State lottery sales topped $70 billion last year in the 43 states that have them, according to the American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. That sum represents more than 10 percent of the states’ total revenues for the year. But that...
NM SUPREME COURT RULES OUT STRAIGHT-TICKET VOTING The NEW MEXICO Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week that Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver (D) did not have the authority to reinstate straight-ticket voting after that option was discontinued...
Ten states started the 2018 fiscal year on July 1 without a budget in place, according to the Tax Foundation. A partial government shutdown in one of those states, Maine, ended on the 4th of July when Gov. Paul LePage (R) signed a budget compromise eliminating...
Another day, another revelation of a famous or powerful man behaving like a troll. And while it is once again impacting the political realm, this time it isn’t a politico that did the awful deed. As the New York Daily News reports , allegations...
Energy In WI WISCONSIN Gov. Scott Walker (R) signs AB 25, which bars Badger State agencies from enforcing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) rule prohibiting the commercial sale of less-than-optimum energy efficient wood stoves...
One bill that did end up garnering Gov. Jerry Brown’s autograph will soon have folks popping a cork on their favorite vino. Not necessarily to celebrate, mind you. As the Davis Enterprise reports , Brown signed a bill that allows the University...
Minnesota’s highest court has thwarted an effort to allow Minneapolis voters to decide whether that city should raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour. Backers of the proposal, who see it as a way to combat poverty and racial disparity in the city...
US Supreme Court Rules Against Doctors Suing Medicaid The U.S. Supreme Court rules that doctors and other medical providers can’t sue state Medicaid agencies for higher pay . The High Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t grant...
Last Monday the Missouri Supreme Court announced it would be taking the “extraordinary action” of reassigning all municipal court cases in Ferguson to the circuit court. The high court said in a press release it was undertaking that action...
BROWN ORDERS FIRST-EVER CA WATER RESTRICTIONS : Faced with a fourth straight year of record drought he said called for “unprecedented action,” California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) ordered officials in over 3,000 urban water districts to cut water...
The DELAWARE Supreme Court rules that the First State’s death penalty law is unconstitutional because it allows judges, and not juries, the final say on whether to impose a death sentence. Legislation to bar capital punishment passed the Senate...
We animal lovers would generally do just about anything to make our pets’ lives better, particularly as they age and fall prey to debilitating or painful illnesses. If one Nevada lawmaker gets his way, that will soon include being able to offer...
TX DPS Wants $1B for Border Security The TEXAS Department of Public Safety is seeking an additional $320 million in the state’s next two-year budget - on top of its current funding base of $750 million - to beef up border security. (DALLAS MORNING...
Christie Denies Role in Trump Tax Deal NEW JERSEY Gov. Chris Christie (R) denied any involvement in a 2011 tax settlement deal between Garden State officials and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump that allowed his Atlantic City casino to pay only...
Special from ALM Media Properties, LLC., The Legal Intelligencer® By now, the concept of Upjohn warnings should be familiar to any counsel, whether in-house or external, who represents a corporation’s interests in an internal investigation...
Democrats who control the California Legislature have proposed legislation ( AB 42 and SB 10 ) that would end the practice of having judges set bail amounts based on a schedule of rates for various crimes. Instead, new county pretrial services agencies...
Nevada Approves AB 374 The NEVADA Senate approves AB 374 , which would make the Silver State the first to allow anyone to buy into Medicaid, the public program that covers low-income Americans. It is now with Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) for consideration...
NJ Upholds Sports Gambling Law A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upholds a lower-court ruling that voided a NEW JERSEY law legalizing sports gambling. The panel ruled that allowing casinos and racetracks...
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) announced the creation of a 21-member task force last week to devise a plan to combat growing opiate abuse in the Hoosier State. The group, made up of state health leaders, law enforcement officials and lawmakers, will make...
For the last month Texas’ Public Utility Commission has been pondering the complex financial structure of Energy Future Holdings. Buried by $40 billion in debt, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection last year, one of the largest bankruptcy...
The Alabama Legislature passed a handful of bills during a special session on the budget that ended last week, but none of those measures is likely to have much of an impact on the state’s deficit, projected to be at least $200 million. The House...
That could soon be the big legal question in Virginia, where the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that House Speaker William J. Howell has introduced legislation to allow localities to create a $100 civil penalty for dogs “running at large”...
More than a few folks think lawmakers ought to apologize for some of the things they do. But now it is happening. As the Palm Beach Post reports, several Florida lawmakers dropped into their districts recently to offer constituents a mea culpa for, in...
The problem with Republicans in Montana is apparently the Republicans in Montana. Or at least that’s what Senate Majority Leader Matthew Rosendale and House Majority Leader Keith Regier, both Republicans, think. As the Billings Gazette reports,...
KY Marriage Licenses Legal KENTUCKY Gov. Steve Beshear (D) said marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in Rowan County are legal in spite of not being signed by the clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue them to those couples. Beshear reiterated...