New Laws Take Effect
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New Laws Take Effect

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.