OR Senate Approves SB 1551 The OREGON Senate approves SB 1551 , which would require companies to notify consumers within 45 days after discovering a data breach of their personal information and prohibits companies from charging consumers for a security...
CA Senate Rejects SB 827 The CALIFORNIA Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing rejects SB 827 , which would have forced cities to allow taller, denser development around public transit (CAL MATTERS [SACRAMENTO]). WI Governor Signs AB 771...
For decades California has banned members of the Communist Party from working in its government. But that could change under a bill ( AB 22 ) passed by the state’s Assembly this month providing for the removal of references to the party from requirements...
CO Gov Signs HB 1391 COLORADO Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signs HB 1391 , a bill that makes it a deceptive trade practice for a person to provide or offer to provide legal services in an immigration matter if he or she is not a licensed attorney or...
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...
Folks in Tennessee who want to own a pet skunk got some bad news last week when the House rejected a measure that would have legalized owning the odiferous critters. Now you might reasonably ask why anyone would want to have a skunk as a pet, particularly...
Nebraska’s main business tax incentive program, the Nebraska Advantage Act , spurred 69 businesses in the state to add jobs and boost investment from 2006 to the end of 2014, according to a state audit. That review also showed that businesses that...
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, struck down a GOP-backed legislative redistricting plan in Alabama that critics say packed black voters into districts in a way that reduced their voting power. Last week the now shorthanded court took...
When it comes to curtailing jaywalking, Massachusetts Senate Majority Leader Harriette Chandler says it’s time to talk softly and start wielding a big stick. Prompted by recent pedestrian deaths, Chandler wants to raise the Bay State penalty for...
UTAH Gov. Gary Herbert (R) has proposed a $14.3 billion state budget that includes the largest increase in per-pupil spending in 25 years, as well as funding for body cameras for all state troopers and his Healthy Utah plan to help the poor afford medical...
And then there is Nevada Assemblymember Michele Fiore. As reported in the Las Vegas Sun , the aspiring Congressional candidate went all Trump-like last week, announcing she would like nothing more than to “fly to Paris and shoot ‘em in the...
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) spent five days at the University of Maryland hospital last week receiving 24-hour chemotherapy for treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hogan is now halfway through his treatment regimen. He left the hospital in good...
Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees about his company’s data sharing policies after revelations that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica improperly...
AZ Federal Judge Blocks A federal judge permanently blocks a 2010 ARIZONA law that prohibited Grand Canyon State schools from offering courses in ethnic studies. U.S. District Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled that the ban was “not for a legitimate...
VA Senate Approves HB 1600 The VIRGINIA Senate approves HB 1600 , which would, with some exceptions, limit the length of a long-term suspension at 45 school days. It is back in the House (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH). VA Senate Approves HB 1419 The...
A bill introduced in the Alabama Legislature is pitting the state’s cities against its counties, with online giant Amazon in the middle. The measure, SB 130 , would allow Amazon, which currently has no brick-and-mortar presence in the state, to...
North Carolina voters gave Gov. Roy Cooper (D) a pair of significant wins last week, soundly defeating one ballot measure that would have given lawmakers vastly more power over his options to nominate judges and another that would have taken the power...
Faced with an ongoing epidemic of opioid overdose deaths, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) and state Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine issued what is essentially a statewide prescription that allows pharmacies to dispense the anti-overdose drug naloxone...
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine (R) has filed a lawsuit challenging parts of a new voter-approved marijuana ordinance in the city of Toledo because he says they contradict with state law and will encourage crime. The city’s “Sensible Marihuana...
Health in MA The MASSACHUSETTS House gives initial approval to HB 3895, a bill that would allow Bay State doctors to delegate the administration of immunizations to certified and trained medical assistants, under the direct supervision of the provider...
Of the 31 states that approve budgets on an annual basis (the rest do so biannually), 15 have already enacted a budget for the 2017 fiscal year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Illinois is not one of those states. In...
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...
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) 2017 budget proposal includes a plan to divert $16.3 million in annual marijuana tax revenues to help pay for a trio of new programs intended to fight homelessness in the Centennial State. The governor’s...
A governor can wield lots of power, sometimes even over stuff that matters. And then there is new West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who is taking a more, ahhh...varied approach. As the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports , Justice has apparently been using...
This month the Ohio House voted to renew over $1 billion in business tax cuts initially approved in 2013 and expanded in 2015. The Senate is expected to vote on the tax cuts before the end of the month. Many of the state’s lawmakers have something...