How life changes, starting today

Starting today, it's illegal to throw plastic bottles in the trash.

And, perhaps anticipating human nature, state environmental officials warn that you can't burn them, either.

The correct way to dispose of those empties is to toss them in a recycling bin. That's one of a hundred little ways life in North Carolina will change today when 95 new laws take effect.

Don't worry, smokers, the ban on puffing in bars and restaurants doesn't kick in until January. But starting today, local governments can try to block new liquor stores. Homeowners have more power to try to halt foreclosures, assuming there's a chance they can pay what they owe. Victims of identity theft can freeze their credit faster, and stolen scrap metal will be harder to sell.

The legislature passed 618 bills this year, and as usual, the new laws go live in waves. The Oct. 1 class of new laws includes bans on novelty cigarette lighters, changes to boar-hunting season and a big change to lawsuits over defective products.

Here's a look at some of the new laws.

Care to sample the beer?

The next time you visit your local grocery store, you may have a chance to sample beer. A new law allows for beer tastings similar to wine tastings that already go on in stores across the state.

Samples are limited to 2-ounce cups for legal drinkers only, so it's unlikely anyone will get hammered on craft beer while shopping for groceries.

Turn off your laptop and drive

It's now against state law to watch TV, look at a laptop or gaze at a DVD player while driving.

Even with the new law, North Carolina still allows drivers to mesmerize themselves with a dangerous variety of distracting gadgets.

It's still legal for drivers to stare at GPS and other navigation gizmos and to look at audio system and other instrument displays in their cars. And the law taking effect today allows video displays "that enhance the driver's view in any direction, inside or outside of the vehicle."

And kids watching movies in the back seat? That's still legal.

The new law is an update of an ancient ban that only covered old-fashioned television broadcasts received via TV antennas.

What about texting and reading e-mail while driving? That's still legal until Dec. 1, when a new statewide ban will take effect.

Talking on the phone is still legal, too -- except for school bus drivers and for all drivers under age 18.

No more flaming fish

Those little, novelty cigarette lighters that look like cartoon characters, toys or other novelties are now banned.

The items are little magnets for children, which wouldn't be a problem if the items didn't shoot flames out of their little cartoon mouths when someone hits the hidden switch.

Dealing in junk

If scrap metal is your game, don't steal junk.

Metal yards are now prohibited from buying catalytic converters and air conditioning coils in most cases because such items are valuable and easily stolen. Junkyards must keep records of who sold the scrap.

Junkyards can no longer buy obviously hot property such as manhole covers or streetlight posts.

Legal affairs

A person can no longer sue because of an affair that starts when the marriage is all but over.

The state's alienation of affection and criminal conversation laws allow a jilted person to sue his or her spouse's lover for interfering with a marriage. The new law states that extramarital relationships that begin after the separation, but before the divorce, are off limits for lawsuits.

A musical tribute

If you weren't in Sha Na Na back in the day, you can't be Sha Na Na now.

A new law, called the Truth in Music Advertising Act, says that if you advertise a show by Sha Na Na, the group on stage can't be a bunch of guys who had nothing to do with the original group.

A tribute band has to clearly identify that it's just that, a tribute band.

More time to sue over product defects

One new law doubles the time limit for lawsuits filed over defective products.

North Carolina has a "statute of repose," which states that a consumer cannot sue a manufacturer over a defective product if an injury related to the defect occurs six years after the product was originally sold.

In real-world terms, this means if a car crash happens because of a manufacturing or design defect, the consumer injured by the crash can't sue if the car was sold more than six years ago. The clock starts with the first sale to any consumer, not just when the current owner bought it.

Other states have no time limit, and by doubling its limit to 12 years, North Carolina still has one of the shortest, said Jay Trehy, a Raleigh lawyer who lobbied for the change.

"All that North Carolina did was join the 20th century a little bit late," Trehy said. "It gives North Carolina citizens the same civil justice rights as are found across our borders."

Staff writer Bruce Siceloff contributed to this report.