Blogs

In May the Board of Supervisors for the City and County of San Francisco approved an ordinance banning the use of facial recognition technology by all city departments. It’s the only major U.S. city to have taken such action against the emerging...

If you live in Detroit, Cleveland or Newark, odds are good the stress level in your world is pretty high. Conversely, if you reside in Fremont, California or Bismarck, North Dakota, life is likely a much smoother ride. Those conclusions are according...

A bill working its way through the California Capitol that would make most gig workers into employees has got the major rideshare companies all a tither. So much they’ve been pushing their drivers to publicly oppose the bill. That effort took an...

Famed evangelist Billy Graham might be dead, but his grip on Magnolia State politics is apparently still pretty strong. As Mississippi Today reports , a second gubernatorial candidate – former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. –...

Berkeley California City Council Approves Ordinance The BERKELEY , CALIFORNIA City Council unanimously approves an ordinance to bar the use of natural gas in new buildings. The law takes effect on Jan. 1 2020 (BERKELEYSIDE). San Diego City Council...

New Hampshire Governor Signs HB 399 and Vetoes SB 88 NEW HAMPSHIRE Gov. Chris Sununu (R) signs HB 399 , which allows anyone who convicted of possession of a small amount of weed before Sept. 16, 2017 to petition the court to have that conviction removed...

New Jersey Governor Signs Trio of Opioid-Related Bills NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signs a trio of opioid-related bills: AB 3292 , a bill that makes the Garden State the first to require opioid prescriptions to have a warning label to inform patients...

Missouri Governor Signs HB 260 MISSOURI Gov. Mike Parson (R) signs HB 260 , an anti-poaching measure that significantly raises fines for those convicted of illegally taking game species and other native wildlife. Fines will range up to $5,000 for each...

Florida Board of Education Enacts New Rules The FLORIDA Board of Education enacts new rules that require Sunshine State schools to provide students with at least five hours of mental health instruction, beginning in the 6 th grade. The instruction...

Minnesota Governor Signs HF 2A MINNESOTA Gov. Tim Walz (D) signs HF 2a , an omnibus jobs and economic development package that will also make it a felony in some cases for employers to withhold workers’ wages. The new law, which went into effect...

TRIBES REJECT OK GOV’S CALL FOR NEW GAMING DEALS Questioning “his sincerity to work with us in a cooperative manner,” the leaders of five major OKLAHOMA -based tribes rejected Gov. Kevin Stitt’s (R) call to renegotiate their...

After initially saying he had no plans to try changing a state law that requires the governor to annually issue a proclamation honoring an early Ku Klux Klan leader, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) reversed course and said he would seek to change the law...

Faced with the imminent threat of litigation from her own attorney general, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) has dropped her effort to allow thousands of Show Me State residents to continue receiving food stamps without meeting state-mandated work requirements...

CA TAKES ANOTHER SHOT AT KEEPING TRUMP OFF BALLOT The CALIFORNIA Legislature has passed a bill ( SB 27 ) that would require candidates for president to release five years’ worth of tax returns before their name could appear on the state’s...

After two weeks of resistance, President Trump abandoned his plan to get a citizenship question on the 2020 census. But that doesn’t mean he’s given up on the idea of collecting information about the citizenship status of everyone living in...

NJ JOINS LAWSUIT AGAINST IRS NEW JERSEY has joined CONNECTICUT and NEW YORK in a lawsuit challenging a new IRS rule barring taxpayers from circumventing the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions imposed by the GOP-engineered federal tax overhaul...

New York’s politically influential real estate industry suffered a surprising defeat last month when Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed SB 6458 , which among other things closed loopholes in the state’s rental laws that allowed building owners to...

This month California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced the state would be paying off $10.5 million in school loan debt for 40 dentists and $58.6 million in school loans for 247 doctors. The debt relief, provided through a loan repayment program established...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved waivers allowing the imposition of work requirements for Medicaid enrollees in nine states, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. Approved waivers have been blocked by legal...

As the fate of the Accordable Care Act (ACA) hangs in the balance in a federal court, states are experimenting with myriad policies affecting health care coverage and insurance costs. In a hearing in New Orleans on July 9, two Republican-appointed...

It used to be that getting caught in a lie was a bad thing. But with the patron saint of fibbery in the White House these days, lying is in vogue even when your lie can be easily disproved. Case in point comes from Arizona, where Gov. Doug Ducey last...

By the time you are reading this, North Dakota’s blue laws, the most restrictive in the nation, will be no more. After years of slow but steady erosion, the Flickertail State Legislature this year passed a bill to eradicate them once and for all...

Things are certainly different for kids these days. As NBC News reports , Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill last month that allows students to take “mental health days” the same way they would for a case of the flu. Now hold your nasty...

If you happen to be perusing the many fine things to see and do in Berkeley, California and come upon a street access point to the city’s sewer system...please don’t call it a manhole cover. As Curbed San Francisco reports, the City Council...

Cleveland City Council Approves New Regulations The CLEVELAND City Council approves new regulations that require landlords to pay for private inspections and obtain lead-safe certificates for rental units. Property owners will also be required to inform...