As noted elsewhere in the issue, Maine Gov. Paul LePage managed for the seventh time last week to block the will of a majority of lawmakers and voters to expand Medicaid health coverage to an additional 70,000 poor Mainers. The matter is now in the courts...
U.S. HOUSE AND SENATE PASS FARM BILLS The U.S. Senate passed an $867 billion farm bill last month, a week after the House passed its own version. The two chambers will now have until Sept. 30 to resolve the points of contention between the two bills...
In the wake of a new threat of a federal crackdown on the marijuana industry, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) urged federal prosecutors last week to focus their attention instead on dealing with the state’s ongoing opioid abuse crisis. ...
Health In IL An ILLINOIS court orders Prairie State officials to add intractable pain as a qualifying condition for medicinal marijuana use. Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell wrote in his decision that “the record shows that individuals with...
DE Governor Signs HB 302 DELAWARE Gov. John Carney (D) signs Substitute 1 for HB 302 , a bill that allows police to temporarily seize firearms from someone whom a mental health professional deems a danger to themselves or others. The measure takes...
When Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) recently claimed that “90-plus percent” of those arrested for dealing illegal drugs in the Pine Tree State are black or Hispanic, it sparked a wave of requests from media and others who wanted to see the data...
CA Voters to Consider Legalization of Recreational Pot California voters will have an opportunity in November to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the nation’s most populous state, with a random sample of the over 600,000 signatures...
Election-Related Bills Introduced in NH More than a dozen election-related bills have been introduced this session in premiere presidential primary state NEW HAMPSHIRE . The proposals include unsuccessful measures that would have expanded voting eligibility...
AZ Supreme Court Rules The ARIZONA Supreme Court rules that public colleges and universities are not legally able to offer in-state tuition rates to immigrants covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The ruling upholds...
A grassroots campaign has kicked off in Florida to open the state’s primary elections to all voters and advance the two top finishers, regardless of their party affiliation, to the general election. Last week, a group called Florida Fair and Open...
MI Governor Signs HB 5638 MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signs HB 5638 , which streamlines the process for obtaining approval for large groundwater withdrawals. The new process gives the state Department of Environmental Quality 20 days to review submitted...
AR House Approves HB 1176 The ARKANSAS House approves HB 1176 , which would set minimum standards for breast milk sharing programs and encourage nonprofits to launch depositories and banks for human breast milk. It moves to the Senate (ARKANSAS GAZETTE...
San Francisco Board of Supervisors Unanimously Approves The SAN FRANCISCO Board of Supervisors unanimously approves an ordinance that requires brick and mortar retail establishments to accept cash as payment, becoming the second major city in America...
Defying federal restrictions, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) submitted plans to the state Legislature to make the Badger State the first to mandate drug testing for adults who apply for food stamps. Lawmakers – who initially approved the testing...
BACKERS OF NONPARTISAN REDISTRICTING MEASURE HAVE TIES TO DEMS Seven of the 10 board members of a petition committee pushing to create an independent citizen redistricting commission in MICHIGAN have supported Democratic candidates in previous elections...
As recent headlines attest, the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans in Congress has become so entrenched that many major policy issues are hopelessly gridlocked year after year . Many state legislatures are subject to the same political...
On Nov. 8, voters in Grafton and Windham, Vermont will consider whether to approve a wind project that would install two dozen 500-foot-tall turbines capable of generating enough power to light 42,000 homes for a year on a tract of private forestland...
In an effort to persuade the remaining 19 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to do so, President Obama has proposed granting those mostly Republican-led states full federal funding of that expansion for three years...
New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) -- one of the most powerful Democrats in Albany for over two decades -- was arrested last month on federal corruption charges. According to the criminal complaint outlining the charges against him...
With just weeks to go before applications are due, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed off on emergency rules that, among many things, allow medical cannabis dispensaries to stay open after the Dec. 15 deadline without affecting their chances of getting...
Bucking his own party’s fervent anti-Trump sentiment, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a measure ( SB 149 ) that would have required presidential candidates to release five years-worth of their personal income tax returns. The bill came...
U.S. Senate Republicans outlined their plan for overhauling the federal tax code last week. And it differs substantially from the plan advancing in the U.S. House, highlighting the competing pressures GOP leaders are facing in their respective chambers...
State spending grew by 5.2 percent in fiscal year 2017, according to a new report from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). That rate is more than double the rate in fiscal 2016, when spending was held down by declines in the growth...
MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie Baker (R) was a busy man last week. In addition to unveiling his Medicaid waiver proposal, he nominated three judges to fill impending vacancies on the Bay State’s Supreme Judicial Court. Baker’s picks - Superior...
California Senator Bob Hertzberg was understandably happy last week when his colleagues unanimously endorsed his legislation to criminalize someone installing ransomware, which takes over a person’s computer until the owner pays off a hefty ransom...