Immigrant Bertha Diaz, originally from Jalisco, Mexico, right, drives with her daughter Viviana Diaz, 17, without a California driving license, after attending a news conference at Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles in Los Angeles on Sept. 13, 2013. A new California law will allow her to obtain a legal license.(Photo: Damian Dovarganes, AP)
More than 1 million undocumented immigrants become eligible to apply for California driver's licenses Friday, thanks to a new state law. Now people who entered or stayed in the country illegally can drive legally in the state.
That was one of 931 laws passed last year to take effect in California. Across the USA, hundreds more new laws are taking effect as the new year begins:
Some changes are happening in more than one state:
- Minimum wages are going up in 20 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 12 states, voters approved a boost. In others, workers are getting automatic cost-of-living bumps. The hourly wages of 2.4 million workers will increase by up to $1 to an average of $8 and a high of $9.15, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The federal hourly minimum is $7.25.
- Drivers in five states could see gasoline prices rise with gas tax increases, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a tax watchdog group. The biggest increase is in Pennsylvania, 9.8 cents, followed by Virginia, 5.1 cents; Maryland, 2.9 cents; North Carolina, 1 cent; and Florida, 0.3 cents. New York, Nebraska, Vermont, West Virginia and Kentucky have enacted small gas tax reductions, according to the institute.
And sorry, pot smokers in Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C. Although voters in all three places last November approved measures loosening restrictions on marijuana possession, it's not time to light up yet. In Alaska, the law doesn't take effect until February. Oregon's measure won't take effect until July 1.
In D.C., it's complicated. City residents overwhelmingly approved a measure that would allow an individual to possess up to 2 ounces of marijuana and cultivate up to six plants at home without legal penalties. Six weeks later, Congress — which has the power of Washington's purse — approved a budget that included a Republican-backed provision barring the city from spending tax dollars on the measure.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said he plans to send a bill to Congress this month that would implement the law anyway. Lawmakers would have 30 days to either veto it or let it stand. He and other D.C. Democrats anticipate that Republicans won't be willing to expose a divide between social conservatives and libertarians so close to the 2016 elections.
"I don't feel that I have any choice," Mendelson told
The Washington Post. "The voters have spoken."
Contributing: Associated Press
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