California Public Utilities Commission Votes The CALIFORNIA Public Utilities Commission votes unanimously to order an investigation into the intentional blackouts by Pacific Gas & Electric and other utilities that left millions of Golden State...
Utah Board of Education Passes Emergency Regulations Reacting to increasing illnesses and deaths related to vaping, the UTAH Board of Education passes emergency regulations allowing schools to ban electronic cigarettes and vaping devices. The measure...
Supreme Court of the United States Allows Lawsuit The Supreme Court of the United States allows a lawsuit filed by parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims to move forward at the state level. The suit alleges that the Remington Arms Co. marketed...
Cuomo Threatens NYC Utility NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) threatened to revoke the license of a utility that provides gas to New York City and Long Island unless it begins providing natural gas to new customers on Long Island. Cuomo also vowed to...
A new temporary homeless camp fostered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is so far not doing much to alleviate the growing homelessness problem in Austin. A week after the camp was opened at a former maintenance yard for TxDOT vehicles in East Austin, advocates...
North Dakota is currently the only state to have created a public bank, which it did way back in 1919. But momentum for more is growing at both the state and local level. The latest effort was launched last week in New Jersey, where New Jersey Gov...
Women Chosen to Lead VA House For First Time The VIRGINIA House of Delegates’ newly elected Democratic majority have chosen Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn (D) as speaker and Delegate Charniele Herring (D) as majority leader. They will be the first...
Mayors and administrators of over a dozen Rhode Island communities have filed a lawsuit challenging a law enacted this year by the state’s Democrat-controlled General Assembly and Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) locking in wage and benefit levels in public...
Mississippi Secretary of State-elect Michael Watson (R) said last week he would push to change the state’s Jim Crow-era election process for statewide offices. That process, written into the state’s Constitution in 1890 to help ensure that...
OR Facing Big Wildfire Mitigation Costs OREGON will have to spend $4 billion now to mitigate its wildfire problems, according to a report from the Council on Wildfire Response appointed by Gov. Kate Brown (D). The report said alternatively the state...
Virginia and Maryland have agreed to share the billion-dollar expense of expanding the American Legion Bridge, which spans the Potomac River between Fairfax County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland. The bridge has been one of the Capital...
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed an executive order last week providing for the creation of a 14-member board to oversee a state-owned bank, a centerpiece of Murphy’s 2017 gubernatorial campaign. The bank would be owned by the state’s...
In 2018 Texas had the most wildfires of any state, 10,541 of them, and the sixth highest number of acres burned, at 569,811, according to data compiled by the Insurance Information Institute from the National Interagency Fire Center. California had the...
Fire-prompted power shutoffs that left millions of Californians in the dark have pushed Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), one of the nation’s largest utilities, to the brink of a state government takeover. The blackouts touched off public...
If you wonder how important football is in certain parts of the country, I submit the recent razor thin re-election of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. Some folks credit that win to a general sense of good feeling in the Pelican State over the ascension...
You have to give South Dakota credit for knowing how to get the public’s attention, even if it can be for the wrong reasons. As the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports , Gov. Kristi Noem has unveiled the state’s new anti-meth campaign, and it’s...
It’s not news that our political and social discourse has taken a turn toward the crude, rude and – in years past anyway – socially unacceptable. It’s easy to blame he who shall not be named, but he’s hardly the only one...
Baltimore City Council Approves New Regulation The BALTIMORE City Council approves a new regulation that bans retailers from offering plastic bags to customers at checkout. The new law allows retailers to use small plastic bags to wrap deli products...
Massachusetts House and Senate Approve HB 4203 The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate overwhelmingly approve HB 4203 , which would ban Bay State drivers from talking on a handheld device while behind the wheel. It moves to Gov. Charlie Baker (R), who is...
MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate Unanimously Approve HB 4210 The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate unanimously approve HB 4210 , which would extend MassHealth coverage until age 26 for young adults formerly in Department of Children and Families custody...
California Governor Imposes A Moratorium CALIFORNIA Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) imposes a moratorium on new hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and steam-injected oil drilling in the Golden State until the permits for those projects can be reviewed by an independent...
Massachusetts House and Senate Approve SB 2412 The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate approve SB 2412 , a bill that would reformulate how Bay State school districts receive state money by directing more to those serving students living in poverty or with...
MASSACHUSETTS Senate Approves SB 2410 The MASSACHUSETTS Senate approves SB 2410 , a bill that would prohibit the distribution of single-use plastic bags and require customers to pay a fee of at least 10 cents for recyclable or reusable bags. The ban...
Raimondo Will Seek Legal RI Pot in 2020 Calling it “the next logical step” after legalizing medical use, RHODE ISLAND Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) said she will make another attempt to legalize adult recreational marijuana use in the Ocean State...
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued an executive order last week to more than double the Garden State’s goal for offshore wind power production. Under Executive Order No. 92 , the state will seek to produce 7,500 megawatts of wind power by 2035...