.
The new laws cover everything from the renaming of local highways to the way social services are delivered. And of course, they include the creation of more official state items, like the official vegetable plant, jellies and meat pie -- the Creole tomato, cane and mayhaw jellies and the Natchitoches meat pie -- that can be enumerated on state documents.
One measure that will touch thousands of Louisiana residents includes a hike in the cost of renewing a driver's license. It will cost one dollar more, with the money paying for public service announcements and other programs to fight litter.
It is expected to raise about $800,000 a year. While drivers may see cleaner roadways, they might also get less traffic-snarled during the regular workday.
A new law requires highway construction that involves the closing of a lane to be done at night or during other ``non-peak'' traffic hours, like weekends.
- Require welfare recipients to immediately begin looking for work once they receive their assistance checks and to learn how to write a resume or prepare for an interview for a minimum number of hours each week or risk losing their benefits.
- Allow the Department of Social Services to confiscate federal tax refunds from deadbeat parents who haven't paid their required child support.
- Let disabled persons who return to work keep their medicaid coverage by buying in to Louisiana's program.
- Require senders of sexually explicit e-mail to include a note in the subject line, "adv-adult," to let unsuspecting internet users know ahead of time.
- Gives local government the power to regulate smoking, but with many loopholes. Restaurants that serve liquor, bars, gambling operations, tobacco vendors and hotel rooms are exempt from any smoking ban.
- Charge an extra $1 for a driver's license renewal to pay for public service announcements and other programs to fight litter.
- Increase penalties against drivers who refuse to submit to a blood-alcohol test following an accident that kills or seriously injures someone and against extremely drunk drivers, those with a .20 percent blood-alcohol concentration.
- Outlaw the execution of the mentally retarded, to comply with state and U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
- Require most highway construction that involves the closing of a lane to be done at night or during other "non-peak" traffic hours, but the project engineers have broad leeway to close lanes if they decide it is necessary for safety or "is in the best interest of the state."
- Require new police officers to provide DNA samples when they submit to fingerprinting and background checks.
- Create a loophole in the state's "Do not call" list that allows solicitors to call you if they have been referred to you by someone you know, but no sale can be legally completed during such a call.
- Include wireless telephones in the "Do not call" program.
- Obligate priests and other clergy members to report suspected child abuse and neglect to the authorities, with an exception for information a clergy member may hear during the course of his work that is deemed confidential under the "discipline or tenets" of the church; for example a priest hearing confessions.
- Bar the use of state tax dollars to cover organ transplants for inmates who were sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison and have exhausted their appeals.
- Prohibit credit card issuers from offering anything of value to students to persuade them to look at or complete credit card applications, unless the students have received brochures about credit card debt.
- Establish the Natchitoches meat pie as the official state meat pie, the Creole tomato as the official vegetable plant, the sweet potato as the official vegetable and cane and mayhaw jellies as the official state jellies.
- Louisiana's official items can be used on state documents and with the insignia of the state.
- Exempt Louisiana's amber alert program to locate missing children from state privacy laws protecting the identities of children to ensure the program does not violate state law.
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