If you wonder how important football is in certain parts of the country, I submit the recent razor thin re-election of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. Some folks credit that win to a general sense of good feeling in the Pelican State over the ascension...
Fire-prompted power shutoffs that left millions of Californians in the dark have pushed Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), one of the nation’s largest utilities, to the brink of a state government takeover. The blackouts touched off public...
In 2018 Texas had the most wildfires of any state, 10,541 of them, and the sixth highest number of acres burned, at 569,811, according to data compiled by the Insurance Information Institute from the National Interagency Fire Center. California had the...
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed an executive order last week providing for the creation of a 14-member board to oversee a state-owned bank, a centerpiece of Murphy’s 2017 gubernatorial campaign. The bank would be owned by the state’s...
Virginia and Maryland have agreed to share the billion-dollar expense of expanding the American Legion Bridge, which spans the Potomac River between Fairfax County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland. The bridge has been one of the Capital...
OR Facing Big Wildfire Mitigation Costs OREGON will have to spend $4 billion now to mitigate its wildfire problems, according to a report from the Council on Wildfire Response appointed by Gov. Kate Brown (D). The report said alternatively the state...
Mississippi Secretary of State-elect Michael Watson (R) said last week he would push to change the state’s Jim Crow-era election process for statewide offices. That process, written into the state’s Constitution in 1890 to help ensure that...
Mayors and administrators of over a dozen Rhode Island communities have filed a lawsuit challenging a law enacted this year by the state’s Democrat-controlled General Assembly and Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) locking in wage and benefit levels in public...
Women Chosen to Lead VA House For First Time The VIRGINIA House of Delegates’ newly elected Democratic majority have chosen Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn (D) as speaker and Delegate Charniele Herring (D) as majority leader. They will be the first...
North Dakota is currently the only state to have created a public bank, which it did way back in 1919. But momentum for more is growing at both the state and local level. The latest effort was launched last week in New Jersey, where New Jersey Gov...
A new temporary homeless camp fostered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is so far not doing much to alleviate the growing homelessness problem in Austin. A week after the camp was opened at a former maintenance yard for TxDOT vehicles in East Austin, advocates...
Cuomo Threatens NYC Utility NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) threatened to revoke the license of a utility that provides gas to New York City and Long Island unless it begins providing natural gas to new customers on Long Island. Cuomo also vowed to...
Supreme Court of the United States Allows Lawsuit The Supreme Court of the United States allows a lawsuit filed by parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims to move forward at the state level. The suit alleges that the Remington Arms Co. marketed...
Utah Board of Education Passes Emergency Regulations Reacting to increasing illnesses and deaths related to vaping, the UTAH Board of Education passes emergency regulations allowing schools to ban electronic cigarettes and vaping devices. The measure...
California Public Utilities Commission Votes The CALIFORNIA Public Utilities Commission votes unanimously to order an investigation into the intentional blackouts by Pacific Gas & Electric and other utilities that left millions of Golden State...
Massachusetts House Approves HB 4183 The MASSACHUSETTS House approves HB 4183 , which would make the Bay State the first to completely ban the sale of all flavored vaping and tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. The measure moves to the...
7th Circuit Court of Appeals Rules The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the WISCONSIN Legislature can’t intervene in a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood over laws that prevent Badger State nurses from performing abortions and limit...
Denver City Council Approves Regulation The DENVER City Council approves a regulation that will allow residents to leave a restaurant with an alcoholic beverage during special events. The ordinance applies to events held in pre-determined common areas...
How bad is our current political discourse? Oh, it’s bad. Case in point today comes from California, where Donald Trump Jr. tried to have a promotional stop for his new book. (I know what you’re thinking – wouldn’t it better if...
In his effort to become an American citizen, Canadian-borne rocker Neil Young figured honesty was the best policy. That included answering truthfully about his marijuana usage. But as the Los Angeles Times reports , honesty may not actually have been...
One would presume that includes not spending money that isn’t yours to spend, a lesson apparently lost on former California Assemblymember Joe Canciamilla. As the East Bay Times reports , Canciamilla – the county’s top elections official...
For all of its positives, there’s no denying that California also has its share of problems. It’s expensive to live here, the ground moves a lot, water can be scarce and, as the last few years have shown, wildfires are a constant threat. All...
As public health officials confront an outbreak of lung injuries linked to vaping from e-cigarettes, a patchwork of state and local responses have cropped up in lieu of federal regulation. But with a developing and not yet fully understood problem...
As of Oct. 15, governors or public health agencies in seven states had imposed temporary bans on the sale of vaping products, four of which had been at least partially blocked by legal challenges, according to Time . At least five states have also introduced...
The world’s most popular social network is coming under a lot of criticism these days for, well a lot of things. But top on the list is Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg’s response to claims his network fosters and even encourages a daily gusher...