At least five states have introduced legislation this year, or prefiled bills for next year, that appear to have been spurred by the recent data breach at Equifax, according to Lexis Nexis State Net’s legislative tracking system. Most of the measures...
If you thought politics couldn’t sink any lower...wait for it...guess again. That’s because, as Cleveland.com reports , TV talk show host Jerry Springer, a.k.a. “The King of Trash TV” is pondering a run at the Ohio governor’s...
Education In Georgia The GEORGIA Supreme Court rules that a law prohibiting guns on school property supersedes one passed at the same time that allowed firearms inside school safety zones. Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed both bills into law in 2014. The...
On ABC’s “This Week” earlier this month, White House Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller doubled down on the unsubstantiated claim President Donald Trump made during a private meeting with members of Congress that “thousands”...
Crime In Florida The FLORIDA Supreme Court rules that death penalty verdicts must be unanimous. The ruling strikes down a Sunshine State law that allowed for capital punishment verdicts when just 10 of 12 jurors agree. It is yet to be determined how...
By now, most folks have heard of the goofball who introduced a proposed ballot measure in California that called for the killing of homosexuals. Attorney General Kamala Harris thankfully managed to get the courts to squish that one outright, but she’s...
Not so long ago California was considered by many to be a place so dysfunctional it was downright ungovernable. Nobody is thinking that nowadays, but a quick glance at the dozens of ballot measures pending approval for the November 2016 election shows...
Depending on where you stand yourself, former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is either a hero or a villain for sticking to his guns on HB 2, the Tar Heel State’s controversial “bathroom bill” that barred transgender folks from using...
OR Approves SB 454 The OREGON Senate approves SB 454, a bill that would require all Beaver State businesses with 10 or more employees to offer workers at least five days of paid sick leave each year. It moves to the House (PORTLAND OREGONIAN). VT...
Nobody can ever claim that Mark Callahan isn’t persistent. Since 2009 the Oregon Republican has run for numerous offices big and small, from the presidency to a local community college board, some of them many times over. To date, he has won exactly...
Business In Oklahoma The OKLAHOMA Supreme Court rules that a 2013 law giving Sooner State employers the power to “opt out” of the state workers’ compensation system and write their own plans is unconstitutional. The law, which supporters...
Martinez Vetoes Slew of Bipartisan NM Bills NEW MEXICO Gov. Susana Martinez (R) surprised lawmakers in both parties last week by vetoing without explanation at least nine Senate-sponsored bills, most of which had wide bipartisan support. The vetoes...
AK REACHES OIL TAX DEAL The ALASKA House and Senate reached agreement on a deal ( HB 111 ) to stop giving cash payments to oil companies covering 35 percent of losses incurred developing new Last Frontier oil fields. The policy was originally adopted...
In the spring of 2007, long before presidential candidate Donald Trump began promising to build a wall along the border with Mexico, the federal government initiated one of the most aggressive seizures of private land in decades to build a fence to keep...
Texas Fails To Endorse SB 6 In a special session, the TEXAS House fails to endorse SB 6 , which would have required residents to use the bathroom that matches their genetic makeup at birth. It is the second time this year the Lone Star State House...
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) issued an executive order (EO 2016-03) on Feb 24 making the Sooner State the 20th to “ban the box” by requiring state agencies to eliminate questions about felony convictions from employment applications. ...
Virginia lawmakers’ plan to oust Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s (D) interim appointee to the state Supreme Court (see VA LAWMAKERS REJECT GOV’S JUDICIAL APPOINTMENT in Aug. 8 issue of SNCJ ) hit a snag last week. The Republicans who control...
Potpourri In the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upholds a lower court’s ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not have the legal power to strip gray wolves in the Great Lakes Region of their protection under...
CA, NY Leading Legal Effort To Protect ACA Funding CALIFORNIA Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) and NEW YORK Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) are leading a coalition of states, including CONNECTICUT , DELAWARE , HAWAII , ILLINOIS , IOWA , KENTUCKY...
“States are mythologized as laboratories of public policy innovation,” but in reality they are often “no more than factories of replication, captured by political myths and doomed to re-enact failed policies,” David Schultz, a...
Of the 39 states for which data is currently available, five have only one insurer participating in their Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces this year, up from just one state, Wyoming, in that situation last year, according to analysis...
North Dakota Approves HB 1275 The NORTH DAKOTA Senate approves HB 1275 , a bill that says a student of a public or nonpublic school can't be prohibited from voluntarily participating in any “student-initiated prayer” at an athletic...
Michigan Signs SB 401 MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signs SB 401 , which will automatically enroll new teachers and staff in a 401(k)-style retirement plan unless they instead pro-actively choose a revised hybrid pension (DETROIT NEWS).
California Signs SB 17 The CALIFORNIA Senate gives final passage to a measure ( SB 17 ) requiring drug makers to give a public explanation for some price increases. The bill, believed to be the first in the nation to require such transparency in pharmaceutical...
The national uninsured rate dropped 3.5 percent (from 17.3 percent to 13.8 percent) last year, when the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance mandate took effect, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The five states with the biggest...