How will California’s newest laws affect...
crime and punishment?
By JOHN MYERS AND PRIYA KRISHNAKUMAR
Starting Jan. 1, Californians’ lives will be governed by hundreds of new laws including new controls on concealed weapons, unprecedented state protections for those in the U.S. illegally, an increase in the minimum wage, legal sales of recreational marijuana and even a new state dinosaur.
Crime & punishment
No California school employee can carry a concealed weapon onto campus, a change from the former rules in which school officials had discretion over the issue.
Anyone who “willfully recorded a video” of a violent attack that was streamed on a site such as Facebook could receive additional punishment in a California court of law.
Girls detained at Camp Kenyon Scudder sit in their shared dorm space at the Santa Clarita juvenile probation facility. (Los Angeles Times)
No juvenile offenders have to serve life without parole and those already behind bars would become eligible for release after 25 years. This is part of a series of easing punishment and fines for young people.
Counties can no longer charge fees to a family for everything from detention to monitoring of juveniles, a policy that critics said hit low-income families and communities of color the hardest.
Local officials can now make illegal the “open carry” of unloaded shotguns and rifles in urban unincorporated areas, places not covered in an existing ban on carrying handguns in public places.
Starting July 1, Californians who assemble their own gun — a process one police chief said is now “easier than putting together Ikea furniture”— must first get a serial number from the state Department of Justice.
Californians convicted of crimes that require them to get rid of their firearms must now prove they’ve done so before their court cases can be closed, a mandate approved by voters in a 2016 ballot measure. Additional punishment can be imposed on those who don’t comply.
Law enforcement agencies must gather information on sexual assault evidence that hasn’t been tested — known as a “rape kit” — and explain to state officials why nothing’s been done.
My commute
You can’t smoke or consume marijuana in any way while driving or riding in a car on California roadways.
You can be fined $20 for not wearing a seatbelt on a commercial bus. Drivers will tell you to buckle up.
Drivers for ride hail companies like Lyft and Uber can be cited for driving under the influence if they have a blood-alcohol content of .04%, the same as other commercial drivers.
Drivers for ride hail companies such as Lyft and Uber now only need a single permit to drive anywhere in California.
State officials will do more to crack down on Californians who are misusing disabled driver placards.
My health
Californians with HIV can no longer be charged with a felony for exposing a partner to the disease, a distinction it used to have from all other communicable diseases.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Farm animals in California can no longer be given antibiotics without a veterinarian's prescription — a law designed to help lessen the spread of infections that are resistant to antibiotics
Hazardous chemicals in cleaning products have to be clearly identified on labels and online.
My pocketbook
Owners of gasoline or diesel-fueled cars must pay a new annual fee to help pay for road repairs. The fee ranges from $25 to $175, depending on the vehicle’s value.
Gov. Jerry Brown hugs Burger King worker Holly Diaz, 38, of Sacramento. She’s worked for the minimum wage for nine years. (Renee C. Byer / Associated Press)
California’s lowest-paid workers are getting a raise, as the 2016 law to phase in a minimum-wage increase has raised that pay to $11 an hour for most businesses. Workers at the smallest companies will see their minimum wages rise to $10.50 an hour.
Californians will pay a new $75 fee to refinance a mortgage and make other real estate transactions, money to be spent on providing more low-income housing in the state.
Immigration
Local law enforcement officials across California have new, strict limits on how much they can help federal immigration authorities — a law that pushes back against President Trump’s policies on illegal immigration.
Anti-eviction signs decorate the Rodney Drive apartments in Los Feliz. (Christina House / For The Times)
A landlord can face civil penalties for threatening to report a renter to federal immigration authorities.
It now takes a warrant from a judge for federal agents to come to someone’s workplace on an immigration raid, and employers can be fined for not giving workers a 72-hour notice that those agents will be inspecting employee records.
State agencies that provide help to juveniles and the developmentally disabled no longer have to report immigration violations to the federal government.
Education
Students eat lunch at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles. (Christina House / For the Los Angeles Times)
California schools can no longer deny a lunch to a child whose parents haven’t paid their meal fees.
Schools in low-income communities must provide free tampons and other sanitary products to students in grades six through 12.
Elections
Voters in five counties will find their neighborhood polling places closed and ballots sent to them in the mail, the first phase of a shift to the use of “vote centers” across California. The 2018 rollout begins with Sacramento, San Mateo, Madera, Napa and Nevada counties. Los Angeles County can move away from traditional polling places in 2020.
People vote inside a Boyle Heights restaurant in 2016. A new study of last fall's election showed problems for non-English-speaking voters in a number of California communities. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Following reports of too little help at polling places in 2016 for California voters who speak limited English, more sample ballots in other languages will be available.
Big donors to state ballot measure campaigns will have to be better identified in political advertisements in 2018.
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My workplace and lifestyle
New parents at small businesses of at least 20 employees will be able to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for the child, and won’t lose their health coverage while away.
When you apply for a new job in California, you can no longer be asked, “How much did you make at your last job?”
California's equal pay law has been expanded to government jobs in an effort to remove any gender-biased pay rates.
Beginning in September, Californians can choose a gender-neutral option on their drivers license for those who are transgender, intersex or don’t identify as male or female.
More parents taking high school equivalency or English language courses are now eligible for subsidized child care.
At the water cooler
Some California cities will allow sales of marijuana for all uses, the first retail transactions since voters fully legalized pot in November 2016.
More buildings, from theaters and restaurants to government offices, must provide diaper changing stations in restrooms for men.
No more jaywalking tickets can be issued for stepping into a crosswalk after the flashing signal begins — as long as you can still cross safely before time runs out.
A tour bus passes the late Carrie Fisher's gated home in Beverly Hills. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Local officials can place new restrictions on Hollywood bus tours, limiting the streets traveled and loudspeakers on open-topped buses and vans.
All landlords in the state must provide information about bedbugs — how to identify them and how to report them — to apartment renters and must follow new rules if an infestation is found.
Using a bullhook to handle or control elephants will be against the law in California.
If you’re 20 years old or younger, you will need a boater safety card before operating a boat.
A sculpture prepared by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County shows what scientists believe the dinosaur Augustynolophus looked like. (Stephanie Abromowicz / Natural History Museum of Los Angeles)
California’s first vegetarian gets a formal title: Augustynolophus morrisi, a plant eater whose fossils have only been found in the Golden State, is now the official state dinosaur.
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