Last month Republicans who control North Carolina’s General Assembly overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to enact a bill ( HB 239 ) reducing the size of the state’s intermediate appellate court, the Court of Appeals, from 15 judges...
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...
Alaska lawmakers voted last week to sue Gov. Bill Walker (I) over his plans to go around the Legislature to expand Medicaid eligibility in the Last Frontier. The joint House and Senate Legislative Council voted 10-1 last Tuesday to spend as much as $450...
A week after deeming Atlantic City’s proposed five-year turnaround plan insufficient to return the struggling resort city to financial stability, the state of New Jersey took over control of the city’s main governmental functions. The state...
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo might want to stick to governing and leave the jokes to the professionals. As the Associated Press reports , Cuomo was in Hudson a few weeks ago to announce the city had been awarded $10 million in a state-sponsored downtown...
For many folks the initial training in the fine art of driving a car comes from a parent. In my case, said training came from my mother...and I still have the ringing in my right ear to prove it. Now Stateline reports that a growing number of states are...
Montana Approves HB 376 The MONTANA House approves HB 376 , which would authorize the creation of charter schools in the Treasure State. It is now in the Senate (MISSOULIAN, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET). Virginia Signs HB 2432 VIRGINIA Gov. Terry McAuliffe...
Health In West Virginia The WEST VIRGINIA Department of Health announces it will distribute more than 8,000 two-dose naloxone opioid antidote kits to new and existing opioid addiction treatment programs around the Mountain State. Naloxone is used to...
Education In South Dakota The SOUTH DAKOTA House Education Committee rejects a bill that would have required insurance companies to disclose how much money they donate to the state’s fledgling private-school scholarship fund in exchange for tax...
North Dakota Rejects HB 1263 The NORTH DAKOTA House rejects HB 1263 , which would have raised the Flickertail State minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.25 an hour, starting in 2018 with annual adjustments for cost of living increases beginning a year later...
Indian Gaming Boosting OK Economy Native American tribes have paid the state of OKLAHOMA over $1 billion in exclusivity fees since 2006, according to a report from the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association. The report also indicated that tribal gaming...
KS Passes Unbalanced Budget KANSAS lawmakers ended their 2016 session by passing a $6.3 billion budget for next fiscal year that is roughly $22 million out of balance. Their budget bill ( SB 249 ) calls on Gov. Sam Brownback (R) to come up with...
Crime in KY The KENTUCKY House unanimously endorses SB 63, which would require Bluegrass State law enforcement agencies to develop policies for handling DNA evidence from rape kits. The bill, which also sets timelines for submitting rape kits to the...
Public universities in Illinois are facing financial crisis with the state in the ninth month of disagreement between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-controlled legislature over the state’s budget. None of the 57 public universities...
Washington state Rep. Gerry Pollet (D) introduced a bill -- HB 1645 -- in January that would have imposed a 95 percent sales tax on e-cigarettes and other vapor products, the same rate as that levied on traditional tobacco products sold in the state and...
Texas Approves HB 3859 The TEXAS House approves HB 3859 , which would allow foster care and adoption agencies to refuse to place children with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender households over religious objections. It moves to the Senate (AUSTIN...
As LexisNexis State Net notes, each state sends anywhere from hundreds to thousands of bills to the governor each year for consideration. For the 2017 session, LNSN estimates California will ponder 2,900 bills , almost five times the 600 we estimate Delaware...
Business In Arizona An ARIZONA judge rules that a Grand Canyon State law barring local municipalities from requiring employers to provide additional employee benefits is unconstitutional. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joshua Rogers said the...
The fight for more control over federal lands within state borders has been waxing and waning in the American West since at least the 1890s. The latest flare-up of the Sagebrush Rebellion is centered in Colorado, where Republican gubernatorial nominee...
Medical Pot Initiative Qualifies for AR Ballot An initiative to legalize medical marijuana has received enough valid signatures to qualify for ARKANSAS’ Nov. 8 general election ballot. But the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act will have to overcome...
Health In The U.S. The Trump administration announces it will continue to make reimbursement payments to health insurance companies to help subsidize insurance co-payments and deductibles for low-income and moderate-income Americans who buy health...
The new 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax Philadelphia began levying on sugar-sweetened beverages in January has brought in $25.6 million so far. Unfortunately, that’s far short of the $46.2 million the “soda tax” was projected to generate in the...
Tennessee Signs SB 1260 TENNESSEE Gov. Bill Haslam (R) signs SB 1260 , which gives Volunteer State judges the power to enhance sentences for defendants in the country illegally at the time of their crimes (MEMPHIS DAILY NEWS).
Eleven states have enacted legislation in 2017 dealing with insurance requirements for drivers of transportation network companies, or TNCs, like Uber and Lyft, according to LexisNexis State Net’s Legislative Tracking System . Two states also failed...
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) used her annual State of the State address to call for the state to “rebuild and reinvent” the Ocean State’s manufacturing sector. Raimondo said she believes the state has its strongest workforce,...