California Gov. Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. cleared his desk of over 140 bills in time for a midnight deadline. The guy's a bill-signin' and vetoin' demon! Here's a partial list of shiny, new California laws:

  • Banning of cancer-causing tanning beds for anyone under 18.
  • Requiring health insurance companies to provide autism coverage.
  • Giving children 12 and older access to STD-preventative health care without parental consent, including the Gardasil vaccine.
  • Limiting the actions police can take at sobriety checkpoints. (Sober but unlicensed drivers can no longer have their cars impounded.)

And the ones that got away:

  • Rejecting the legalization of industrial hemp. (Though he voiced support for the concept.)
  • Rejecting an ACLU-sponsored measure that would require a search warrant to search the contents of an electronic device, like a cellphone, during an arrest.
  • Rejecting a proposal to ban the shackling of pregnant inmates, which would have included handcuffs.
  • Rejecting a measure that would have required businesses to give employees four days of "bereavement time" after the loss of a loved one.

All in all, California's youth really came out the biggest winners of the fall law-making season. (Unless they wanted to retain their foreskins. Then they were definitely the losers.)

[LA Times, photo via Getty]