IL Governor Signs HB 3390 ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs HB 3390 , which requires that kennels in the Prairie State be staffed at all times or have a sprinkler system or fire alarm that automatically notifies first responders of a fire (DAILY...
Portland City Council Approves The PORTLAND City Council approves charging landlords an annual $60 registration fee, with the funds designated to go to a new city agency that tracks tenant complaints about negligent landlords and enforces fair housing...
Rhode Island has a number of distinctions. It is the smallest state, but also has the longest official name: Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It is the home of the Tennis Hall of Fame, the birthplace of author Cormac McCarthy, and the site of...
In theory, facial recognition programs are supposed to be another close-to-infallible tool that helps police ferret out the bad guys. In reality...not so much. As a pair of California lawmakers pointed out last week, said programs can actually be off...
Okay, if you’re the governor you figure that in these polarized times half the voters don’t love you no matter what you do. But even the hardest hearts have to acknowledge the awesomeness of dogs. Case in point this week comes from Michigan...
When SNCJ reported in August 2017 on medical balance billing - the direct charging of patients by healthcare providers for services that aren’t fully covered at the providers’ rate by the patients’ insurance - nearly half of the states...
Legislation dealing with medical balance billing - the charging of patients by healthcare providers for services not fully covered at the providers’ rate by the patients’ insurance - has been introduced in 32 states this year, according to...
In 2008, Arizona voters overwhelmingly endorsed Proposition 200, which banned the practice of providing short-term, high-interest loans known as payday lending. But according to a report released this month by the Center for Economic Integrity in Tucson...
In the first six months of California Gavin Newsom’s (D) new administration, companies, associations, unions and other organizations spent $187 million to influence policy and legislation in the state. Adjusted for inflation, that sum is 12 percent...
GA GOV ORDERS SWEEPING BUDGET CUTS GEORGIA Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has ordered all state agencies to cut their budgets by 4 percent this year and 6 percent next year. State agencies haven’t received such an order since the Great Recession. (WSB-TV...
This session Colorado’s Democrat-led General Assembly passed legislation ( SB 42 ) adding the state to the national popular vote interstate compact. That agreement commits the signatory states’ electoral votes to the candidate in a presidential...
President Trump has given up on the idea of getting a citizenship question included in the 2020 Census. But the fight to keep undocumented immigrants from being counted in the congressional apportionment process isn’t over for the state of Alabama...
OR GOV SIGNS ELECTION BILLS OREGON Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed legislation this month that will allow Oregonians to mail in their election ballots for free starting with the November 2020 contests. Brown also signed a measure that will require so-called...
In the wake of the nation’s latest (as of this writing) mass shooting, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) proposed a package of reforms to his state’s gun regulations. The hard part will be not having them instantly shot down by his fellow Republicans...
Saying “we should be protecting all of our children, including those who identify as LGBTQ, instead of subjecting them to a dangerous practice,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) issued Executive Order No 97 , a directive that bars state...
DESANTIS ORDERS PROBE INTO FL SEX TRAFFICKING CASE FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last week ordered a state criminal probe into the actions of Palm Beach sheriff Ric Bradshaw and former Palm Beach state attorney Barry Krischer for their handling of...
Acting New York Governor Signs 1790 Acting NEW JERSEY Gov. Sheila Oliver (D) signs SB 1790 , a bill that imposes fines and possible jail time on employers found guilty of failing to pay workers the full wages owed to them. Employers who are found to...
The FLORIDA Dept. of Education unveils a special database that grants specified “threat assessment teams” access to information about students’ personal mental health history, interactions with law enforcement, school discipline, and...
Acting Governor Signs A Trio of Gun-related Measures Acting NEW JERSEY Gov. Sheila Oliver (D) signs a trio of gun-related measures: SB 3301 , which requires the Garden State Department of Health to establish a hospital-based violence intervention plan...
New York Governor Signs SB 231 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs SB 231 , a bill that allows BUFFALO to enforce speed limits in school zones using cameras that record speeding violations in real time without the need for a police officer at the...
Legendary singer and songwriter Dolly Parton has always had a profound impact on the people around her. And it didn’t take long at last week’s opening event for the National Conference of State Legislatures Annual Summit in Nashville to see...
As I mentioned already, nobody alive owns a stage more or better than Ms. Dolly Rebecca Parton of Sevier County, Tennessee. Among the gems from her talk with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee: attributing her large family growing up to the folks in her region just...
California’s Orange County has been the ultimate GOP stronghold, so much so it long ago earned the moniker “the Orange Curtain.” But California’s Republicans are in a freefall, with their statewide popularity falling somewhere...
In the age of social media and instant gratification it is incredibly easy to edit photos to fit a specific ideal. The world is becoming increasingly more visual and consumers want content that tells a big story with a quick glance at a single photo....
At the start of this year, many observers believed states might be lining up to duplicate California’s tough new data privacy law, set to go into effect next year. That rush didn’t quite materialize, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers completely...