Minnesotans will benefit from the new laws I authored. The first protects the state's tourism industry and ensures family traditions by requiring all Minnesota schools to start classes on the day following Labor Day. The purpose of the bill was to allow high school and college students the complete opportunity to work at their summer jobs.

The second is the Citizens Personal Protection Act, which gives Minnesotans the right to obtain a permit to carry a loaded handgun. The law needed to be revised because the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a Ramsey County District Court ruling that stated legislators violated the state Constitution's requirement that no law embrace more than one subject. The conceal and carry amendment was added on to a natural resources bill in 2003.

A third piece of my legislation signed into law allows silencers to muffle discharges of firearms for natural resource wildlife control. My purpose in authoring this bill was to trim down the population of cormorants on Leech Lake. The number of the birds had significantly eaten the lake's walleye population, which would impact the region's fishing/tourism industry.

Another bill signed by Gov. Pawlenty allows for a two-way operation of snowmobiles on either side of a street or highway right-of-way under the road authority's jurisdiction. That agency must decide whether or not two-way operation will not endanger users of the roadway or snowmobile riders.

Other bills of mine signed into law include: