ABBOTT ORDERS FREE REPLACEMENT GUN CARDS: TEXAS Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to waive the cost of replacing licenses to carry handguns for residents who lost their cards as a result of Hurricane Harvey. Residents...
On Nov. 7 Virginia will hold a governor’s race that the Washington Post described as “a harbinger of the 2018 midterms and a test of politics in the era of President Trump.” The state’s voters will also decide contests for lieutenant...
In 2015 Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure reforming the state’s highly partisan legislative redistricting process, but congressional redistricting was left untouched. Now there’s talk around the Statehouse of remedying that...
Last Monday, a week after the attorneys general from 15 states filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created in 2012 through an executive order from President Obama, California...
SUPREME COURT STAYS TX REMAP ORDER: The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Aug. 24 ruling by a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Western District of TEXAS that several of that state’s legislative districts had been drawn...
Over the past few years, late state budgets have become increasingly common. In 2013 five states had to call special sessions to pass their FY 2014 budgets, although all five managed to do so before the 2014 fiscal year actually began. But 11 states started...
Twenty-four states are participating in a tax amnesty program for online sellers that contract with “marketplace facilitators” to expand their sales but that have failed to pay sales taxes on the associated transactions. Small businesses...
OK GOV TO CALL SPECIAL SESSION TO FIX BUDGET: OKLAHOMA Gov. Mary Fallin (R) said she will ask lawmakers to convene a special session on Sept. 25 to make adjustments to the budget after the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected a proposed cigarette tax. The...
In 2016 North Dakota sent a larger proportion of its exports (82 percent) to Canada, and New Mexico sent a bigger share of its exports (43 percent) to Mexico, than any other states, according to analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Fitch Ratings. Sixty...
With the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) hanging in the balance, trade experts and U.S. governors are warning that industrial and farm states would suffer economic damage if President Donald Trump carries out his threat to scrap...
Beneficial ownership registries on the rise When the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism published the Panama Papers last April, few knew where the revelations of tax evasion through off-shore accounts and shell companies would lead...
Determining the value of public relations is one of the most complex topics in the communications field, and has been a debated point that has literally spanned centuries. It's clear to see why setting up a simple equation to determine value is desirable...
Are you reaching for the stars? Yes... the stars. And by stars, we mean star donors. The donors that will help you exceed your yearly fundraising goals. According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics , there are more than 1.5 million nonprofit...
A goldfish has a longer attention span than your audience. A goldfish? Yep, a goldfish. You may have seen the story as it got picked up by a variety of media outlets. It seems some scientists (purportedly with Microsoft Canada) studied the brain...
Nevada became the first state to authorize the operation of autonomous vehicles on its roads in 2011. A few states, including California, Florida and Nevada, enacted laws dealing with such vehicles over the next few years, with the exception of 2014,...
Charlotte, North Carolina mayoral candidate Kimberly Paige Barnette thinks she has all the skills, talents and abilities she needs to be the city’s next mayor. After all, she’s a former county magistrate, believes in traditional values and...
Sacramento is no Washington D.C. but it has its share of similarities, not the least of which is having a lot of people who love to hear how important they are. Which could explain why the entire Capitol community goes a thither each year waiting for...
Or so vows California state Sen. Scott Wiener. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports , Weiner was incensed last week when the Assembly Appropriations Committee gutted his Senate-endorsed measure to allow local communities to decide if they wanted to...
If you haven’t noticed, Republicans are as relevant in California as a screen door on a submarine. But it hasn’t always been that way. Reeps were once the state’s preeminent political force. But that started to wane after then-Gov. Pete...
California Approves AB 260 The CALIFORNIA Senate approves AB 260 , which adds hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts to the list of businesses already required to post a notice with information on human trafficking resources, including national and...
California Approves AB 10 The CALIFORNIA Senate unanimously approves AB 10 , which would require schools where 40 percent of the kids meet the federal poverty threshold to provide free feminine hygiene products to female students. The bill, which would...
California Approves SB 51 The CALIFORNIA Assembly and Senate approve SB 51 , which would require the California Environmental Protection Agency to preserve any scientific information “at risk of censorship or destruction by the federal government”...
California Signs AB 602 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs AB 602 , which prohibits pharmacies from acquiring diabetes testing devices from unauthorized distributors (CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE). California Signs SB 374 Also in CALIFORNIA...
California Signs SB 332 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs SB 332 , which requires that foster youth are provided with voter registration resources and paperwork when they are progressing into adulthood (CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE). ...
Most GOP governors chose to tread lightly in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last week. The program, implemented by former President Barack Obama in 2012, grants temporary...