RECORD NUMBER OF ETHICS COMPLAINTS IN AK ELECTIONS LAST YEAR The ARKANSAS Ethics Commission received 146 citizen complaints against candidates and others during last year’s election cycle. That number was a new record and a 45 percent increase...
Last year the Federal Communication Commission offered $4.5 billion in funding over the next 10 years to help states provide high-speed mobile broadband service in underserved rural areas. Cell phone carriers informed the FCC that several states...
A group of 30 researchers, activists and scientists signed a letter this month urging the federal government to issue an official warning to states that use voting machines with integrated wireless technology that the machines are vulnerable to hacking...
As a result of the November elections, Democrats now control both the governor’s office and legislature in 14 states, up from eight in 2018. Democratic leaders in those states, located mainly in the West and Northeast, say they’ll focus on...
CA SCRAPS ‘TEXT TAX’ The CALIFORNIA Public Utilities Commission has canceled its plan to begin charging a fee for text messaging on mobile phones. That decision came after the Federal Communications Commission ruled last month that text...
In September California became the eighth state to pass a retirement savings plan for private-sector workers, since Massachusetts became the first to do so in 2012, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Retirement Initiatives. Another...
Near the end of August, we headed to the 85th IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Athens, Greece. As a bronze sponsor and exhibitor, we were excited to meet with current customers and introduce Nexis Uni and Nexis to many others from around...
California Assemblymember Phil Ting introduced a measure last week that would bar Golden State retailers from issuing a printed paper receipt to customers unless they ask for one. His argument is that those receipts can’t be recycled and are contaminated...
LexisNexis Newsdesk® and Nexis Uni® are finalists in 2019 SIIA Business Technology Product CODiE Awards—LexisNexis Newsdesk® for the Best Content Search & Discovery Solution category and Nexis Uni® for the Best Source for Library...
Electronic scooters could return to Massachusetts if a new proposal from Gov. Charlie Baker (R) eventually becomes law. The rapidly growing e-scooter craze hit a roadblock in Massachusetts last year when several cities ordered scooter-sharing company...
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has had his share of difficult times since taking office, but probably none harder than the task he had last week: saying the final goodbye to Chloe, his family’s 16-year-old Sheltie. Cooper broke the news on the First...
About $260 million was wagered in New Jersey on sporting events in October, bringing the total for the four and a half months sports betting has been legal in the state to $597 million. A spokesman for FanDuel, which handles the sports book at the...
Texas has the best infrastructure in the country, according to CNBC’s 2017 “America’s Top States for Business” rankings . With only 1.7 percent of its bridges deemed “structurally deficient” but a 25.6 minute average...
There is clearly no issue on which Maine Gov. Paul LePage won’t weigh in. This week’s example involves a Husky mix named Dakota that twice in the last year has got out of her yard and attacked a neighbor’s dogs, killing one and injuring...
A panel of federal judges has approved a redistricting map for the Virginia House of Delegates that could help Democrats in this year’s legislative elections. The judges for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled...
The U.S. economy is expanding for a ninth consecutive year, unemployment is low, stock indices are near record highs, despite an early August slump, and the Great Recession of 2007-09 is a distant memory. Despite these positives, state budgets for fiscal...
Between 2007 and 2012, the number of annual suicide deaths rose by more than 30 percent in eight states, according to analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by Governing . The largest increase, 69.3 percent, was in Wyoming...
Last week, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom (D), proposed a $209 billion general fund budget for next fiscal year, a 4-percent increase from the budget for the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30. Continuing the fiscally cautious...
Dayton Legislative Funding Veto Overruled A MINNESOTA judge ruled that Gov. Mark Dayton’s (D) May 30 veto of funding for the Gopher State Legislature was unconstitutional. Ramsey County District Court Chief Judge John Guthmann said Dayton had...
Despite having two state laws restricting abortion struck down in federal court in the past 15 months, Kentucky lawmakers are making another run at enacting an abortion ban. Senate Bill 9 , introduced earlier this month, would ban abortion as soon...
Business In Massachusetts The MASSACHUSETTS House and Senate agree on a bill that would impose significant changes in the voter-approved law legalizing recreational marijuana sales in the Bay State. Under the legislation, the maximum tax on retail...
Just days after Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) named Steve Marshall to replace Luther Strange as State Attorney General, Marshall confirmed what had long only been rumored: that Bentley is under criminal investigation by the AG’s office. Ironically...
This Tuesday, Ohio voters will go to the polls to decide whether to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana use. But even if the Buckeye State becomes the 24 th (along with the District of Columbia) to legalize some form of marijuana, it will not...
With national immigration reform stymied by partisan division, several states have extended privileges associated with U.S. citizenship to millions of unauthorized immigrants. At the same time states are leading the legal charge against President Obama’s...
A bill introduced late last month in the Georgia House would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat was detected by a doctor, which usually occurs at about the six-week point of a pregnancy. But HB 481 would also allow parents to claim a fetus with...