Albo Hits The 2008 Trifecta

Hat's off to Cville columnist Dan Catalano who featured this year's worst bills in a recent article. He had this to say about Del. Dave Albo:

Now, the biggest loser in this year’s loony legislation race has to be our
old pal Del. Dave Albo, who had a trifecta of idiotic, unnecessary laws killed in committee. First up was an attempt to add box-cutters to the Commonwealth’s list of concealed weapons. (Whoops! There goes the carpet-layers union vote.) He followed that up with a bill to allow towns to regulate fireplaces “where such use may constitute a nuisance to adjacent residences.” (He was, however, kind enough to exempt “any dwelling that does not have an adequate source of heat without burning wood.”) Finally, mistakenly assuming that the third time would be the charm, Albo attempted to make it a felony to use an emergency exit after committing larceny, thereby magically transforming some shoplifters into felons based on their choice of egress. Dan Catalano, I'm just a bill, cville (Mar.24, 2008).

AMG's only complaint is that he left out 1.5 bills from the bonehead department. First, Mr. Catalano leaves our Del. Albo's first attempt to save his abuser fees with "liquidated damages," and then the floor substitute which attempted to give a routine first offense DWI a $2,250 mandatory minimum fine leaving judges with the whopping discretion to fine someone between $2,250 and $2,500. This creature of legislative ingenuity went down 15-0 in a Senate committee.

It's nice to see our Delegate paying attention to such important matters.