As part of a plan to address their state’s $2.8 billion budget deficit, members of the Alaska House voted 21-19 in favor of a bill ( HB 111 ) last week that would increase oil production taxes and reduce the state subsidy for new oil drilling. ...
CA Air Resources Board Unveils Pollution Proposal The CALIFORNIA Air Resources Board unveils a proposal for new rules that would force automakers to meet the Golden State’s existing standards on car and truck pollution even if weaker ones are...
VA City Council Rejects Proposal The VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA City Council rejects a proposal to regulate short-term rentals. The Council is expected to reconsider possible regulations and introduce a new proposal (WAVYTV [VIRGINIA BEACH]). WY City...
Be careful what you tell folks they can get for free. Ohhhh boy. When the Australian magazine Vice reported recently that a quirk in the law allowed every Aussie citizen to receive free “nationhood material,” it was on. As NBC News reports...
Some days it feels like this old world is about to just burn itself down. Literally, given how fast climate change is progressing. But there’s no shortage of other problems, from an epidemic of school shootings to an equally insane epidemic of measles...
The 2016-17 budget year was a good one for West Virginia’s investment portfolio, about 81 percent of which supports the state’s pension funds. The state’s portfolio grew 15.8 percent. “As far as I know, we’re the best...
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed controversial legislation last Monday that makes dramatic changes to the state’s ailing public pension system. Among SB 151 ’s many tenets are provisions that move teachers hired after Jan. 1 2019 into...
The PENNSYLVANIA Senate approves SB 1180, a measure that would create a prescription drug monitoring program to prevent drug addicts or dealers from "doctor shopping" to get multiple orders of narcotics. It moves to the House (OBSERVER-REPORTER...
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down President Barack Obama’s executive order allowing up to 5 million unauthorized immigrants to live and work in America without threat of deportation. The panel ruled 2-1 that...
As regular readers of this space know, we regularly poke fun at lawmakers who spend copious time working to name "official" state whatevers: rocks, plants, birds or foods. The latest came last week as the New York Senate spent 45 minutes debating...
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) announced a 10-step reform plan last week for the scandal-plagued State Police, with changes that will include completely eliminating the troop responsible for patrolling the 138-mile Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston...
After years of debate, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signed legislation that could allow 70,000 low income Beehive State residents to become eligible for Medicaid. But when or even if that ever happens remains very much in doubt. The measure Herbert...
CA Board Announces Plan LOCAL FRONT : The LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA County Board of Supervisors announces a plan to install showers and bathrooms for the homeless to use in or near some of the city’s 93 metro train stations. A final plan is expected...
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...
Denver City Council Votes to Ban Gay Conversion Therapy The DENVER City Council unanimously votes to ban so-called gay conversion therapy, which seeks to change a minor’s sexual orientation. Denver becomes the first city in COLORADO to enact...
Going On In TX A federal judge declines to order that the U.S. government halt the federal Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, which shields young immigrants brought to this country as children from deportation. U.S. District Judge Andrew...
In January Kentucky became the first state to receive federal approval to impose a work requirement for Medicaid . But last month a federal judge blocked that plan, called Kentucky HEALTH. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services...
MI Supreme Court Rules The MICHIGAN Supreme Court rules that Wolverine State schools may legally ban guns from their campuses. The decision upholds a 2016 ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals, which came to the same conclusion (DETROIT FREE PRESS...
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...
The WEST VIRGINIA Board of Pharmacy announces it will ask all Mountain State prescription drug wholesalers to report on pharmacies that order a “suspicious” number of pain pills or other controlled substances. Those reports will then be forwarded...
President Barack Obama makes permanent a 2010 executive order deeming ALASKA's Bristol Bay off limits to oil and gas exploration. The president's original order was set to expire in 2017, but now can only be overturned by a new executive directive...
After passing the House in March, a bill championed by Gov. Laura Kelly (D) to expand Medicaid in the Sunflower State appears to have died in the GOP-controlled Senate. Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley forced a procedural vote to move HB...
A bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers has proposed a general exemption for agricultural businesses from the multibillion-dollar business tax and education spending law signed by Gov. Kate Brown (D) last month. HB 3445 would exempt sales of “agricultural...
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...
Stand back, because the Bruce Lee wannabes are on the way! Yes, as NPR reports , Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has signed a bill that overturns a prohibition on nunchucks, the traditional martial arts weapon that loosely translates to “chain sticks.”...