While we don't know if Mayor Greg Nickels' latest proposal to ban concealed weapons on city lands will ever become law (we imagine a little thing called the Constitution and this little group called the NRA might have some problems with that one), hundreds of new laws will take effect in Washington this Thursday.

At midnight this Thursday, 280 new laws will be on the books. Over a hundred of the new laws will expand the rights of same-sex couples and "domestic partnerships" (one of these days, we will call it marriage, really). Starting on Thursday, members of same-sex couples cannot be compelled in court to testify against the other, granting them the same spousal privilege that heterosexual couples have. Another 169 rights already afforded to heterosexual spouses will also be extended to domestic partners.

Beginning Thursday, you will also be able to hunt cougars with dogs; you won't be able to go closer than within 300 feet of a Southern Orca; and any sexually motivated felonies you were convicted of out of state will now count against you as part of Washington's three-strikes law.

Photo Courtesy of Darren J. Sylvester