POT LEGALIZATION EXPANDING PUBLIC PAYROLL IN CA With recreational marijuana becoming legal in CALIFORNIA in 2018, the state is in the process of hiring hundreds of new government employees to help oversee the industry, including environmental scientists...
The numerous fires burning in Northern California’s world famous grape growing regions justifiably have folks wondering how they will impact the state’s multi-billion dollar wine industry. That question is yet unanswered, but another big bucks...
FL PASSES TERM LIMITS FOR JUDGES: The FLORIDA House narrowly approved legislation - the first of its kind in the nation - limiting the terms of judges and Supreme Court justices in the state to 12 years. HJR 1 still has to pass the Senate and be approved...
It’s no secret that known hate groups like the KKK and others have been vocal in their support of President Donald Trump, or that they have been emboldened by his seeming support in return. The results have been, in a word, lethal . With similar...
Take my salmon...please! Yes, it’s a bad play on an old Rodney Dangerfield line, but the overabundance of salmon in the waters around Washington’s San Juan Islands is no joke. As the Seattle Times reports , a broken pen at a private fish farming...
California's High-Speed Rail Authority officially began construction last week on the first stretch of the state's planned $68-billion bullet train project. The groundbreaking at the future site of a station in downtown Fresno comes seven years...
Calling it an issue of “basic fairness and basic justice,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) unilaterally ordered pay for Empire State public workers raised to $15 an hour. The pay hike will impact approximately 10,000 state employees and be...
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) recently issued an executive order stripping Attorney General Luther Strange (R) of the primary responsibility for enforcing the Heart of Dixie’s anti-gambling laws. Executive Order 13 gives that power instead to...
In 2013 California endorsed legislation allowing unauthorized immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Since the law went into effect last January hundreds of thousands of newly-eligible folks have applied. And at least one California lawmaker believes...
A few years ago, California was facing a $26 billion budget deficit. But a report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office last month said the state would end next fiscal year with an $11.5 billion surplus. And the report also projected surpluses for...
Along with the legislative contests, voters in seven states also considered 22 statewide ballot measures on Nov. 3, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That’s fewer than normal, even for an odd-year election, NCSL said, noting...
People often bemoan that politicos orate in homilies, bromides and other gibberish meant to obfuscate more than illuminate. (See how I did that?) But fans of straight talk might just have found their hero in Mikelis Beitiks, who is seeking to fill the...
On a 63-33 vote last week, the Wisconsin Assembly approved a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the office of state treasurer in 2019. Virtually all of the treasurer’s duties have been slowly eliminated over the years, and even the state’s...
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...
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...
Much has been made of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s practice of not asking questions during SCOTUS hearings. So imagine the shock when, as the Atlantic reports , he did. Let’s set the scene. Assistant U.S. Solicitor General Ilana...
ME Rejects Plea to delay Medicaid expansion A MAINE court rejects a plea from the administration of Gov. Paul LePage (R) to delay the implementation of a voter-approved Medicaid expansion in the Pine Tree State. Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy...
West Virginia’s House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment for all four sitting justices on the state’s Supreme Court of Appeals: Chief Justice Margaret Workman, Justice Allen Loughry, Justice Robin Davis and Justice Elizabeth...
CO TO EXCEED TABOR REVENUE CAP IN COMING YEARS Despite the passage of a bill last year ( SB 267 ) exempting a state hospital fee from the revenue cap imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiative approved by voters in 1992, COLORADO...
REYNOLDS SAYS SHE ISN’T BEHOLDEN TO IA GOP PLATFORM : Saying the issue of same-sex marriage has been settled by the courts, IOWA Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said last week she doesn’t have to abide by state GOP platform proposals that favor limiting...
Supreme Court of United Stares Declines Case The Supreme Court of the United States declines to take up a case challenging a lower court’s ruling that temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals...
Michigan Signs HB 4013 MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signs HB 4013 , which allows Wolverine State motorists to show proof of insurance via their smartphone or other electronic device. The law also bars law enforcement from viewing anything else on...
Health & Science - U.S. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces new rules designed to mitigate opioid abuse. Those measures include having an expert panel review new opioids, strengthening post-release study requirements for those drugs...
The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its longstanding claim that the Texas Legislature intentionally discriminated against minority voters when it passed the strictest voter ID law in the nation in 2011, while maintaining that the law had a “discriminatory...
Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights — requiring lawmakers to obtain voter approval to raise taxes and to issue refunds to taxpayers when revenues grow faster than inflation and population growth — has survived repeated challenges...