Pennsylvania Approves SB 383 The PENNSYLVANIA Senate approves SB 383 , which would allow Keystone State school boards to authorize teachers and other non-police school employees to carry firearms on school property. It moves to the House (TRIBLIVE...
Health In California CALIFORNIA Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D) announces he would shelve SB 562 - a Senate-approved bill that would implement a statewide single-payer health care system in the Golden State – for the year without a vote in...
Immigration In The US The U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal officials may implement part of President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from six nations with overwhelmingly Muslim populations until the court decides on the issue in its...
Social Policy In Arkansas The U.S. Supreme Court rules that same-sex couples in ARKANSAS are entitled to have both their names listed on their child's birth certificate. The ruling overturns a Razorback State law that blocked both parents’...
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...
Citing a litany of allegations of abuse of power and fiscal malfeasance, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) last week signed legislation that will dramatically change the makeup and responsibilities of the state’s 138-year-old Board of Equalization...
Calling it “a solution in search of a problem,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) vetoed a bill that would have required Pelican State colleges and universities to do more to foster the appearance of controversial speakers and opinions on...
Cuomo, NY Lawmakers Reach ‘Buy American’ Deal After previous failures, NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has reached a deal with Empire State legislative leaders on a bill that would require that certain state agencies require the use of American...
As recent headlines attest, the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans in Congress has become so entrenched that many major policy issues are hopelessly gridlocked year after year . Many state legislatures are subject to the same political...
Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the special runoff election last month to fill the seat vacated by former U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia), who was appointed health and human services secretary by President Donald Trump. Democrats...
Supreme Court To Consider Partisan Gerrymandering Case The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a WISCONSIN case in which a three-judge federal appeals panel ruled 2-1 last year that the political district map drawn by that state’s GOP-controlled...
According to a report from the National Association of State Budget Officers , 33 states are going to miss their revenue targets for the recently ended 2017 fiscal year. NASBO also reported that 23 states made budget cuts during the fiscal year, up from...
On June 12 U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) and several cosponsors, including U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chair Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Virginia), introduced the “No Regulation Without Representation Act of 2017” ( HR 2887 ), mandating...
Over the past 50 years the manufacturing industry has gone from comprising a third of the U.S. economy to 18 percent, while the services industry has gone from making up half of U.S. GDP to over two-thirds. States have tried to adjust to that shift...
Back in January Iowa’s Department of Revenue announced that taxpayers’ refund checks would be delayed by several weeks this year because of efforts to prevent identity theft and fraud. But that may not have been the only reason for the holdup...
KS Gov Signs Budget With Tax Increase KANSAS Gov. Sam Brownback(R)signed a $15.6 billion state budget last month that includes the $1.2 billion income tax increase approved by lawmakers. The governor vetoed that rollback of the income tax cuts he championed...
At least five states have enacted laws this year aimed at curbing the rise of prescription drug prices, including through increasing transparency of drug pricing by manufacturers. Drug price bills are also still pending in more than a dozen states, including...
Last December, the SNCJ staff laid out its annual list of issues we felt would receive significant attention in statehouses across the nation in the year ahead. Although it is something we’ve done for many years now, no upcoming year had presented...
If you are a real estate professional, you know that having information is crucial to growing your business. Using open web can be suitable for finding on-the-surface info, but it won’t reveal the full picture that you need the most win new business...
Reputation management, one of the major branches of modern public relations, is at its most important when a crisis strikes. If a brand you're representing comes into bad press, your efforts to burnish the company's image will face a major test...
In October 2015, the UK Modern Slavery Act came into effect, including the Transparency in Supply Chains (TISC) clause requiring businesses to disclose the steps they are taking to tackle modern slavery. Businesses with a year-end of 31 st March 2016...
From 1983 until 1994, PBS aired The Joy of Painting , which featured the always good-natured Bob Ross demonstrating wet-on-wet oil painting. While it doesn’t sound like a show that would attract a large audience, the show—and Bob’s folksy...
We’re getting close to the silly season at the Massachusetts statehouse. While serious issues still dominate Bay State lawmakers’ attention – marijuana legalization and a budget deal come to mind - a wealth of less critical measures...
If you are a fan of some level of somber dignity amidst the crazy sausage grinder of public policy making, you may have to avoid the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia for a while. As the Charlotte Observer reports , the city recently won a $195,000...
You can say one thing about Missouri Rep. Mike Moon: dude knows how to get attention. Kind of like how misanthropes like Dennis Rodman or anyone named Kardashian know how to get attention. Case in point – this week – is a new video Moon put...