Dedicated members of “Arnie’s Army” know the great golfer Arnold Palmer was a native of Latrobe, PA. But in later years Palmer loved to winter in Florida, and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill near Orlando is one of the most...
Iowa state Sen. Mark Chelgren is a wealth of ideas, most of them really bad. His most notable of late is a bill that would force Hawkeye State colleges to hire only Republican professors until the number of registered Republicans and Democrats on university...
A proposed California initiative is testing the limits of the state’s liberal-mindedness. The “Sodomite Suppression Act,” submitted by Huntington Beach attorney Matthew McLaughlin, would, among other things, legalize the killing of gays...
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) joined all four legislative leaders last Thursday in announcing a $1 billion drought relief package aimed at helping communities hit hardest by the Golden State’s fourth straight year of severe drought. The two-bill...
Judge Approves Watered Down TX Voter ID Law U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos approved a plan last week eliminating the mandatory requirement for TEXAS voters to present an ID before casting a ballot in the November election. The change, necessitated...
Those darned Russians are everywhere! Case in point comes from California, where a group pushing to have the state secede from the rest of the nation has abandoned its quest after its leader bailed out and moved to a city on the edge of Siberia. Or should...
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...
Oregon became the first state to conduct elections entirely by mail with a voter-approved initiative (Measure 60) in 1998. Washington made the switch via legislative action in 2011. And Colorado followed suit in 2014. The nation’s most populous...
Hard as it might be to imagine, Rutgers University once paid Snooki, she of obnoxious drunk fame on the repulsive “Jersey Shore” reality show, $32,000 grand to speak at a campus event. But the days of washed up reality TV creatures commanding...
Congress Blocks State Retirement Plans Congress voted to eliminate an Obama-administration rule removing regulatory hurdles obstructing states from creating retirement programs for workers who don’t have access to retirement plans through their...
With questions about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election still in the headlines , a number of states are considering legislation to block businesses with foreign ties from contributing to political campaigns. Noncitizens...
The ongoing controversy over family separations at the U.S. border with Mexico has spurred a bipartisan group of governors to pull back or reject outright President Trump’s request to send National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico. Democrats...
Education in CA CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoes AB 967, a bill that would have required public and private colleges and universities to adopt uniform processes for handling sexual assault cases, to report how many cases are received and subsequently...
NM SOS pleads not guilty NEW MEXICO Secretary of State Dianna Duran (R) entered a plea of not guilty last week to charges of fraud, embezzlement and other crimes for allegedly using campaign funds to cover personal expenses, including gambling debt...
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and political gadfly Tim Draper may have bombed with his ballot measure to split California into six separate states, but that ignominious defeat hasn’t slowed him down. Draper’s new thing is something he calls...
Politics definitely makes for some odd bedfellows. Case in point comes to us today via Billboard magazine, which this month features an op-ed piece from buttoned down New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the sartorially outrageous pop star Lady Gaga in support...
Last month when prolonged rainfall had just begun submerging homes and businesses in southern Louisiana, the state spent about $12 million in under a week dealing with the flooding. Local National Guard troops cost the state $800,000 per day alone. ...
A federal judge has upheld a North Carolina voter ID law passed after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder allowing states like North Carolina with a history of discrimination to make changes to their voting laws without...
California Signs SB 725 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs SB 725 , which clarifies that current and former military members who suffer from service-related mental health issues may be diverted to a treatment court in lieu of jail when charged with...
Democrat Patty Schachtner defeated Wisconsin state Rep. Adam Jarchow (R) in a special election last Tuesday to claim the Senate seat in the state’s 10th District held for 17 years by former Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R), who took a job in the administration...
In another Ohio election law case, a federal judge has thrown out provisions voiding absentee and provisional ballots with technical flaws. The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless and the Ohio Democratic...
Effort to Reverse Gun Control Laws Fails in CA An effort to qualify referendums for the November 2018 ballot on six gun control laws passed in CALIFORNIA this year has failed. Organizers only managed to collect an average of about 166,000 signatures...
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...
OH Approves SB 127 The OHIO Senate approves SB 127, which would bar doctors from performing an abortion after a woman has reached 20 weeks of her pregnancy. The measure moves to the House (COLUMBUS DISPATCH). Supreme Court Agrees TX Abortion Clinics...
Just days after signing legislation to authorize $28 million in relief funds for Flint, embattled Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) said he would ask lawmakers for another $30 million to help residents there pay their water bills. The money would go toward...