The KENTUCKY Board of Education reaches a settlement with Jefferson County Public Schools avoiding a state takeover of the 100,000-student district in Louisville, the Commonwealth’s largest city. The state Education Commissioner, Wayne Lewis, had...
IL GOVERNOR VETOES BILL FOR CAR SHARING ILLINOIS Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) vetoes a bill that would have required peer-to-peer car sharing companies to generally follow the same rules and pay the same taxes as traditional car rental companies. The veto...
PUSH IN VA TO RATIFY ERA Advocates for the Equal Rights Amendment launched a campaign in VIRGINIA this month to make that state the 38th and final one to ratify the amendment guaranteeing equal rights for all Americans regardless of sex more than 40...
North Carolina’s General Assembly convened a special session on Aug. 24 to consider changes to two constitutional amendments bound for the state’s November ballot that could shift power from the governor to state lawmakers, part of an ongoing...
Primary elections were held in three states on Aug. 28. And a few of the results suggest that the energy of the Democratic and Republican parties is moving to the left and the right, respectively. In Florida’s gubernatorial primaries, Democrats...
ND EXPECTED TO TAKE $4.9M HIT FROM FEDERAL TAX REFORM As a result of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, NORTH DAKOTA will take in $4.9 million less in state income taxes in the two-year budget cycle that ends June 30, 2019, according to analysis by...
Thanks to an expanding national economy, many state governments are flush with cash. Virginia ended its 2018 fiscal year on June 30 with a $551 million budget surplus. Ohio ended last fiscal year with a $657 billion budget surplus. And California is projecting...
In 2004 California voters approved Proposition 63, imposing a tax on residents with annual earnings of $1 million or more to help counties provide services for the mentally ill. Nearly 15 years later, a huge sum of the money generated by the Mental Health...
A new regulation from the Department of Health and Human Services will allow insurers, starting on Oct. 1, to offer bare-bones, short-term health insurance plans as a longer-term, low-cost alternative to the coverage prescribed by the Affordable Care...
Bare-bones, low-cost health insurance plans pushed by the Trump administration that critics say are inadequate are set to proliferate in the states as alternatives to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These plans, formerly limited to three months and...
Picture this: You're responsible for managing your brand's internet presence when suddenly you realize you've become the victim of a security breach. Do you panic? Or do you have a plan in place to keep you grounded? According to Cybersecurity...
Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals Rules The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that cities cannot make it a crime to sleep on a public street or sidewalk when no homeless shelters are available. The court’s ruling applies to ordinances...
Going On in TX A federal court issues an injunction blocking TEXAS from telling abortion providers and medical facilities how to dispose of fetal remains from abortions and miscarriages. U.S. District Judge David Ezra said the law requiring burial...
Going On In TX A federal judge declines to order that the U.S. government halt the federal Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, which shields young immigrants brought to this country as children from deportation. U.S. District Judge Andrew...
Raising funds for civic works isn’t easy in small towns where the tax base is often more limited than seats on the DC Metro at rush hour. One dramatic way for burgs to gain some bucks is to let Corporate America have its way with them. This week’s...
AK Governor Signs HB 240 ALASKA Gov. Bill Walker (I) signs HB 240 , which bars gag rules in contracts between pharmacy benefits managers and pharmacies. Gag rules prohibit pharmacists from telling customers of a cheaper option for medication if they...
Common sense ought to be enough to convince most people to leave wildlife alone, both for their own safety and that of the critter. But then common sense isn’t always so common. Case in point, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
Going On In NJ The NEW JERSEY Department of Environmental Protection enacts a new rule to cap the amount of compounds known as PFNAs, short for perfluorononanoic acids, in Garden State drinking water. The man-made, toxic chemical compounds, once used...
It’s good to be king, but it’s better to be friends of the king. Or at least the king of the commonwealth of Kentucky. As the Louisville Courier Journal reports , Charles Grindle, the state’s chief information officer, received a $215...
DE Governor Signs SB 113 DELAWARE Gov. John Carney (D) signs SB 113 , a bill to establish Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing in the First State. PACE loans are funded by private lenders and are paid back through a voluntary...
Boycotts are all the rage these days. Undies in a knot over Nike featuring former football player Colin Kaepernick in an ad campaign? Set your running shoes on fire and declare a boycott! Bent out of shape at In-and-Out Burger for sending the Cali GOP...
IL Governor Signs SB 2428 ILLINOIS Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signs SB 2428 , which bars Prairie State schools from punishing or publicly humiliating children who cannot pay for a school lunch. The measure further requires schools to provide a lunch to...
RAIMONDO ISSUES RI SCHOOL GUN BAN RHODE ISLAND Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) issued an executive order last month barring anyone except police officers from carrying firearms at public schools and grounds in the Ocean State. The order closes a loophole in...
CA Governor Signs AB 2343 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs AB 2343 , a bill that gives tenants facing eviction three court days to pay rent after receiving notice and five court days to respond to an eviction lawsuit. The measure further stipulates...
EDUCATION FUNDING MEASURE OFF AZ BALLOT The ARIZONA Supreme Court has blocked a measure from the state’s November ballot that was aimed at increasing the tax rate on residents making more than $250,000 a year from 4.54 percent to 8 percent to...