May 7 -- Update on Legal Marijuana
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Thirteen states have made progress in battling the deadly opioid epidemic while eight states have notably failed to deal with the crisis, according to a report issued this month by the National Safety Council (NSC). It comes on the heels of a report earlier...
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BROWN REACHES DEAL ON CA NATIONAL GUARD USE...OR DOES HE? After a week of jousting with the Trump administration, it is still unclear if CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) will order the deployment of the California National Guard to the state’s...
PA House Approves HB 2050 The PENNSYLVANIA House approves HB 2050 , which would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion based on the belief the expected child is likely to have Down syndrome. It moves to the Senate (PENNLIVE). PA House...
WALKER SIGNS OFF ON CLOSURE OF WI YOUTH PRISON : After years of accusations of ongoing abuse and neglect of its inhabitants, the lone WISCONSIN prison complex for teen offenders is now set to shut its doors for good. Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed bipartisan...
In democracies, voters are supposed to choose their legislative representatives. Increasingly, however, U.S. courts have found that representatives choose their voters through partisan gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts. With...
BAKER OUTLINES $300 MILLION CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN : On the heels of several massive winter storms, MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie Baker (R) outlined a plan to borrow $300 million to put toward efforts to combat climate change in communities all along the...
Whether you are reading this in Olympia or Atlanta, Boston or Sacramento, the rules for how this story – or the collection of bytes of data that comprise it - travels from the Capitol Journal to your laptop, tablet or phone, are the same. ...
At least 29 states have introduced legislation this year aimed at reinstating the requirement that internet service providers treat all content the same in terms of price and accessibility, which was eliminated last year with the Federal Communications...
Decrying a lack of federal action, several Northeastern governors have formed a multi-state partnership to address gun violence. The “States for Gun Safety” coalition is the brainchild of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who was joined by...
States have a vital stake in federal action to rescue the beleaguered program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Instituted by President Barack Obama in 2012 by executive order, DACA has protected from deportation nearly 800,000 young...
Although there appears to be broad public support for some gun control measures , federal action on any of them seems unlikely in the current political climate. “The possibility of evidence-based firearm laws has become so politically toxic...
In response to the $10,000 cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) included in the federal tax overhaul, lawmakers in high-tax states like California are considering allowing taxpayers to make charitable contributions to state funds...
Taxpayers in nine high-income, high-tax states claimed more than 60 percent of the state and local tax (SALT) deductions on federal tax returns nationwide in 2014, according to the Tax Foundation. Seven of those states, which include California, where...
NY GOVERNOR SIGNS AB 6571 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 6571 , an energy bill that requires the state Public Service Commission to establish a portfolio of energy storage policies, including a long-term energy storage target. The Empire State...
As of Oct. 30 at least 43 states had introduced over 240 bills and resolutions related to cybersecurity this year, according to analysis of LexisNexis State Net data by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Twenty-seven of those states have enacted...
At least 11 states will exhaust their Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funds before the end of the year, if Congress fails to extend federal funding for the program, according to a survey of state Medicaid officials by the Kaiser Family...
Incidents of sexual harassment or sexual assault involving female state lawmakers, legislative staff or lobbyists have been reported recently in at least 16 states. The legislatures in all of those states have training programs or policies in place to...
What started as a flood of allegations of sexual harassment and assault against powerful Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has morphed into an ever-widening outcry against such outrages regularly committed by men in all workplaces, including statehouses...
Social Policy In Oklahoma An OKLAHOMA court strikes down a Sooner State law that required doctors prescribing abortion-inducing medications to follow a protocol established in 2000 rather than updated protocols offered by drug makers. District Judge...
Health In Massachusetts The MASSACHUSETTS Supreme Judicial Court rules that because the effects of marijuana vary so greatly between individuals, police officers cannot offer an opinion on whether an individual was “high” in court cases...
Scott Creates First VT Ethics Commission VERMONT Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed legislation last week that will create a five-member commission to review cases of unethical behavior and potentially forward appropriate cases to the attorney general’s...
American politicians’ opposition to direct democracy dates back to the earliest days of the republic. But that resistance has reached a new level recently in the states, where elected officials are taking aim at voter-approved ballot measures and...
Hickenlooper Offers CA Pot Advice Saying his state “made an awful lot of mistakes,” COLORADO Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) shared some insights into regulating legal marijuana with a CALIFORNIA legislative committee last week, telling lawmakers...
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid in accordance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but left to states discretion by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius in...
In addition to state legislative elections that could flip party control of 18 chambers across the country, 157 statewide ballot measures will also be contested in 35 states on Nov. 8. The measures include an unusually high number of citizen initiatives...
Crime In Massachusetts The MASSACHUSETTS Supreme Judicial Court orders Bay State courts to consider whether a black person who walks away from a police officer is attempting to avoid the “recurring indignity of being racially profiled”...
California Approves SB 443 The CALIFORNIA Assembly approves SB 443 , which would shield people arrested for but not convicted of crimes from having police seize less than $40,000 of their cash assets. The bill returns to the Senate (SACRAMENTO BEE...
Health & Science In The US The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9 th Circuit rules that the U.S. Department of Justice cannot prosecute those who grow, supply or use marijuana for medical purposes in states that have legalized such use. The court...
California Approves SB 1062 The CALIFORNIA Senate gives final approval to SB 1062 , which would ban the use of bull hooks, baseball bats and other instruments meant to cause pain in the training of elephants. Violators face fines up to $10,000. The...
Thirty-seven states have passed laws regulating transportation network companies (TNCs), according to the R Street Institute and LexisNexis State Net’s legislative tracking database. The most recent addition to that group is Delaware, where Gov...
The daily fantasy sports industry had a few wins this spring in its first full year of pushing to make its games explicitly legal across the country. And while the question of whether the games are legal remains unclear in much of the nation, and their...
House and Senate Reach Final Agreement on MA SB 2119 The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate reach final agreement on SB 2119 , gender pay equity legislation which requires men and women to be paid the same for similar work. The measure, which also bars...
Health in California The CALIFORNIA State Board of Education approves a new history and social sciences curriculum that includes new instruction on topics like financial literacy; voter education; genocide; and the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual...
Potpourri in Massachusetts MASSACHUSETTS Attorney General Maura Healy (D) announces the Bay State will crack down on the sale of semi-automatic weapons, which have been banned there since 1998. Healey said gun sellers have been exploiting a loophole...
Twenty-five states joined Texas in challenging President Obama’s executive actions on immigration policy in November 2014, expanding temporary relief from deportation for undocumented immigrants. Fifteen states also filed amicus, or “friend...
Three of the eight states where the deadliest mass shootings since 1984 have occurred - California, Connecticut and New York - are among those with the strictest gun laws, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. None of those shootings took...
As of last month, 29 states had a minimum wage that was higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Two of those states, California and New York, have also passed laws that will gradually...
Thirty-three states have considered legislation related to daily fantasy sports this year, according to LegalSportsReport.com and LexisNexis State Net legislative data. DFS bills have been passed in four states, including Virginia, which enacted two....
MA Approves SB 735 The MASSACHUSETTS Senate approves SB 735 , a bill that would ban discrimination in public accommodations or businesses. The measure moves to the House (STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE [BOSTON]). CA Approves AB 1732 The CALIFORNIA...
At least 11 states have considered measures this session mimicking Hawaii’s newly implemented law that raises the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products to 21, according to LexisNexis State Net ’s legislative database. California’s...
Sometime in the next week – maybe by the time you are reading this – California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) will weigh in on legislation to raise his state’s legal smoking age from 18 to 21. If he signs it, the Golden State would become only...
Texas and twenty-five other states have filed suit to block President Obama’s executive actions in November shielding undocumented immigrants from deportation for three years, according to the Pew Research Center. Twelve states have filed an amicus...
Business In CA The CALIFORNIA Senate gives final approval to SB 7b, which would raise the legal smoking age in the Golden State to 21. It moves to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for consideration (SACRAMENTO BEE). Also in CALIFORNIA , the Senate endorses SB...
Since 2011, when Nevada became the first state to authorize the operation of self-driving cars, five other states -- California, Florida, Michigan, North Dakota and Tennessee -- have enacted legislation, and Arizona’s governor has issued an executive...
States have enacted numerous laws to combat the epidemic of opioid-related deaths plaguing much of the United States. Most common are so-called “Good Samaritan” laws that generally give a person civil or criminal immunity for seeking help...
A bipartisan group of 17 governors signed off last week on a pledge to work together toward increasing the use of renewable power, integrating electricity grids across state lines and ramping up the number of alternative fuel cars on their roadways (For...
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books prohibiting at least some state pension or retirement funds from investing in companies that do a certain amount of business in Iran. Ten of those states also have laws on the books...
Business in WV The WEST VIRGINIA Senate approves SB 1, so-called “right-to-work” legislation that would allow employees in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues while still requiring a union to represent all workers. The...
Health & Science in CA The CALIFORNIA Senate approves SB 21, a bill that would remove a March 1 deadline for cities and counties to adopt regulations under the state’s new medical marijuana regulatory framework. Under the law, the state could...
The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a challenge to an ILLINOIS city’s ban on semiautomatic, high-capacity assault weapons. The city, Highland Park, is a suburb of Chicago. Seven states — MARYLAND, CALIFORNIA, CONNECTICUT, HAWAII, MASSACHUSETTS...