Car insurance, gambling, ‘raise the age’ top new 2019 laws

An overhaul of Michigan’s auto insurance system topped the list of new laws in 2019. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and lawmakers also legalized sports betting and online gambling, and enacted a measure to stop automatically treating 17-year-old offenders as adults in the criminal justice system. The Democratic governor signed 178 bills in the first year of divided government since 2010. She signed laws to spend more protecting drinking water, to ensure more online retailers collect sales tax, to ease pending monthly reporting requirements for some Medicaid recipients and to require egg-laying hens to be housed in cage-free areas by 2025.   (AP)