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New Year To Ring In New Laws On Tips, Totes, Transgenders

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — Beginning next week, Californians will see a flurry of new laws take effect.

KCAL9's Dave Bryan reports that on Jan. 1, Los Angeles will become the largest city in the country to ban plastic bags in large food stores, markets and drug stores.

Customers will have the choice to bring bags from home or pay 10 cents for each paper bag they buy at the market.

"I've always tried to not use the plastic from the stores for a long time, so I think it's a good thing," a man said.

"I prefer [plastic bags], but we have so many things in the environment and if paper helps us ultimately, I can live with it," a woman said.

Also in the New Year, some restaurants will be changing the way they account for tips from large parties.

Under a new IRS ruling, restaurants that add a mandatory tip to the checks of parties with six or more customers, for example, will now have to consider that a service charge, which means it will be subject to payroll tax withholding.

Horacio Weschler, the owner of Lala's Argentine Grill in Studio City, said all that will do is dissuade restaurants from having a mandatory tipping policy.

"We don't do the mandatory service charge, we try to avoid it, sometimes we do it. But we'll keep it that way…we're not gonna put it on the menu because we don't want to deal with that," he said.

The most controversial legal change for 2014 is intended to protect transgender students. It would allow public schools in the Golden State to allow students to play team sports and have access to any school facility based on their gender identity.

The transgender law, however, has been targeted by a lawsuit, so it's not clear whether or not it will go into effect on time.

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