Last month I enjoyed participating in the Knightdale and Zebulon Christmas Parades. I also had the honor of presenting an award to a constituent, Ms. Yolanda Dickerson, from the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the American Heart Association for all her work on the smoking ban that becomes effective January 2, 2010. This new law bans smoking in nearly all restaurants and bars. Private clubs and cigar bars are exempted from the no-smoking restrictions. Proponents say the law will protect people from the adverse health effects of second-hand smoke, while critics say the ban infringes on smokers' rights and the rights of business owners to control what activities go on inside their establishments. The law allows fines of up to $50 for smokers who keep puffing after being asked by an establishment's managers to stop.

In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion on the national stage regarding health care and health care reform in America. I thought it would be a good idea to inform you about what we have done at the state level to improve health care for the people of North Carolina.

House Bill 1034 allows automated calls to protect the public health, safety, or welfare. This law is intended to inform telephone subscribers that they have purchased products or medication that may be subject to a safety recall; that the telephone subscriber has not picked up a filled prescription drug or that an account maintained by the telephone subscriber may be subject to potential fraudulent activity. The calls cannot be used for any commercial purposes.

House Bill 672 requires more local mental health agencies to report how they are spending money twice a year. The intent of the law is to require more transparency and accountability for state-funded mental health providers. HB 673 directs the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, to take certain actions to improve supports for persons with developmental disabilities.

House Bill 1186 authorizes County Departments of Social Services to conduct follow-up monitoring of adult care homes. The law is meant to improve patient safety by improving oversight of adult-care homes.

Senate Bill 799 increases transparency of state facilities that provide mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services by requiring the disclosure of certain information about death reports, facility police reports, and incident reports.

Finally, in the state budget, we provided funding to complete the last phase of three-year takeover of Medicaid from counties, freeing money for local governments at a total cost of $252 million; we expanded the Children's Health Care Program (Health Choice) at a total cost of $17 million, and we appropriated $12 million for new local inpatient beds for the mentally ill to treat people closer to their homes and relieve state hospitals.

Even though we are not currently in session, you can still e-mail me at darren.jackson@ncleg.net or feel free to call my office at 733-5974. My legislative assistant, Angela McMillan, or I are here to help with issues regarding the State of North Carolina and/or state agencies throughout the year.