Pennsylvania’s Republican-led House and Senate passed an $11-billion stopgap budget last month, seeking to end the state’s nearly three-month-long budget impasse. But as he did on June 30 to begin the budget stalemate, first-year, Democratic...
Any hope that Florida lawmakers would be able to determine new boundaries for the state’s Senate districts - in accordance with a settlement they reached with voting rights groups and voters over the map approved in 2012 - ended this month when...
Environment in MI MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signs a trio of bills addressing poaching: SBs 244, 245 and 246, which collectively increase fines and jail time for killing certain game and protected species (MICHIGAN GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
Illinois Gov. Brue Rauner (R) scored the biggest victory of his administration last week as Democrats came up three votes short of overriding his veto of a union-backed bill (SB 1229) that would have ensured labor disputes are determined through binding...
IL Signs SB 627 ILLINOIS Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signs SB 627, legislation that bars drivers with two or more drunk driving convictions from operating a vehicle unless it has an ignition interlock device installed (DECATUR HERALD & REVIEW).
In a landmark decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a quarter-century-old law barring states from legalizing wagering on professional and amateur sports. New Jersey argued that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA...
DUCEY DECRIES ‘RECKLESS’ CALLS TO ABOLISH ICE In an op-ed in USA Today last week, ARIZONA Gov. Doug Ducey (R) said calls from a growing number of Democratic officials to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency were “reckless”...
WALKER SIGNS OFF ON CLOSURE OF WI YOUTH PRISON : After years of accusations of ongoing abuse and neglect of its inhabitants, the lone WISCONSIN prison complex for teen offenders is now set to shut its doors for good. Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed bipartisan...
Last month, President Trump proposed several policies to fight the opioid crisis, including making drug dealers subject to the death penalty . A few states are advocating going after the drug makers instead and imposing a somewhat milder sentence: a tax...
NJ GOV WANTS TO INVEST $500M IN START-UPS NEW JERSEY Gov. Philip Murphy (D) has proposed establishing a $500 million fund to be used for partnering with venture capitalists to invest in start-up companies, as an alternative to traditional tax incentives...
One of the many things that sound just riotously funny when you’re stoned is to have a sign or some other public marker that uses the numbers “420.” For the uninitiated, 420 is yet another slang term for marijuana, aka “weed,”...
MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signs HB 3922, which extends a Bay State law that requires 35 percent of employees eligible for a group home or auto insurance marketing discount, or credit, to participate in that plan within two years of the plan...
Last issue in this space we discussed , courtesy of the website Thrillist , some of the sillier laws inhabiting state code books. A few others we just love: In California it is illegal to eat the participants in a frog-jumping contest; In Illinois it...
The MARYLAND Senate approves SB 409, a bill that would impose a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, until October, 2017. Fracking is the oil and gas extraction process that uses chemically-treated water injected deep into underground shale...
OKLAHOMA Gov. Mary Fallin (R) signs HB 1721, which makes the Sooner State the second to ban a vacuum and dilation procedure commonly used in second-trimester abortions (ABCNEWS.COM).
The Oregon Legislature has passed a bill -- SB 611 -- that would exempt Apple, Comcast and other data-center operators from the state’s unusual method of assessing property taxes, known as “central assessment.” Dating from the 19th century...
The last days of any legislative session can be chaotic and mind numbing. Such was the case recently when, as the California Legislature was relentlessly wading through the mountain of bills it always leaves to the final moments, Bloomberg BNA reporter...
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin didn’t waste time signing a restrictive new law requiring Bluegrass State doctors to perform, display and describe ultrasound images to a woman seeking an abortion before performing the procedure. Neither did state Rep....
A bipartisan group of 17 governors announced last Tuesday they were banding together in a pledge to work collectively to develop cleaner energy and transportation resources in their states. In a statement released by California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), the...
NC Voter ID Trial Over Attorneys on both sides of the federal court case over NORTH CAROLINA’s 2013 voter ID law that began last month presented closing arguments last week. It isn’t clear when U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder will...
Markell Issues Slavery Apology DELAWARE Gov. Jack Markell (D) signed House Joint Resolution 10, which apologizes for the First State’s role in the slave trade in America and for other wrongs committed against African Americans during the Jim...
The Supreme Court of the United States strikes down part of FLORIDA’s death penalty law, saying it violates the constitutional rights of criminal defendants by allowing judges to find aggravating factors that determine whether a defendant is eligible...
Not too long ago state judicial races, even for state Supreme Court seats, didn’t draw a lot of attention from voters. But that has changed with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings having opened the floodgates for unlimited campaign spending and special...
VT Gov Vetoes THEN signs SB 260 VERMONT Gov. Pete Shumlin (D) first vetoes and then signs SB 260 , which calls for local municipalities to receive “substantial deference” when the siting of wind energy projects go before the state Public...
Environment In CA Water officials in CALIFORNIA suspend a mandatory statewide 25 percent reduction in urban water use, allowing local communities to set their own conservation standards. The change came after the Golden State received a relatively...