Blogs

South Carolina Supreme Court Abolishes Common Law Marriage The SOUTH CAROLINA Supreme Court unanimously abolishes common law marriage, the legal framework that allows longtime couples to be considered married even without a license. The new law applies...

ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs two immigration measures: HB 836 , which ensures children are able to have short-term guardians if they have a parent detained or deported by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and House Bill...

Federal Judge Blocks Three Arkansas Abortion Laws Saying they provide women with “no discernible medical benefit,” a federal judge temporarily blocks three ARKANSAS abortion laws from going into effect. The state is expected to appeal the...

Illinois Governor Signs SB 9 ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs SB 9 , a bill that, among several things, prohibits coal ash discharge into the environment and directs state regulators to propose new rules around the regulation of coal ash (ILLINOIS...

New York Governor Signs SB 101A NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs SB 101a , which bars school districts from arming teachers. The law still allows a school resource officer, law enforcement officer or security guard to carry a firearm on school...

Illinois Governor Signs HB 88 ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs HB 88 , a bill that caps interest rates at 5 percent on consumer debt of less than $25,000 following a court judgment, down from the current limit of 9 percent. The law also limits...

NEWSOM SIGNS OFF ON CA CLEAN DRINKING WATER FUND CALIFORNIA Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed SB 200 , legislation that authorizes the use of $130 million in funds initially targeted for greenhouse gas reduction to instead pay for a clean drinking water...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) proposed new regulations on student loan servicing in the Empire State. Under the proposal, servicers would be barred from defrauding or misleading borrowers, engaging in any unfair, deceptive, abusive, or predatory act...

Saying he is “determined to bring more accountability and transparency to Idaho’s rule-making processes,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) said he has ordered the state Office of the Administrative Rules Coordinator to make administrative...

CO CONSERVATIVES PUSH TO RECALL DEMOCRATIC GOV, LAWMAKERS Conservatives in COLORADO are pushing to recall Gov. Jared Polis (D) and two Democratic state senators. The recall effort comes after a legislative session in which Democrats who now control...

Last week California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill (SB 27 ), passed on a straight party-line vote by the state’s Democrat-controlled Legislature, that requires candidates for President of the United States and California Governor to disclose...

MD TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION FACING BIG SHORTFALL The MARYLAND Transit Administration says it is facing a $2 billion-plus funding shortfall over the next decade. The agency also said it will need to spend $5.7 billion between now and 2028 to address the...

This year’s legislative session in Texas could turn out to be a costly one for the state’s major cities. One of the bills state lawmakers passed, SB 2 , will require cities, counties and other taxing units to obtain voter approval before levying...

Equifax has agreed to pay at least $650 million to settle claims originating from its massive 2017 data breach. A large chunk of that money, $300 million, will go toward claims from any of the 147 million-plus consumers - nearly half the U.S. population...

At least 26 states have introduced bills this session dealing with the collection and use of biometric information, such as fingerprints, speech patterns or gait, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures and LexisNexis State...

At the start of this year, many observers believed states might be lining up to duplicate California’s tough new data privacy law, set to go into effect next year. That rush didn’t quite materialize, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers completely...

In the age of social media and instant gratification it is incredibly easy to edit photos to fit a specific ideal. The world is becoming increasingly more visual and consumers want content that tells a big story with a quick glance at a single photo....

California’s Orange County has been the ultimate GOP stronghold, so much so it long ago earned the moniker “the Orange Curtain.” But California’s Republicans are in a freefall, with their statewide popularity falling somewhere...

As I mentioned already, nobody alive owns a stage more or better than Ms. Dolly Rebecca Parton of Sevier County, Tennessee. Among the gems from her talk with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee: attributing her large family growing up to the folks in her region just...

Legendary singer and songwriter Dolly Parton has always had a profound impact on the people around her. And it didn’t take long at last week’s opening event for the National Conference of State Legislatures Annual Summit in Nashville to see...

New York Governor Signs SB 231 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs SB 231 , a bill that allows BUFFALO to enforce speed limits in school zones using cameras that record speeding violations in real time without the need for a police officer at the...

Acting Governor Signs A Trio of Gun-related Measures Acting NEW JERSEY Gov. Sheila Oliver (D) signs a trio of gun-related measures: SB 3301 , which requires the Garden State Department of Health to establish a hospital-based violence intervention plan...

The FLORIDA Dept. of Education unveils a special database that grants specified “threat assessment teams” access to information about students’ personal mental health history, interactions with law enforcement, school discipline, and...

Acting New York Governor Signs 1790 Acting NEW JERSEY Gov. Sheila Oliver (D) signs SB 1790 , a bill that imposes fines and possible jail time on employers found guilty of failing to pay workers the full wages owed to them. Employers who are found to...

DESANTIS ORDERS PROBE INTO FL SEX TRAFFICKING CASE FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last week ordered a state criminal probe into the actions of Palm Beach sheriff Ric Bradshaw and former Palm Beach state attorney Barry Krischer for their handling of...