On one hand, Capt. Michael O’Malley says, it discourages drivers from fiddling with a cell phone when they should be paying attention to their surroundings. But on the other hand, “It’s going to be a difficult law to enforce,” he said. That’s because it’s tough to tell what a driver is doing below the window line.
O’Malley said he’s not sure drivers will abide by the new rules. Even if they do, he said, they’re still able to get away with other behind-the-wheel distractions such as scrolling through iPods and driving with dogs in their laps.
 Beginning Thursday, it is illegal in California to text from your cell phone while driving. California becomes the sixth state to recognize the danger of distraction that can result from texting behind the wheel. |
The law was proposed by state Sen. Joe Simitian of Palo Alto and is one of 14 laws he authored for 2009. For his part, Simitian focused mainly on safety issues.
Victims of childhood sexual abuse will gain the right to sue public entities long after the abuse ends.
“I’m trying to bring some accountability to a system where it’s all too easy for people to simply hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,” Simitian said in a press release.
Also, victims of domestic violence previously forced to testify in court will be excused from that responsibility under a new law signed by state Sen. Leland Yee.
“Victim advocates believe removing the threat of incarceration will result in more women coming forward to law enforcement after falling victim to domestic violence,” according to a Dec. 29 press release from Yee’s office.
High school and college teachers will be protected from repercussions based on student speech. Often, Yee said, “a journalism adviser or professor is disciplined for content in a student newspaper.”
Two of Yee’s laws grant freedoms to incarcerated youths. One permits greater communication between inmates and their family members, clergy and attorneys. The other prevents termination of Medi-Cal for juvenile inmates.
A law aimed at helping veterans recuperate from post-traumatic stress disorder was a winner of Simitian’s annual “There Oughta Be A Law” contest and will go into effect Jan. 1 as well. Under the law, the state Department of Veterans Affairs and the California National Guard will develop outreach and educational programs that target soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another of Simitian’s laws places “deceptive sweepstakes practices” on the chopping block to guard seniors and other vulnerable individuals from getting scammed out of their savings. The law prohibits solicitors from using deceptive or misleading language, such as that which suggests an individual is specially selected for a certain offer.
Small businesses seeking financial assistance will have more loans available to them through a law that restructures the California Capital Access Program, the state’s small business loan program. The law cuts the state’s share to the reserve fund by half, making it equal to the borrower’s contribution, Simitian’s office said in a release. That “would leave the state with more funds to insure more loans, thereby encouraging banks and other lenders to issue more loans to small businesses…”
On a greener note, one of Simitian’s laws establishes the Toxics Information Clearinghouse to provide people with information about chemicals. The clearinghouse will develop a Web page that expounds on the health and environmental effects of chemicals.
Simitian attempts to settle the “trees vs. solar debate” with a bill that protects trees that cast shade on solar panels from being cut down, so long as they were planted before the installation of the panels.
On education, Simitian authored a bill to create the Education Data and Information Act of 2008, designed to link educational data to state agencies for more informed policymaking and budgeting.
Drivers can mount their global positioning systems on the windshields of their cars beginning Thursday, provided they do so in the extreme lower left or lower right sides of windshields.
In an effort to balance the state budget, a new law levies a tax on cars purchased out-of-state and brought by their owners into California within 12 months of purchase — to account for the sales tax not paid to California.
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