By now, most Virginians know that the General Assembly failed to approve any significant new funding to address the state's transportation woes.
But the commonwealth's 140 lawmakers did enact 943 new laws — most of which went into effect on July 1.
Among these new laws include measures to:
* Establish a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 25 years for sex offenders who commit violent sex offenses against children under the age of 13.
* Add non-violent sex offenders to Virginia's online registry, located at http://sex-offender.vsp.virginia.gov/sor/index.htm.
* Prohibit the death penalty for criminals under the age of 18, complying with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Previously, an offender who committed a crime when over the age of 16 could be executed in Virginia.
* Make it a Class 1 misdemeanor to threaten someone with a machete or a blade longer than 8 inches. Machetes have increasingly been brandished in gang attacks across Northern Virginia.
* Prohibit adults from serving alcohol to underage guests inside their home, if the underage guest is not accompanied by a parent, guardian or a spouse who is older than 21.
* Make it illegal to protest at a funeral or memorial. Legislatures around the country have passed similar laws in an effort to stop anti-gay demonstrators from picketing military funerals.
* Allow parents with only a high school education to teach home school. Prior to the new law, home-school parents were required to hold a college degree.
* Establish a sales tax holiday for school supplies. Starting this year, on Aug. 4, 5 and 6, school supplies, shoes and back-to-school clothing will be exempt from the state's sales tax.
* Establish new penalties for dangerous and vicious dogs, passed in the wake of the 2005 mauling death of an 83-year-old Spotsylvania County woman by three pitbulls. Now, if a dog attacks someone and causes serious injury, the dog's owner could face felony charges, punishable by up to five years in prison.
* Require a six-month driver's license suspension for any Virginian under the age of 21 convicted of underage drinking or possession of alcohol.
* Establish a statewide Board for Towing and Recovery Operators, which will regulate the towing industry.
* Allow small businesses to group together to pool health care coverage for employees.
* Ban the sale of cold medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine that can serve as ingredients for methamphetamine, except from behind the counter. The new anti-meth law also says that a single person may purchase no more than 3.6 grams of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine per day.
* Require local school superintendents to develop Internet use policies that teach students about online safety.
* Make Virginia's universities implement policies that will minimize the cost of college textbooks.
* Allow children of active-duty military personnel to be eligible for in-state tuition for Virginia's public colleges and universities.