This Week in Statehouse Action: New Laws, Who Dis? edition

sorry, must have lost your bill number when I switched

Happy New Year!

…fiscal new year, that is.

In the statehouse space, July marks the beginning of the new fiscal year in every state except Alabama, Michigan, New York, and Texas.

That fiscal year jump-off is also when most state laws take effect.

So, the beginning of July means stuff is changing in a lot of states.

Let’s take a quick look.

The good:

• Most bars in California now have to make kits for drug testing drinks (for roofies and the like) available for free or minimal cost.

• In Virginia, it’s now illegal to declaw cats (absent some specific medical need to do so, like injury or infection).

Would you believe I’m about to say something positive about Tennessee?

Hold on to your butts

• A first-of-its-kind law offering protections against generative AI in music just took effect in the Volunteer State.

  • The new law bans unauthorized impersonation of performers’ voices by artificial intelligence.

    • While it might seem a little against type for a groundbreaking AI restriction to originate in Tennessee, …