318

That’s the number of laws going into effect today, according to the D-News.  Here’s a sample:

• You can’t text or e-mail while driving your car or truck. Doing so can cost you your license for three months. You can still talk on a cell phone, however. And you can text if it is an emergency.
• An adult can be guilty of harboring a child runaway if you give shelter to the minor child — so if one of your teenager’s friends starts staying at your house, you must tell the friend’s parents or a proper state official within eight hours or face liability.
• You can legally home-brew up to 100 gallons of beer or wine a year without having to get a state license.
• All of the four so-called “ethics reform” bills. They include a one year cooling-off period before a former state official can become a contract lobbyist; the required reporting of a legislator’s name who receives either $25 in food or a $10 gift; a prohibition on former legislators giving themselves leftover campaign cash; and the requirement for candidates to file more frequent financial disclosure reports.
• Several anti-abortion laws go into effect. Doctors must offer a woman anesthesia for the pain the fetus may feel; a new citizen-funded trust account for potential legal battles on abortion laws is set up; and it is now a second-degree felony for “killing an unborn child” if proper procedures are not followed in a legal or illegal abortion.
• All voters must show picture ID at the polls.
• Those under 21 who use a fake ID to get beer or alcohol can lose their driver’s license, and those under 16 who use a fake ID can’t get their driver’s license at 16.
• Hunting guides and outfitters must be licensed.