Get ready for lots of new laws

• Smokers can still light up in fraternal organizations, such as an Elks club, until January 2009.

• All gift certificates or cards must carry an expiration date.

• You can earn tax credits for renewable hydroelectric systems.

• Parents who fail to send their children to school may face a class B misdemeanor.

• Public demonstrations cannot take place at a funeral for one hour before to one hour after the ceremonies.

• Farmer's markets are exempted from a number of food-handling regulations.

• A new category of divorce — temporary separation — is created, with new counseling requirements for such separations.

• New visitation regulations for non-custodial parents of infants take effect.

• A student can be expelled or suspended for viewing pornography on a school computer. More money is allocated to fight child pornography.

• The amount that foreign banks can charge to use their ATMs is restricted.

• The age at which a minor can get a big-game hunting license goes from 14 to 12 years old.

• School personnel can't suggest to parents that their child be placed on psychotropic drugs, such as Ritalin.

• Memorials such as roadside markers to note where a person died in a traffic accident can officially be placed on state property.

A number of new laws extend or increase criminal penalties, some aimed at specific problems seen over recent years.

For example, the amount of certain chemicals a criminal may possess, if they can be used in meth production, is reduced.

The death penalty is extended to include more aggravating acts, including child kidnapping and child sex abuse.

School books and materials must be reviewed by an independent committee. The law was passed to avoid another situation as occurred in Davis County School District when text materials were allegedly copied, leading to a federal criminal fraud case.

Not all of the new laws are as important as others.

One new law creates a "State Water Week."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com