In the aftermath

of Sept. 11, there's no shortage of people who think it's funny to phone

in a bomb threat to a mall, a large retail store or a school.

"I'm trying

to find a way to write some stronger laws to stop that," said state

Sen. Greg Hecht.

The Jonesboro

Democrat, who represents north Fayette, said he will be focusing on deterring

such pranksters when the Georgia General Assembly starts its 2002 session

Monday.

"One thing

that might help is to put in some restitution provisions," said Hecht.

"For instance, if you call a mall with a bomb threat and it's closed

down for the day, obviously that restitution order would be huge,"

he said.

Of course,

petty pranksters probably wouldn't be able to pay the money, but the order

would be an encumbrance on their lives for years.

"I think

it would be a strong deterrent," he said.

Hecht also

will focus on natural gas prices this session. He chaired an interim study

committee looking for ways to get gas prices down, and said numerous suggestions

came from a series of public hearings this fall.

High on that

list, he said, is the idea of re-regulating the deregulated gas industry.

The problem, though, is that "You're taking away a market from a

business. We're looking at what you can constitutionally do and not do."

If re-regulation

results in some of the gas marketers being put out of business, the state

might have to pay some compensation, he said.

Other ways

to increase competition are being considered, said Hecht, along with setting

up "providers of last resort" to prevent anyone's gas from being

shut off during cold winter months.

"We're also looking at further penalties for exploitive billing practices,"

he said.

"It's

an extraordinarily complicated issue," he said. "When they were

discussing deregulation, it took them four years to come up with what

they thought was the right legislation."

He has some

ideas on education as well, Hecht said, "but those are not fully

drafted yet."