Chicago to Consider Airbnb fee Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed an ordinance that would impose a 2-percent surcharge on home-sharing and vacation rentals like those offered through services like Airbnb and VRBO. The proposal also seeks to require...
A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia issued a new congressional map for the state that gives Democrats a chance to pick up another seat in this year’s election. The judges ruled last year that...
A bipartisan group of New York lawmakers, led by Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda (D), are pushing for legislation to allow voters to recall elected officials, something nineteen states and the District of Columbia currently do, according to the National Conference...
Revolving-door Bill on Move in MO A MISSOURI House panel unanimously approved a measure that would bar lawmakers, state officials and gubernatorial appointees from working as a lobbyist for one year after leaving office. The ban would not apply to...
Facing a class action lawsuit, a dozen recall efforts and at least one lawmaker calling for his resignation, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) activated the Wolverine State National Guard last Tuesday to assist in the state’s efforts to manage the ongoing...
On his first day in office, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed Executive Order NO. JBE 16-01, expanding Medicaid to cover an additional 300,000 Pelican State residents. Louisiana became the 31 st state overall – and the first in the deep...
No Impeachment for LePage Democrats in the MAINE House rejected an effort last week to launch possible impeachment proceedings against Gov. Paul LePage (R). Lawmakers instead endorsed a resolution that extols the virtues of statesmanship and working...
Business in CA The CALIFORNIA Air Resources Board rejects a proposal from Volkswagen AG for how it plans to fix over 480,000 diesel-engine cars the company is accused of engineering to skirt U.S. air pollution control laws. Regulators deemed the proposed...
The Supreme Court of the United States strikes down part of FLORIDA’s death penalty law, saying it violates the constitutional rights of criminal defendants by allowing judges to find aggravating factors that determine whether a defendant is eligible...
The NEW JERSEY Senate approves SB 2617, legislation that would allow environmental and research groups to establish oyster colonies in polluted waters as long as the colonies are invisible to and not easily accessible by the public. It moves to Gov. Chris...
The MASSACHUSETTS House unanimously approves HB 3944, legislation that would among several things give doctors a 24-hour window to conduct a substance abuse evaluation on patients who enter an emergency room showing symptoms of an opioid overdose. They...
A federal judge extends until March her order blocking ARKANSAS from enforcing a law that limits how the so-called abortion pill mifepristone is administered. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker blocks enforcement of the law, which requires...
The NEW JERSEY Assembly approves SB 3249, which would require Garden State gun shop owners to stock so-called “smart guns” that can only be fired by their owners. The measure moves to Gov. Chris Christie (R), who has indicated he will likely...
Critics often contend that politicos live in their own little world. Proof positive these days could be Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (for any number of reasons), who took to Twitter recently to congratulate Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon for signing...
Truth may well be the first casualty of war, but far too often the same could be said of civility at the hand of politics. But perhaps it doesn’t have to be that way. As the Idaho Spokesman-Review reports , nearly the entire Idaho Legislature showed...
There’s a new sheriff in town in St. Paul, and she’s pretty fond of chew toys and belly rubs. As the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis reports , state officials have ramped up security for the Capitol by welcoming Matka, a Hungarian Vizsla fresh...
If you use social media at all, you probably saw the viral “Find the Panda” cartoon that was circulating over the holidays. Somewhere amidst a cheery collection of snowmen, Hungarian artist Gergely Dudás hid a panda, and according to...
Following a debate performance in which Bernie Sanders was declared the winner by those covering the final democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses, CNN offered its ‘mea culpa” for being one of the many major media outlets that have failed...
The ability to access content anytime, anywhere and through any device has created a shift in how and where people consume news. According to Pew Research, 'Millennials' (born 1981-96) prefer to consume news directly from social media , whereas...
The sharks are circling. On the heels of last fall’s announcement of a $14.7 million payment for FCPA violations in China by Bristol-Myers Squibb, compliance investigators are paying even closer attention to the Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences...
“When you're lost in information, an information map is kind of useful.” Those words, spoken by data journalist David McCandless in his TED talk , The Beauty of Data Visualization, make an important point. With a steady constant flow of...
For the last couple of decades, supporters of tighter firearm restrictions have been outgunned in Congress by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups. But a major influx of cash is making the battle over guns more of a fight in the...
Three of the seven states with the most gun deaths per 100,000 residents -- Alaska, Mississippi and Wyoming -- are also among the seven states with the most lenient gun laws, according to analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
Days before last Christmas - and six months after the start of the current fiscal year - Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature sent Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf a $30.26 billion state budget. Wolf signed $23.39 billion of that spending plan...
Taking its cue from crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new rules in October that will allow privately owned businesses to raise up to $1 million a year from private investors, instead...