Hundreds of new laws to take effect Saturday

BOISE – If you’ve got a dead body, report it. Don’t even try to stock up on cold medicine. And playground bullies beware, because starting July 1, a host of new laws is hitting the books.

Idaho lawmakers passed more than 400 new laws during the 2006 legislative session, ranging from the mundane – routine budget appropriations – to the strange – a ban of inhaled alcohol devices and a law allowing motorcyclists to run red lights in certain situations.

They reformed Idaho’s lobbying registration rules to make sure that all lobbyists identify themselves with the state, not just those who are paid to sway lawmakers. New restrictions on the government’s ability to seize private property will also go into effect next month.

Many of the laws focused on crime, with some increasing the penalties for sex offenders and others designed to make it harder for people to manufacture illicit drugs.

One such law limits residents to buying 9 grams of the popular decongestant drug pseudoephedrine at a time.

That’s the equivalent of about 300 Sudafed brand pills.

The law is designed to stop people from buying the quantities of the drug needed to make methamphetamine.

“This bill will help about 20 percent of the meth problem,” Rep. Bob Ring, R-Caldwell, predicted during the session.

“Without pseudoephedrine, a meth cooker is out of business.”

Several new laws targeted sex offenders. Lawmakers included a special emergency clause in many of the laws allowing several of them to go into effect immediately.

Of those taking effect next month, one allows violent sexual predators who commit repeat crimes to be imprisoned for life, while another increases the minimum penalties allowed for certain sex crimes.

Local law enforcement agencies will now have the power to disseminate the names, addresses and photos of violent sex offenders to local radio and television stations.

And it will be harder for registered sex offenders to get off the sex offender list, even if a judge gives the offender a withheld judgment.

Much of the legislation was prompted by the high-profile case against Joseph E. Duncan III, a convicted sex offender who is accused of killing four members of a Coeur d’Alene-area family and abducting two children for sex in May 2005.

“In North Idaho, we had some very grotesque crimes committed by sex offenders,” Sen. Richard Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, said while pushing for one sex offender law.

Lawmakers used another high profile case to craft a law penalizing those who fail to report dead bodies.

The law closed a loophole discovered in 2004 when Rexburg authorities found the long-deceased remains of Lorraine Kaneko, 58, and her 33-year-old daughter Laura Kaneko in a trailer where Lorraine’s husband, Kenichi David Kaneko, still lived.

Now those who fail to notify a coroner of a dead body will be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Before, the law required a dead body report but offered no penalty for those who did not notify authorities.

Saying that “some things just aren’t welcome in Idaho,” Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, persuaded his colleagues to ban a new system that allows users to inhale oxygen spiked with alcohol mist.

The lawmakers approved the ban even though it’s not clear whether any of the alcohol inhalant machines have ever been brought into Idaho.

Besides tackling the party scene, lawmakers also hoped to make school playgrounds safer by expanding the powers of school superintendents, principals and teachers to suspend students who bully others.

“There are studies that indicate that bullying is the leading cause of teenage suicide,” said law sponsor Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden.

And starting in July, motorcyclists who run red lights will get a break – sort of.

A new law allows the cyclists to go through red lights if they are undetected by the traffic signal sensor.

Cycling advocates pushed for the bill, saying motorcycles are often too small to trip the magnetic sensors that govern the signals.

Under the law, motorcyclists still must come to a full stop, wait for the traffic light to cycle once, and then “exercise due caution” when entering the intersection to go through the red light.