New Year, New Rules

• Minors under 18 will be banned from tanning salons in California due to potential health risks. 
• Students in Illinois can be suspended or expelled for making threats to teachers or students on the Internet. 
• Those earning minimum wage will be payed more in Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Montana, Ohio, and Vermont. 
• Student athletes must be benched in Colorado if they are believed to have suffered a head injury.  
• Distracted driving rules are growing, and texting-and-driving is now illegal in more than 30 states across the country.  
• Minors in California will need a special prescription to buy certain types of cough syrup because of problems with dangerous "robo-tripping" trends.  
• Florida is taking the control of school food programs from the federal government, and school cafeterias will serve more locally-grown fruits and vegetables.  
• Undocumented students in California will be allowed to apply for private financial aid this year. (A second law will allow those students to access public aid in 2013.) 

Other new laws focus on immigration, election rules, abortion, and entitlement programs. If you want to learn more about them, I recommend doing a quick news search on Google -- you'll find dozens of articles like this one from MSNBC. 

So what do you guys think? Will any of you be affected? I'd love to hear your opinions, so leave a comment here or shoot me a message on Facebook. Regardless of your thoughts on these new rules, I hope you're having an awesome start to the new year!