Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) 2017 budget proposal includes a plan to divert $16.3 million in annual marijuana tax revenues to help pay for a trio of new programs intended to fight homelessness in the Centennial State. The governor’s...
Gov. Kasich Urges Reduced Medical Licensing Boards OHIO Gov. John Kasich (R) and lawmakers are working on a plan to consolidate the Buckeye State’s multiple medical licensing boards. Legislation currently under consideration in the General Assembly...
Massachusetts Approves SB 2473 The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate each gives final approval to SB 2473 , which would impose new safety requirements on so-called “duck boats,” amphibious sight-seeing vehicles commonly used for tourist excursions...
New York Approves SB 8117 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo approves SB 8117 , which requires that sexual offense evidence, or rape kits, are processed in a timely manner. The law also requires kits to be tracked from the originating police agency to forensic...
Massachusetts Approves HB 2319 The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate give final approval to HB 2319 , which would exempt custodians, cafeteria employees and other non-teaching workers from a law that gives principals and superintendents responsibility...
New York Signs AB 10264 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 10264 , a measure to establish a state ocean acidification task force, which will be tasked with identifying root causes contributing to acidification in the Empire State’s ocean...
New York Signs AB 10448 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 10448 , which allows Empire State pharmacies to electronically transfer prescriptions to other pharmacies (ALBANY TIMES-UNION). New York Signs AB 5903A Also in NEW YORK , Gov. Cuomo...
Lawyers generally have a long list of dos and don’ts in the course of their work. One that would seem to be obvious in any such a compilation would be to not have sex with the clients they represent. Obvious everywhere, that is, except California...
Coordinating a global PR strategy can sometimes seem like a Sisyphean struggle. When cornerstone ideas of your company's (or client's) brand don't cross international borders, there's a temptation to either limit your reach or cook up...
The holidays may be the season of goodwill, but companies must beware that it also brings a heightened risk of financial crime. These risks include bribery to secure more sales in the busy Holiday period, bribery masked as hospitality, and unethical sourcing...
As part one of our legislative preview indicated , a great deal of uncertainty surrounds next year’s legislative sessions, but as a result of President-elect Donald Trump’s surprising victory and with Republicans in control of both legislative...
Nevada became the first state to authorize the operation of autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles in 2011. In the years since then, seven other states - California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah - and the District of Columbia...
Monthly premiums in Alaska’s individual insurance market averaged $863 this year, compared to just $396 nationally. And those premiums increased roughly 31 percent this year and 26 percent in 2015, compared to 10 percent and 2 percent, respectively...
Chicago has the largest unfunded pension liability of any city in the nation - more than seven times its annual operating revenues - according to a new report from Moody’s. But four of the other cities on the financial analysis firm’s list...
Big budget cuts expected in LA LOUISIANA is facing over $600 million in mid-year budget cuts - likely to higher education, hospitals that treat the poor and uninsured, and services for those with disabilities - in spite of passing over $1.5 billion...
gaveling in a new session last week, Democrats who hold a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the California Legislature drew a line at the state’s border in defiance of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies. The...
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, struck down a GOP-backed legislative redistricting plan in Alabama that critics say packed black voters into districts in a way that reduced their voting power. Last week the now shorthanded court took...
CO Ballot Measure Raises Bar for Future Initiatives Last month COLORADO voters approved Amendment 71 , raising the bar for passage of constitutional amendments from a simple majority to a vote of at least 55 percent, and requiring signatures from 2...
Gov. Mead Says No Medicaid Expansion in WY Citing the uncertainty of America’s health care system under the new administration, WYOMING Gov. Matt Mead (R) said he will not push Equality State lawmakers to expand Medicaid coverage this session...
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) launched a new two-year pilot program last week aimed at curbing opioid abuse among workers who are injured on the job. The effort is aimed at helping people with settled workers’ compensation cases who are being...
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) unveiled a proposal last week to require Old Line State employers with 50 or more workers to provide them with at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year. Part-time employees would need to work at least 30 hours per week...
The OHIO House and Senate approve HB 493 , which would make it a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to one year in prison, for a physician to perform an abortion without checking for a fetal heartbeat or performing the procedure after it can be detected...
The U.S. House and Senate each approve HR 6 , known better as the 21 st Century Cures Act, a bill that boosts by billions of dollars funding for medical research, eases the development and approval of experimental treatments and reforms federal policy...
Crime in Michigan The MICHIGAN House approves SB 291 , which would provide financial compensation and reentry services for people who were wrongly convicted and incarcerated in the Wolverine State. It moves to Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for consideration...
Business in Washington DC The WASHINGTON D.C. Council approves a proposal that would grant workers eight weeks of time off to care for a newborn or adopted child. The measure, which would also grant employees six weeks of paid leave to help ailing...