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December 22, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - "Bravo to Florida! I've never heard of another law that's 25 feet," Ted Rueter tells the Orlando Sentinel said Ted Rueter of Florida's stricter new noise laws. "Motorists playing a car radio or stereo loud enough to be plainly heard from 25 feet away could wind up with a $70 ticket. The old buffer zone was 100 feet," writes the newspaper's Laurin Sellers. Rueter is identified as "director of Noise Free America, a loose-knit group based in Indianapolis that fights for anti-noise legislation, urges stricter enforcement of existing laws and works to raise public awareness about the potential health hazards linked to loud sounds... (He) also teaches political science at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind."

An assistant professor at DePauw, "Rueter said most other states and cities that have ordinances make it unlawful to operate car stereos when the sound can be heard 50 to 100 feet away," Sellers notes. "But although Rueter praised Florida's change in distance, he chastised state lawmakers for not making the penalty stiffer. In Chicago, for example, police have the authority to confiscate a vehicle for three months and charge up to $615, even for a first-time offense. About 4,000 vehicles are seized annually in the city, Rueter said. In Hoover, Ala., first-time violators can wind up in jail."

"Boom-car drivers are definitely flouting the law, and a $70 fine is a slap on the wrist,'' Dr. Rueter adds.