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Self-defense, bullying bills pass House Thursday, Feb 15, 2007 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The House approved bills Wednesday that would ease restrictions on using deadly force in self-defense and require schools to set policies to punish online bullies. Senate Bill 2 by Sen. Jerry Taylor, D-Pine Bluff, would remove the requirement that Arkansans try to retreat before using deadly force in some circumstances. Existing law says that a person must try to retreat unless in their homes. Taylor's bill would allow a person to use of deadly force in self-defense without having to retreat from his or her yard or outlying structures, such as a porch. Rep. Shirley Walters, R-Greenwood, who carried the bill in the House, said she would have preferred the original version of Taylor's bill, which would have removed the requirement to retreat regardless of location. Taylor amended the bill in the face of opposition in the Senate Judiciary Committee. "This is not ideally perfect, but this is the compromise we have been able to get out so far," Walters told House colleagues. Without debate, the bill passed 89-8 and goes to the governor. Also Wednesday, the House concurred on a Senate amendment to House Bill 1072 by Walters, which would require school districts to include Internet activities to the definition of bullying in their existing in their policies. Walters said she agreed to take the words "intimidating or threatening" from a section of the bill at the request of a constitutional law professor who considered the words too vague and open to interpretation. Without them, she said, the bill would stand up to a court challenge. The House concurred in the amendment, 98-2. The bill previously passed both chambers and now goes to the governor. The House passed, 93-2, HB 1031 by Rep. Billy Gaskill, D-Paragould, which would allow reduced tuition to state colleges and universities for state police officers, highway police, state Capitol police and state wildlife officers. The measure requires the officers have been with their agencies at least 10 years. It also allows for the dependents of the officers to receive the reduced tuition. Gaskill said the tuition reduction will have to be determined by the college or university. The bill goes to the Senate. In the Senate, four bills aimed at reducing the cost of college textbooks each passed 35-0. Senate Bills 22, 23, 24 and 25, all by Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, go to the House. SB 22 would prohibit the selection of textbooks that can only be bought in a bundle with one-time use items like workbooks and requiring purchases of a new bundle each year for the same class. SB 23 would prohibit use of textbooks where pages have to be removed, destroying their resale value. SB 24 would set deadlines for announcing which textbook will be required for college and university classes so that competing bookstores all would have enough notice to order a supply. SB 25 would prohibit higher education institutions from using textbooks that have been lightly modified to make them unique to the institution - and therefore largely without value in a multi-state textbook market. For example, it is possible to buy some textbooks with pictures of students on a particular college campus, and with no other difference from other books sold elsewhere. The Senate also passed House Bill 1008 by Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro, which would require a driver who is in a traffic accident that causes death or injury to any party or damage to remain on the scene at least 30 minutes. Current law requires that the driver stay until authorities arrive if he knows authorities are coming. An exemption is made for the need to leave the scene to attend to injury. The bill passed 35-0 and goes back to the House to concur in Senate amendments. House Bill 1300 by David Wyatt, D-Batesville, also passed 35-0. The bill would allow citizens of a city to petition to put city sales taxes on the ballot in city elections. The bill goes to the governor. |
