Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope everyone had a great holiday break. I did here, but now we are back in action!
Before I get into all the new law stuff, I want to thank everyone: Every year the LA Times’s Daily Pilot has come out with a ranking of the top 103 most influential people in the Newport/Mesa area. I’ve had my name on it before but this year the paper expanded to also cover Huntington and Laguna, making the “competition” much more stiff to be in the top 100, and covering a population base of 420,272 people. We made it!
With Huntington nabbing 14 of the spots, Laguna with 13, Newport with 30 and Mesa with 27 (and a few other spots that spanned city lines), we still made the list– that is awesome, and it is because of the participation of everyone here. THANK YOU! This is huge! This is also the last time the Daily Pilot will be running this list, so making waves on the final printout is amazing.
Now, let’s cut to the chase– here are the new laws in 2017 that you should be aware of:
1) Legalized marijuana Newport Beach voted with the rest of OC and California to legalize marijuana. Sadly for Newport residents who are in need of this– even if their doctor has recommended it– our city council has decided they know more about your health than your doctor does, and made it illegal to grow or sell, despite a voter proposition to the contrary. This is very much illegal for them to do, but unless someone has the time, money, and inclination to sue them, it’s going to remain a law on the books. (If you do have the time, money, and inclination to sue them, let me know!)
2) Motorcycle lane splitting. This was never actually illegal previously. And as anyone who has taken any class in American history ever knows, because we are a free country, if it isn’t illegal, then it is by default, legal. The new law– pretending to legalize lane splitting– actually simply created new rules about how to do it, and now if you break those rules, you’re breaking the law.
3) Holding your phone while driving. The old law against cellphone use in a car specifically had to do with talking on the phone. If you were using your GPS, you could still have your phone in your hand. Study after study has shown that the dangers of talking on the phone while driving have nothing to do with your hands being on the wheel and everything to do with the fact that your attention is divided between the road and talking to someone else. The same danger happens when in an in-depth conversation with someone who is also in your car, or if you are talking while on a hands-free set, which makes this law rather ineffective. Regardless of that ineffectiveness, though, California wants to fine you! They’ve also regulated where you can mount your phone for usage: It must be mounted in the far lower extreme corners of your windshield and you can only operate it using a single finger.
4) Child Car Seat Arrangements: A revision to child safety seat laws will require children to stay in rear-facing car seats in the backseat until the age of 2– Unless they are 40 inches tall or over 40 pounds before their second birthday, then they may face forward. Until then up they have to face the rear of the vehicle until age two.
5) GUN LAWS. Oooooh, touchy subject in Newport, the bastion of Republicanism but still with plenty of anti-gunners! Here are the infringements you need to be aware of if you like exercising the only amendment which says “shall not be infringed”:
5.1) Proposition 63 amended Penal Code Sections 32310, 32400, 32405, 32410, 32425, 32435, 32450, added Section 32406, and repealed Section 32420 by initiative statute, which changed the law to totally prohibit and criminalize the possession of “large-capacity magazines” as of July 1, 2017
5.2) “Bullet Button” maglocks are banned as of Jan 1, 2017 (AB 1135 & SB 880)
5.3) Have a family member or friend who has some crazy person who might harm them? Too bad, you can’t lend them your gun anymore as of Jan 1, 2017 (AB 1511)
5.4) Want to buy ammo for target practicing or even self-defense? You’re now being tracked in a government database for buying ammo, because apparently being tracked will prevent you from using those bullets in a bad way, I guess. (SB 1235, as of Jan 1, 2017).
5.5) Unless you’re a current or retired cop like Chris Dorner, you must turn in all your high-capacity magazines, because you can’t be trusted. Yes, even if they are grandfathered in. Hurry up, because the deadline was two days ago, on January 1, 2017 (SB 1446)
5.6) If you built your gun at home, you’ve now got to put a serial number on it. Even if you built it 50 years ago. You’ve got a couple of years on this, but it has to be completed by Jan 1, 2019 (AB 857)
5.7) If you want ammo after July 1, 2018, you must obtain a license to purchase it in California. Bringing in ammo from other states is illegal unless you have a “transportation license”. Yes, seriously.
5.8) All stolen guns must be reported within 5 days. Did you screw up and report one stolen but it was really just misplaced? Well, that’s now criminal too, because falsely reporting stolen guns is now illegal.
Yes, seriously, these are our new laws. But there is one piece of good news: The base California sales tax rate has decreased by 0.25% effective January 1 (if you own a biz, make sure your point of sale system is updated!). With this, the Newport Beach sales tax rate will be decreasing from 8.00% to 7.75%.
Be safe in 2017… the revenuers are out there!
