The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not exceed its authority by implementing a “demand response” rule that requires electric utilities to give customers fiscal incentives to...
Saying that for too long a competitive two-party system has been “nearly impossible” in the Old Line State, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) last Tuesday proposed having a nonpartisan panel draw legislative and Congressional districts. Such a...
Cheating isn’t the only behavioral vice Old Dominion lawmakers aren’t ready to let slide. As reported by the Galax Gazette, a House subcommittee last week rejected a proposal to get rid of a law making public cursing a Class 4 misdemeanor...
The MASSACHUSETTS Senate approves SB 2092, legislation that would require the Bay State to develop a climate change mitigation plan and adopt new emissions caps of 35-45 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 55-65 percent below 1990 levels by 2040. The...
Engulfed in a scandal that has some observers calling for his resignation, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) appointed a 17-person committee comprised of government officials, health and other experts to implement a long-term plan for fixing Flint’s...
ND Tribe Challenges voter ID Laws Seven members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa have filed a lawsuit against North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger (R) alleging that recent changes to the state's voter ID laws infringe on their right...
Too often, companies focus their competitive intelligence efforts on competitors. It’s a reasonable assumption, after all, because both words come from the same root. But competitive intelligence goes beyond what your cross-town—or global—rivals...
The federal transportation bill approved by Congress in December “provides far too little money to repair and upgrade America’s crumbling transportation system,” and federal lawmakers are too “fearful of raising taxes ahead of...
Ige Pledges a Cool Down HAWAII Gov. David Ige (D) used his State of the State speech last week to pledge to ensure that 1,000 public school classrooms received air conditioning units by the end of the year. He also vowed to launch an initiative to...
MD Lawmakers Overturn Hotel Tax Change MARYLAND’s Democrat-controlled General Assembly overturned five of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s vetoes from last year, including two measures requiring online hotel booking services like Travelocity...
Quick question: when is a sex party not a sex party? Answer: when it’s the Australian Sex Party, a legitimate Aussie political party kinda sorta like when we used to call libertarians in America pre-Tea Party. As the Sacramento Bee reports , Party...
Health & Science in CA The CALIFORNIA Senate approves SB 21, a bill that would remove a March 1 deadline for cities and counties to adopt regulations under the state’s new medical marijuana regulatory framework. Under the law, the state could...
The KANSAS Court of Appeals upholds a lower court’s decision that blocks a state law banning a common abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation. The vote was 7-7, but ties result in a validation of the lower court’s ruling. Attorney...
The INDIANA Senate approves SB 91, legislation that would overturn a Hoosier State law that sealed adoption records that did not contain a disclosure consent form. Under the bill, adoption records for people born between 1941 and 1994 would become available...
“When you're lost in information, an information map is kind of useful.” Those words, spoken by data journalist David McCandless in his TED talk , The Beauty of Data Visualization, make an important point. With a steady constant flow of...
The ability to access content anytime, anywhere and through any device has created a shift in how and where people consume news. According to Pew Research, 'Millennials' (born 1981-96) prefer to consume news directly from social media , whereas...
The sharks are circling. On the heels of last fall’s announcement of a $14.7 million payment for FCPA violations in China by Bristol-Myers Squibb, compliance investigators are paying even closer attention to the Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences...
Following a debate performance in which Bernie Sanders was declared the winner by those covering the final democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses, CNN offered its ‘mea culpa” for being one of the many major media outlets that have failed...
If you use social media at all, you probably saw the viral “Find the Panda” cartoon that was circulating over the holidays. Somewhere amidst a cheery collection of snowmen, Hungarian artist Gergely Dudás hid a panda, and according to...
Critics often contend that politicos live in their own little world. Proof positive these days could be Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (for any number of reasons), who took to Twitter recently to congratulate Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon for signing...
Business in CA The CALIFORNIA Air Resources Board rejects a proposal from Volkswagen AG for how it plans to fix over 480,000 diesel-engine cars the company is accused of engineering to skirt U.S. air pollution control laws. Regulators deemed the proposed...
Facing a class action lawsuit, a dozen recall efforts and at least one lawmaker calling for his resignation, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) activated the Wolverine State National Guard last Tuesday to assist in the state’s efforts to manage the ongoing...
A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia issued a new congressional map for the state that gives Democrats a chance to pick up another seat in this year’s election. The judges ruled last year that...
Truth may well be the first casualty of war, but far too often the same could be said of civility at the hand of politics. But perhaps it doesn’t have to be that way. As the Idaho Spokesman-Review reports , nearly the entire Idaho Legislature showed...
Utah Sen. Curt Bramble (R) said he and his colleagues will debate a bill this year requiring Utah-based businesses that sell on the Internet to collect sales taxes on those transactions and saying to businesses that do not, “We’re going to...