WooHoo: 600 New Laws start today

[MagickMuffin]

Driving

*Cellphones: Prohibits drivers from using handheld wireless devices in a school zone unless the vehicle is stopped or a hands-free device is used. (HB55)

Teen drivers: Prohibits drivers under 18 from using cellphones while driving for the first year they have their license. The current ban is for six months. (HB339)

Seat belts: Requires all passengers to buckle up, including those in the back seat. (HB537)


Criminal justice

***Wrongly imprisoned: The Tim Cole Act increases the lump sum compensation for a wrongly imprisoned person to $80,000 per year in prison, up from $50,000. A separate law creates an advisory panel named after Cole to study how to prevent wrongful convictions. (HB1736 and HB498)




Election workers: Bars felons from serving as volunteer election deputy registrars unless they have been pardoned or fully served their punishment. Also allows high school students 16 and older to serve as student election clerks and requires schools to count the time away from school as an excused absence in certain circumstances. (HB488 and SB1134).

***Voting: Strengthens pretesting procedures for electronic voting machines used in Tarrant County and other parts of Texas and prohibits the machines from having any wireless capability or connection to the Internet, in most cases. (HB2524)


MORE: http://www.star-telegram.com/804/v-print/story/1571873.html



* Take note of this one, don't be talking on your cell in a school zone if you aren't wearing a headset.

*** It's so sad that Tim Cole won't benefit from this since he's dead, but I suppose it will help others still caught up in the system.

*** This one sounds pretty good, but I'd much rather there be a LAW banning electronic voting machines.