New laws in North Carolina will scale back the number of standardized tests that public school students take and lay out expanded rights for crime victims. 

The crime victims' bill implements what's known as Marsy's Law, the constitutional amendment approved by voters last fall that expands rights given to crime victims. The measure explains which additional crimes trigger those rights and the process by which a victim can assert them.

The testing legislation approved by the General Assembly eliminates over 20 state exams currently given to students. It will be implemented next school year.

Also among the half-dozen bills that Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Thursday that he signed is one directing the State Lottery Commission to study the feasibility of state-regulated sports and steeplechase betting.

Gov. Roy Cooper has signed bills that help public schools rehire retired teachers in hard-to-fill classrooms and increase prison time for someone who uses a gun to assault a law enforcement officer.

Cooper has announced he's enacted another dozen bills with his signature.

One measure signed on Thursday offers a way to hire former teachers without harming their state retirement benefits. The teachers could work in low-performing schools and those with a high percentage of students from low-income families. Math and science teachers would get higher salaries.

Another new law will more than double the minimum prison sentence to roughly three years for someone convicted of a firearm-related assault on a police, correctional, probation or parole officer. Such crimes will become a more severe felony starting Dec. 1.