New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy (D) signed a bill last Monday ( AB 4111 ) providing for the regulation and taxation of sports betting in the state. The legislation brought an end to a years-long battle to help the state’s struggling casinos that led...
Several Republican members of the Illinois Congressional delegation signed a letter to President Donald Trump last week urging him not to grant clemency to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). The letter noted that Blagojevich’s removal from office...
ME SENATE VOTES TO JOIN NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE COMPACT MAINE’S Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a bill ( LD 816 ) that would award the state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote if enough...
Every state in the nation provides some sort of public website that provides information about government spending. The “checkbook” sites allow taxpayers to see who the hundreds of billions of dollars states spend every year on government...
Almost half of the states mandate higher copayments for emergency-department (ED) visits by Medicaid recipients to try to discourage them from making unnecessary -- and costly -- trips to the ED. But a 2013 study published in the Journal of the American...
After the Trump administration announced in March that it was planning to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census, multiple states sued to block the move, arguing it would discourage immigrants from responding to the survey, resulting in inaccurate...
If you’re anywhere near the tiny Alabama town of Parrish, you might want to bring something to cover your nose. As the Associated Press reports , Parrish has become a dumping ground for a string of train cars filled with human waste sludge from...
Less than four years after emerging from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, Detroit has regained full control over its government operations. Last Monday the nine-member state commission that has had the final say on all of the city’s...
CT Senate Approves SB 7 The CONNECTICUT Senate approves SB 7 , a bill that would adopt a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent below 2001 levels by 2030. The measure would also update statutory references to sea level rise to reflect...
DC City Council Votes To Overturn Initiative 77 The WASHINGTON D.C. City Council officially votes to overturn Initiative 77 , which would have eliminated the tipped minimum wage and raised minimum base pay for tipped workers to the standard minimum...
PA Governor Signs HB 1346 PENNSYLVANIA Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signs HB 1346 , which among several things bars local governments from regulating drone aircraft (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
Whatever the subject these days, whenever it comes to doing what’s best for our kids, we can generally count on the adults in the room to behave worse than the children. Case in point comes this week from Rhode Island, where the Providence Journal...
If you’re going to have a state amphibian, it might as well be one with as ridiculous a nickname as possible. I’m presuming that was what Pennsylvania lawmakers were thinking recently when they voted to name the Eastern hellbender salamander...
The DELAWARE Senate endorses HB 115, legislation that would allow transgender inmates in First State prisons to seek a name change based on their gender identity. It heads to Gov. Jack Markell (D), who is expected to sign it into law (NEWS JOURNAL [WILMINGTON...
Saying that “Maine people value their privacy, online and off,” Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed one of the toughest data privacy measures in the nation last week. Under SB 275 , which Mills signed last Thursday, Pine Tree State Internet...
NY City Council Votes The NEW YORK City Council votes to stop issuing licenses for most for-hire driving services for one year while the Taxi & Limousine Commission studies the impact of the vehicles on the city's streets, whether their total...
Defying his own party, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) called last week for the Hoosier State to adopt legislation against hate crimes. Indiana is one of only five states – the others are Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Wyoming – without...
President Trump abruptly dissolved his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity this month. The commission had been tasked with investigating voter fraud, which Trump has repeatedly insisted was responsible for Hillary Clinton’s popular...
Somehow it only seems fitting that an outsized presence like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would also want the most absurdly expensive gubernatorial portrait in Garden State history. Yes, as NorthJersey.com reports , Christie’s official...
Kentucky House Majority Leader Jonathan Shell (R) was ousted from his seat by a high school math teacher and first-time political candidate in a Republican primary election in that state on May 22. Republican voters have not been kind to incumbents in...
As recently noted in this space, the tiny Alabama town of Walker has had it rough of late. Due to a lack of regulations city leaders didn’t know they needed, Parrish became a parking spot for a train carrying 200 containers of human waste sludge...
OH Governor Signs HB 425 OHIO Gov. John Kasich (R) signs HB 425 , which codifies that police body camera video is public record unless it is a confidential investigatory record. The law does not, however, require police agencies to use body cameras...
MI Senate Leader Backs Private Police Plan MICHIGAN Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R) has proposed a bill ( SB 594 ) that would authorize private, possibly for-profit police forces with full arrest powers to supplement public law enforcement...
California Signs SB 31 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs SB 31 , which bars state and local governments from releasing personal information to the federal government for the creation of any religious list, registry or database, or from using state...
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...