New laws take effect

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A new law that makes it illegal to text and drive has received plenty of attention, but the measure is just one of more than 250 laws that were enacted Sunday.

People caught reading or writing texts or emails while driving will be fined $100 under the Trooper Nicholas Dees and Trooper Keith Burch Act of 2015. Dees was killed and Burch seriously injured when a man accused of texting while driving crashed into them in January.

Among the other bills that took effect Sunday are several that target Oklahoma’s steadily increasing prison population, and one that paves the way for Oklahoma to become the first state to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates.