For our recurring Q&A series, we spoke with Patrick Moulette, Head of the Anti-Corruption Division at the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). He shares how the legislative landscape has changed since countries signed the...
CA Senate Approves SB 460 The CALIFORNIA Senate approves SB 460 , net neutrality legislation that would bar broadband providers from blocking or limiting access to the Internet. The measure moves to the Assembly (LOS ANGELES TIMES). CA Senate Rejects...
CA Senate SB 320 The CALIFORNIA Senate approves SB 320 , which would make the Golden State the first to require public universities to offer medication abortion. The law would take effect in 2022, with startup finding provided by private donors. The...
CA Assembly Approves AB 1097 The CALIFORNIA Assembly approves AB 1097 , which would ban smoking at all of the state’s public parks and beaches. It moves to the Senate (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET). CA Assembly Approves AB 319 The CALIFORNIA ,...
IN House Approves HB 1137 and HB 1214 The INDIANA House unanimously approves HB 1137 , which codifies that hemp and its related products, like CBD oil or cannabidiol, are not marijuana and therefore are not regulated by the state’s drug laws...
MD Senate Approves SB 2 and HB 1 The MARYLAND Senate approves SB 2 , a bill that would eliminate parental rights of rapists over children conceived through rape. The House approves its own version ( HB 1 ) a day later. The two chambers must now approve...
CA City Council Approves The LOS ANGELES City Council approves a motion to ask Golden State lawmakers to change the way the state defines “grave disability” in order to give officials more power to forcibly treat mentally ill homeless people...
Calling the decision by former Gov. Chris Christie (R) in 2012 to pull out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative lacking in “common sense,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued an executive order last week returning the state to the...
A trio of GOP governors have issued plans to combat ongoing opioid abuse epidemics in their states. Last week, the West Virginia Senate Health Committee reviewed but did not take action on SB 273 , legislation sponsored by Gov. Jim Justice (R) that...
Responding to the Federal Communications Commission decision to overturn net neutrality rules, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) issued an executive order on Jan 22 barring any internet service provider with a government contract from blocking or charging...
MURPHY ORDERS NJ MEDICAL WEED REVIEW : Calling the Garden State’s medical marijuana system “constrained,” NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued Executive Order No. 6 , which mandates a 60-day review of the program. Murphy said he...
Special legislative elections will be held in 10 states this month. Several of them were necessitated by sexual misconduct scandals. Two special elections are being held in Minnesota on Feb. 12, for example, to choose replacements for a pair of...
Earlier this month the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the congressional district map drawn by the state’s Republican-controlled General Assembly in 2011 was gerrymandered to the point of “clearly, plainly and palpably” violating...
For a long, long time the annual “Back to Session Bash” for California lobbyists and political staffers has been a ribald affair with so much drunken debauchery that some attendees joke the event is good to end at least one promising career...
UT ADVANCES BILL ALLOWING REMOVAL OF ELECTED OFFICIALS FOR MENTAL INCAPACITY: The UTAH Senate has passed a bill ( SB 38 ) that would establish a process for removing county elected officials from office for mental incapacity. The legislation was prompted...
In his State of the Union address last week, President Trump called upon Congress to approve a plan that provides “at least $1.5 trillion” for infrastructure. “We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways and waterways...
The Democratic governors of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York said last week they intend to file a joint lawsuit challenging the Republican tax overhaul plan signed into law last month. The governors allege that elements of the plan, particularly its...
A bill introduced in the Alabama Legislature is pitting the state’s cities against its counties, with online giant Amazon in the middle. The measure, SB 130 , would allow Amazon, which currently has no brick-and-mortar presence in the state, to...
TX POTENTIALLY FACING BIG MEDICAID BILL: Despite a healthy economy, TEXAS could face a $2.5 billion Medicaid shortfall in 2019. State lawmakers underfunded the program during last year’s regular session and then in a special session over the...
Over 165 women in 39 states will likely run for statewide political office this year, more than twice the number that actually filed to run in 2016, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute...
The weather in Sacramento on January 21, 2017 was cold and slightly wet, hardly a day for a long walk outdoors. But the damp early morning cold was not going to keep Marina Texeira, who owns a popular midtown nightclub, from gathering with tens of thousands...
And since we’re talking about bodacious 24 hour party people, the Los Angeles Times reports that California lawmakers will soon ponder legislation to make surfing the official state sport. In a statement, bill author Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi said...
Politics can make you want to gag sometimes. But if you really do get something caught in the old windpipe, it would be good to have Kansas Sen. Ed Berger around. As the Wichita Eagle reports , Berger recently performed the Heimlich maneuver on Sen. Dan...
California Gov. Jerry Brown gave his 16 th and final – we think – State of the State address last month. Although he can still speechify with the best of them, the 79-year-old Brown is these days a far more humble version of himself than the...
Are your executives, clients or other stakeholders in an uproar because of something they read on social media—that ultimately turned out to be untrue? And do you have to add extra research to your workload to help counteract the frenzy? If so...