'No pets on lap' law among proposals affecting drivers

In today's Times, Patrick McGreevy takes a deeper look into the proposed law that would ban live animals from being on drivers' laps (among other proposals that could affect California's drivers):

Assemblyman Bill Maze (R-Visalia) said he introduced the bill against lap dogs after a car passed him with two large canines hanging out a window and a third in the driver's lap.

"It's a very dangerous thing for the drivers and others," Maze said. "It's a distraction."

Maze is unfazed by national radio personality Rush Limbaugh's derision of his measure. "Talk about the land of fruits and nuts," Limbaugh told listeners recently.

And Maze doesn't care that other critics have ridiculed the measure as the "Paris Hilton bill," after the celebrity partygoer who often totes a tiny dog with her.

"I don't know anything about her," Maze said.

But Dick Messer, above, the director of the Petersen Automotive Museum, likes driving around with his Pomeranian, named Peaches, on his lap. He thinks the proposed law is "ridiculous":

"It's just nuts, the stuff legislators come up with instead of dealing with the real problems facing the state: crime, the economy, the . . . budget deficit," Messer says.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times