With new year, new state laws

"Now the only difference in California between domestic partners and married spouses is the way you enter into the relationship," says Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay civil-rights group that cosponsored the insurance bill. "And California is the only state in the country that has given all of these rights and responsibilities through the will of the people."

So far, there are between 25,000 to 30,000 registered domestic partners in California, and Mr. Kors expects that number to grow as the laws become better known.

On a host of issues, other states followed California's lead. New York, for example, now requires skateboarders under age 14 to don safety helmets.

And teenagers in Illinois are no longer allowed to drop out of school at age 16; they now must stay in school until age 17.

"I love any law that will keep kids in school longer," says Phillis Myers, director of the One-to-One Learning Center in Northfield, Ill., a nonprofit that offers tutoring and diagnostic testing to students. "But what this makes us think about is ways in which we can do a better job of tailoring the education program for a child who would drop out at 15 or 16 into a different educational environment, that would be able to meet their needs,

Healthcare cropped up again in states across the nation. Maine continues to phase in its universal healthcare program, making access to services easier.

Illinois now requires adult-strength cold tablets to be locked up in an attempt to curb the production of methamphetamine. And Missouri citizens are now able to donate unused prescription drugs in sealed containers to pharmacies to be resold to the poor at a lower cost.

Two more states also made it harder for people to claim health-related problems from eating at restaurants and fast-food chains that serve fattening foods.

And all Indiana restaurants, schools, and day-care programs are now required to have at least one certified food handler on staff.

Animals were again on legislators' to-do lists. In New York, wild animals are no longer allowed as pets, after a 400-pound tiger kept in a Harlem apartment bit his owner's leg last year. In Minnesota, the breeding of wild animals is being severely restricted after another 400-pound tiger incident: an attack on a child at a wildlife sanctuary a few years ago. In Illinois, pets are now eligible for a share of their owner's fortunes.

That state now allows pet owners to include Fluffy and Spot in their wills by establishing trust funds for them. Under the new law, dogs, cats, horses, even gerbils will be looked after by a designated caretaker.

"It's one of the trendy things [in state law] right now," says Ron Schreiber, an estate planner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago. "Is this the most pressing thing that ever came before the legislature? No. But it does serve a need. And some people are very attached to their pets."

• Staff writer Amanda Paulson contributed to this report from Chicago.

Before Jan. 1, states with minimum wages above federal levels were: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington, D.C.

... And now wages have risen in: Illinois, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington State.

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