Some Controversial New Laws to Take Effect in the New Year
HILL: We're getting ready to ring in the New Year, 2012, and a lot of us have these lists of what I want in the new year. I don't think any of us had, I hope, for 40,000 new laws, but that's what you're getting, right, Josh?</s>LEVS: Yes. Close to 40,000 laws were enacted in the past year, and some of them are coming into effect tomorrow. As you know we have so incredibly many laws on the books in this country no one knows half the laws in their state. It's almost impossible.</s>HILL: True. And a lot of them are outdated. What about those new ones?</s>LEVS: Last hour, we talked about some quirky ones. But now we're going to start to dig into some of the meaty and controversial ones, starting with one in California. You're seeing over my shoulder, but let's take it so everybody can see this language. California is creating this rule that is requiring schools to teach, quote, "the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans in the development of California and the United States." So California has these groups kids learn about and they're adding gay, bisexual, transgender Americans to the group that kids are required to learn about. It's a little bit controversial. Some people want it repealed. But that goes into effect tomorrow.</s>HILL: As long as the kids are learning reading, writing and everything else, I guess the more you can teach them, better?</s>LEVS: Yes. We'll see what happens. Another interesting one, some controversy, you've heard of this kind of thing. This is in New Hampshire, requiring parental notification for a minor who wants to get an abortion or that minor can seek to get a court order to avoid parental notification. Sometimes there are parental consent laws. This is a parental notification law. A minor has to make sure that a parent is informed.</s>HILL: Gee, thanks. You're a parent. You have to sign a waiver for the school to give them aspirin, yet there are a lot of states who say a child can make this monumental decision and go through this by themselves without letting you know.</s>LEVS: The governor at first vetoed it, saying there should be an exception for rape, incest. But that was ultimately overrode, so it past despite that. One more. This I find interesting because it shows the split in the country over immigration issues. That involves the e-Verify program. We have several states now that are requiring employers to use this e- Verify program to confirm whether a perspective employee is actually a citizen of the United States.</s>HILL: Doesn't that help them?</s>LEVS: It does in many ways or helps them make sure they have a legitimate immigration status. You've got Tennessee, South Carolina, all requiring that now. California is doing the opposite. They're creating a law saying state and local governments may not require employers to use that program unless they have to.</s>HILL: But isn't the whole thing in our country right now trying to get Americans more jobs? Why wouldn't you want to help verify you're giving an American a job?</s>LEVS: A lot of supporters say exactly what you're saying. Those opposed to this have a few arguments. One of the key things is it's not 100 percent accurate. There was a GAO study from the government saying it's gotten better, but there are still problems that persist. Also they say it drives undocumented workers further underground into potentially unscrupulous areas.</s>HILL: Which is a real problem?</s>LEVS: Right. So there real problems. I've posted the language so everyone can see the --</s>HILL: All 40,000?</s>LEVS: You know what? I'll tell you --</s>HILL: You did not do that. You do not have the time to do that, do you?</s>LEVS: No.</s>HILL: If so, I want your life.</s>LEVS: Oh, man, no one wants my life.</s>HILL: I want that free time.</s>LEVS: There's a great organization National State Legislatures has a list of these, and they have links to the PDF of the actual language. I encourage everyone to get more details.</s>HILL: So someone somewhere did spend their working life putting all this together, compiling it together.</s>LEVS: Maybe you and I should have their lives.</s>HILL: Thank you very much.</s>LEVS: Thank you.</s>HILL: Extreme couponing. The trend may be pretty popular. But one Georgia food bank is using it to help people in need. What a great idea, and we're going to show you how they're doing it.