Legislative briefs for March 11, 2005

Friday, March 11, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

Canada drug bill introduced

Democratic leaders introduced a bill Thursday that would make it easier for Nevada residents to buy prescription drugs from Canada.

Assembly Bill 195 would allow the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy to license pharmacies in Canada. A state-run Web site would then link Nevadans to approved pharmacies. No more than three months of drugs could be purchased, and only drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration would be sold.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said six states already have similar programs, and two more are in the process of implementing them.

The bill is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee on Wednesday. It had 52 co-signers, including Republicans in the Assembly and Senate.

Funds for all-day kindergarten asked

Assembly Bill 198, which would provide for full-day kindergarten throughout the state by the 2006 school year, was introduced Thursday and will be heard before the Assembly Education Committee on Monday.

The bill would allot enough state funds for all students to go to full-day kindergarten. Current state law only funds part-time kindergarten.

The measure would give $12.04 million in fiscal year 2005 to build classrooms in all districts but Clark County, which has said it can handle the building space on its own, said Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson. The next year, the state would allot $59.9 million for operating costs.

Perkins said staff members based those numbers on estimates from the state's superintendents, though he thinks the amount could be less.

Tougher teen driver laws urged

A bill that would toughen laws for licensing teen drivers was approved Thursday by the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security.

Senate Bill 60, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, raises the age to apply for a license to 16 from 15. The instruction period after getting the license is extended to six months, up from the present 90 days.

The bill, which goes to the floor of the Senate, would prohibit a person 16 or 17 from transporting a person who is under 18 years old for the first six months after the license is issued. At present the prohibition is 30-90 days, depending on the age of the teen.

The teen driver must continue to have 50 hours of supervised experience with the restricted license. But the committee struck the requirement that a record must be kept of the weather conditions and the vehicle's odometer at the beginning and end of each trip.

The committee also deleted from the bill a proposed section that would make parents responsible for all fines if they knew their child was violating curfew in a car.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, the chairman of the committee, said law enforcement officers believe they already have the authority to punish parents.

Lawsuit filing fee might be raised

The cost of filing a civil suit would increase by $10 under a bill introduced by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Senate Bill 177 would also raise by $10 the cost of answering a civil suit. The money would go to support alternative procedures for resolving disputes, thus avoiding trials.

The bill, referred to the Judiciary Committee, would also permit counties to raise double a fee to $10 for filing a suit to support providing legal services to indigents.