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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
CALIFORNIA passes a measure setting ambitious clean energy goals, calling for relying solely on clean sources of energy like solar, wind and geothermal by 2045, and sends it to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who is expected to sign it. The proposal...
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed legislation overhauling the Golden State’s pretrial detention system, ending cash bail and instead giving judges more control over who should be jailed ahead of trial. “Today, California reforms...
CA PASSES LAW TO BAN CERTAIN TYPES OF HEALTH INSURANCE CALIFORNIA lawmakers pass and send to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) legislation that bans certain types of health insurance policies known as “short-term” plans, or “junk insurance”...
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who is the Democratic nominee in the race to succeed California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and has campaigned in favor of having California pay for the health care of all, reiterated this past week that should include undocumented...
ME, KY, MS GOVS FILE WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION BRIEF MAINE Gov. Paul LePage (R), KENTUCKY Gov. Matt Bevin (R) and MISSISSIPPI Gov. Phil Bryant (R) join the attorneys general of 13 other states in an Aug. 23 brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule...
CALIFORNIA lawmakers send a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) that bars secret settlements and non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases, one of several bills considered this year in state legislatures in response to the #MeToo movement. The California...
The city legislative body in ANCHORAGE narrowly approves a complete ban on all disposable plastic shopping bags from local retail stores. The ban, which takes effect next March, is stricter than those adopted in other Alaska cities and villages and comes...
Government officials all over the world are feverishly working to figure out ways to mitigate the worst impacts of global climate change. In the meantime, we poor peons have to learn to deal with a rapidly warming globe. But if you think you have it bad...
That Ron Estes is a real winner. Ron Estes is also a loser. Wait, what? Yes, as the Huffington Post reports , Ron Estes was both the winner and the loser in last month’s GOP primary to represent Kansas’s 4th Congressional District. So how...
As Richard Nixon would tell you if he was here, the lie is rarely what sinks your ship, it’s the cover up. And now-former Florida legislative candidate Melissa Howard can vouch for it as well. As most folks have now heard, Howard’s run for...
With wildfires burning the state down amidst the usual end-of-session jamming through bills that really ought to have had a lot more deliberation, California lawmakers can point to at least one epic accomplishment: surfing is now the official state sport...