Responding to a new U.S. Census report that shows incomes have fallen by 14 percent for African-Americans in Minnesota since 2013, Gov. Mark Dayton (D) announced the creation of an office within the state Department of Employment and Economic Development...
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) unveiled a proposal last week to help stem a rising tide of heroin and other opioid-related deaths in the Bay State. Under his plan, a doctor’s initial opioid prescription per patient could be for no more than...
It took almost 20 years, but California finally has a regulatory framework for its multi-billion dollar medical marijuana industry. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a trio of bills earlier this month that collectively govern virtually all aspects of the legal...
Hogan Completes Chemo MARYLAND Gov. Larry Hogan (R) completed his final round of chemotherapy treatment for B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Hogan posted on his Facebook account that since being diagnosed in June he has undergone 30 days of 24-hour...
MI Approves SB 240 The MICHIGAN House approves SB 240, legislation that would bar the sale and distribution of powdered alcohol in the Wolverine State. The bill returns to the Senate (MLIVE.COM). Business In CA CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown...
MA Approves HB 3806 The MASSACHUSETTS House approves HB 3806, a bill that creates a local registration process for scrap metal dealers and requires those dealers to tag and hold purchased items for at least 48 hours. If contacted by law enforcement...
Education in CA CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoes AB 967, a bill that would have required public and private colleges and universities to adopt uniform processes for handling sexual assault cases, to report how many cases are received and subsequently...
Environment In CA CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs a plethora of environmental bills, including: SB 185, which requires the state’s two massive public employee pension funds – the California Public Employee Retirement System and the...
Health In CA CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoes AB 159, so-called “right-to-try” legislation that would have allowed drug companies to make available to terminally ill patients drugs that have not yet been approved by the U.S. Food...
Social CA CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs AB 775, which requires Golden State crisis pregnancy centers to provide patients with information about affordable contraception, abortion and prenatal care (KCRA.COM [SACRAMENTO]).
CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoes SB 539, which would have barred public buildings and other infrastructure from being named after anyone associated with the Confederacy. Brown said local communities are capable of deciding for themselves who they...
The image of the tobacco-chewing baseball player or manager – think Don Zimmer over any stage of his approximately 100 years in the game – is as iconic as the any in the sport. But that may all be changing in California, where Gov. Jerry Brown...
Speaking of California, you might have heard the Golden State is darned near out of water. Now desperate, officials are pondering a plan that would normally make them roll their eyes – shipping water in from Alaska, a state with no such shortages...
All of Texas has been giddy this baseball post season, what with both the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros unexpectedly making the American League playoffs. And when both teams got to within one win of facing each other in the AL Championship Series...
You might be expecting to see autumn colors—red maple leaves, orange pumpkins, golden fields—but October seems to be dominated by pink. It appears that everyone is going pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Even WWE pro wrestlers and NFL...
In 2006, the word, ‘google’ was added to both the Oxford Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Is it any wonder that nearly a decade later, everyone feels like they have the ultimate news and business research tool at their...
I recently got some tips from Christine Hayes, Director of Market Insight and leader of a very cool and innovative research team. She shared her thoughts on trend spotting and tracking; a process that can identify opportunities, predict competitor strategies...
In 1890, American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote, “Control of the sea by maritime commerce and naval supremacy, means predominant influence in the world; because, however great the wealth product of the land, nothing facilitates the...
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...
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes either through legislative action or ballot measure. Voters in four of those states -- Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington -- have also approved...
The U.S. House has seen only disarray in recent weeks with the ouster of speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) at the hands of his party’s far-right Freedom Caucus. But last Wednesday the chamber passed a two-year budget that would increase discretionary...
With retail sales of music CDs, DVD movies and computer software plummeting, state sales tax revenues have taken a hit. But at least a couple of states are looking to recapture that lost revenue stream by taxing consumers’ new source for such media...
Utah Sen. Wayne Harper (R) is apparently fed up with tax deadbeats in his state. Last month he persuaded the state Legislature’s Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee to unanimously approve his bill providing for automated searches for the bank...
Severance tax exemption cost LA over $1B LOUISIANA’s severance tax exemption on horizontal oil and gas drilling cost the state over $1.1 billion in revenue between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, according to a report by the state’s legislative...
Voter ID laws have become a fixture in the states. Thirty-two have Voter ID laws in place, with 11 of those laws of the “strict” variety, requiring voters without proper identification to cast a provisional ballot. A twelfth strict law is...