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Legislative roundup - SAMPLE

When a bill that would ban smoking in public places passes a second vote in the North Carolina General Assembly as it did last week you know there’s change in the air.

Breaking from the past, or at least seriously shaking things up, seems to be the theme of the 2,021 bills that have been filed since lawmakers went back to work in January.

One bill, for instance, would do away with the popular election of judges and replace it with a system of gubernatorial appointments and retention votes.

Another bill would create the Office of Prosecution Services and give it the power to establish uniform policy and procedures throughout the state’s district attorney offices.

And then there’s a bill proposing that our state replace contributory negligence with a comparative fault system.

New crimes, new torts and new statutory language can be found in a host of other bills. There’s even a bill that would rewrite the entire code to make it gender-neutral.

We won’t even talk about the bill that calls for an official N.C. Hot Sauce Day without even mentioning Texas Pete.

We’ve corralled what we consider to be either the most interesting or important bills for our readers to keep an eye on in the weeks ahead.