New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) announced last week that he will seek tighter restrictions on so-called independent expenditure committees. Specifically, the governor wants criteria to be set for determining whether a candidate is improperly coordinating...
CA Voters Approve Lawmaker Discipline Proposition By a margin of 75.2 percent to 24.8 percent, California voters approved the sole statewide initiative on the state’s June 7 ballot, Proposition 50, allowing the Legislature to suspend members...
Citing an ongoing scourge of overdose deaths across the Northeast, all six New England state governors pledged last week to do more to combat the opioid abuse in their states and throughout the region. Gathered at a three-day symposium at Harvard...
NY Gov. Cuomo Cuts Off Groups Boycotting Israel Saying “If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you,” NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) directed state agencies under his control to divest themselves of companies and organizations...
CA Approves AB 1676 The CALIFORNIA Assembly approves AB 1676 , which bars employers from asking job applicants for their salary histories. The measure is now in the Senate (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET). PA Gov Signs HB 1690 PENNSYLVANIA Gov. Tom Wolf...
LA Gov Signs SB 357 & SB 180 LOUISIANA Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signs SB 357 , which requires local municipalities to post clear signs that indicate an intersection red light camera within 500 feet of each camera. It will take effect Aug. 1 (TIMES...
Education In RI The RHODE ISLAND Senate approves legislation which makes clear that schools are required to report suspected child abuse to child welfare authorities. It is now in the House (ASSOCIATED PRESS). NY Approves AB 4311 The NEW YORK...
It wasn’t long after the Supreme Court ruling on Miranda v. Arizona that Dragnet’s Sargent Joe Friday began apprising suspects of their rights in nearly every episode. In 2000, the words of the Miranda warning appeared on screens small and...
MA Approves HB 4377 The MASSACHUSETTS House approves HB 4377 , a bill that would require Bay State utilities to solicit and enter into long-term contracts for large-scale hydroelectric and offshore wind power. Under the bill, utilities would need to...
RI Approves HB 7866 The RHODE ISLAND Senate approves HB 7866 , which would allow Ocean State health-care providers with their patients’ permission to access up-to-date information from a centralized electronic health exchange to improve coordination...
OK Gov Signs HB 2797 OKLAHOMA Gov. Mary Fallin (R) signs HB 2797 , which requires Sooner State education officials “to establish, operate and maintain a public information program to educate the public about the humanity of a child in utero”...
Concealed In CA The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that CALIFORNIA counties may restrict permits for carrying concealed firearms in public. The ruling overturns a 2014 decision that tossed out a Golden State requiring people to show cause...
California Senate candidate Henry Stern is no stranger to celebrity – his dad is Hollywood actor Daniel Stern, who most remember as the narrator of the Wonder Years and one of the bad guys in the movie Home Alone. So it’s no shock he got a...
These continue to be dark days for New Jersey’s one-time political superstar Gov. Chris Christie. First there was Bridgegate. Then there was his long-anticipated but hardly notable presidential campaign, which went over like a pin in a balloon factory...
Republicans in California are used to being disrespected. Like Dems in Utah or Texas, Reeps here are kind of an afterthought. But that doesn’t make it any less painful to also get treated like refugees at your own party hoedown. As the Cleveland...
Love conquers all, or say I’ve been told. But in this age of hyper-partisanship, does it really? As Cal Matters reports , the answer is a resounding “sometimes.” Some perusing of California voter registration records reveals that 29...
Experience tells us that the news stories that earn the biggest headlines and top-of-the-hour broadcast coverage generally focus on the negative when it comes to anti-bribery and corruption compliance. The off-shore law firm that helps clients shield...
The way this year began - with a stock market correction that saw the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P 500 indexes all drop more than 10 percent by mid-February followed by an estimate from the Atlanta Federal Reserve that the U.S. economy grew less than 1 percent...
New Hampshire was the most “service-level solvent” state in fiscal year 2014, meaning it had the most “fiscal slack” to raise taxes or increase spending in an economic downturn, according to a study by the Mercatus Center at George...
Included in a budget bill under consideration in Pennsylvania is a proposal by Gov. Tom Wolf (D) that would charge natural gas producers in the state 5 percent of the market value of the gas they extract plus 4.7 cents per 1,000 cubic feet of extracted...
With their state’s transportation trust fund projected to run dry by July 1, a bipartisan group of New Jersey senators unveiled a plan last week to pay for $20 billion in transportation projects over the next decade by making sweeping changes to...
In the prospectus for its $550 million bond sale scheduled for June 16, Illinois warned potential buyers for the first time that if it missed a payment - something else it has never done - they might not be able to immediately collect on their investment...
The West Virginia Legislature passed a budget bill in special session ( SB 1013 a ) last week, ending a months-long impasse between lawmakers and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D). That stalemate had come to a head two weeks ago when lawmakers passed and the...
Constitutional Income Tax Cap Advances in NC NORTH CAROLINA’s Senate Finance Committee advanced a proposed constitutional amendment ( SB 817 ) last week that would cap state income taxes at 5.5 percent. If approved by the General Assembly the...
America’s elected representatives are whiter than those they represent. Despite their growing share of the U.S. population, minorities are decidedly underrepresented in nearly every state legislature and Congress, according to analysis of U.S. Census...