Silly, Silly Laws

(Newser) - Divorce has a new weapon: YouTube. The former-actress wife of a millionaire theater impresario took to the Internet last week in a teary six-minute video in which she claims her older hubby is evicting her from their Park Avenue pad after years of refusing her sex despite owning porn, condoms, and Viagra, the AP reports. May not play in divorce court, but it's scored 287,776 hits. More »

(Newser) - France’s lower legislative body today approved a law banning the promotion of anorexic behavior, the Guardian reports. Applicable to magazines, advertising and the web, the law can impose up to a $47,000 fine and two years in prison for “excessively inciting others to deprive themselves of food." Directed chiefly towards pro-anorexic websites, the bill could have broad repercussions for fashion. More »

(Newser) - Google, Yahoo and a bevy of Internet biggies have joined to fight a proposed New York state law that would limit their ability to collect information about people's web habits for advertisers, reports the Wall Street Journal . The coalition says the law would endanger the future of online advertising and “the availability of free content on the Internet.” More »

(Newser) - Florida lawmakers have passed a law that prohibits most businesses from banning employees keeping guns in their cars on company property, Reuters reports. Backers hail the measure as a victory for Second Amendment rights. Business groups, fearing an increase in workplace shootings, are urging the governor to veto the so-called "take your gun to work" bill. More »

(Newser) - The British government is set to tighten the law on marijuana, reclassifying it as a more dangerous drug and imposing a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for possession. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is determined to designate pot as a class B drug, only three years after Tony Blair downgraded it to class C.  More »

(Newser) - Washington is locked in a standoff with states over REAL ID, an anti-terror law that aims to make driver's licenses harder to dupe or obtain. But no states are near complying and Montana, New Hampshire, and Maine have all balked at the unfunded plan. What's more, REAL ID is just one of the federal mandates that have irked states in recent years, the Christian Science Monitor reports. More »

(Newser) - Think that pineapple-and ham-concoction is a pizza? Not according to Italian law, Julie Reno writes in the Smart Set. Only hand-kneaded dough, rolled to no more than 14 inches in diameter, topped with San Marzano plum tomatoes and baked in a brick wood-fired oven qualifies. La Pizza Polizia crown such authentic Neapolitan pies with Guaranteed Traditional Specialty status: Only two NYC pizzerias have made the cut. More »

(Newser) - NPR Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and every single state legislator have refused to implement the Real ID Act, a congressional mandate to create standardized identification documents. Schweitzer tells NPR the law is "kooky" and "hare-brained," asserting that half a dozen high school students and a Kinko's are all that would be needed to subvert it. More »

(Newser) - California homeschoolers are breaking the law, an appeals court ruled yesterday, by not having certified teachers instructing their kids. California’s law has been clear since 1953, the court said: Kids must go to school full time or be tutored by a credentialed teacher. The decision puts the parents of 166,000 kids at risk of prosecution, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. More »