The MICHIGAN House approves a seven-bill package that, among several things, does away with a zero-tolerance policy used by many school districts that opponents claim unfairly leads to too many kids being expelled from Wolverine State schools. The package...
The OHIO House and Senate endorse HB 554 , which would allow utilities to continue ignoring the Buckeye State’s renewable energy targets for the next two years. The standards were initially created in 2008 and require utilities to make up 12.5 percent...
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...
The MISSOURI Supreme Court rules that a Show Me state law barring undocumented immigrants from being granted bail is unconstitutional. The court noted that the state constitution guarantees that “all persons” not charged with capital offenses...
Social Policy In OH OHIO Gov. John Kasich (R) vetoes HB 493 , which would have made it a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to one year in prison, for a physician to perform an abortion without checking for a fetal heartbeat or performing the procedure...
When you're working on PR pitches to the media between major events or product launches, you may wish you had a magic spell up your sleeve. Your job is essentially to conjure something valuable - favorable coverage - out of thin air. It's time...
With 2016 drawing to a close, we review the main developments in financial crime over the last year. Beneficial ownership making headlines Beneficial ownership was arguably the most talked-about issue in financial crime in 2016. This was partly...
The role of the media in exposing corruption was celebrated at the 17th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Panama earlier this month. The conference, which takes place every two years, aims to bring together “the entire spectrum of stakeholders”...
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a slew of bills last week. As is usually the case with such mass signings, the bills address a wide range of serious issues like the use of solitary confinement in prisons and economic development. Perhaps less notable...
Speaking of Chris Christie, the approval rating of the man formerly known as a viable presidential candidate has dropped into the teens. According to a new Quinnipiac poll, just 19 percent of New Jersey residents approve of his job performance, making...
Newly-minted North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper campaigned in part on repealing the state’s controversial “bathroom bill” that bars transgender people from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity. But while a strong majority...
Business in Washington DC The WASHINGTON D.C. Council approves a proposal that would grant workers eight weeks of time off to care for a newborn or adopted child. The measure, which would also grant employees six weeks of paid leave to help ailing...
Crime in Michigan The MICHIGAN House approves SB 291 , which would provide financial compensation and reentry services for people who were wrongly convicted and incarcerated in the Wolverine State. It moves to Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for consideration...
The U.S. House and Senate each approve HR 6 , known better as the 21 st Century Cures Act, a bill that boosts by billions of dollars funding for medical research, eases the development and approval of experimental treatments and reforms federal policy...
The OHIO House and Senate approve HB 493 , which would make it a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to one year in prison, for a physician to perform an abortion without checking for a fetal heartbeat or performing the procedure after it can be detected...
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) unveiled a proposal last week to require Old Line State employers with 50 or more workers to provide them with at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year. Part-time employees would need to work at least 30 hours per week...
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) launched a new two-year pilot program last week aimed at curbing opioid abuse among workers who are injured on the job. The effort is aimed at helping people with settled workers’ compensation cases who are being...
Gov. Mead Says No Medicaid Expansion in WY Citing the uncertainty of America’s health care system under the new administration, WYOMING Gov. Matt Mead (R) said he will not push Equality State lawmakers to expand Medicaid coverage this session...
gaveling in a new session last week, Democrats who hold a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the California Legislature drew a line at the state’s border in defiance of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies. The...
Monthly premiums in Alaska’s individual insurance market averaged $863 this year, compared to just $396 nationally. And those premiums increased roughly 31 percent this year and 26 percent in 2015, compared to 10 percent and 2 percent, respectively...
Nevada became the first state to authorize the operation of autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles in 2011. In the years since then, seven other states - California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah - and the District of Columbia...
As part one of our legislative preview indicated , a great deal of uncertainty surrounds next year’s legislative sessions, but as a result of President-elect Donald Trump’s surprising victory and with Republicans in control of both legislative...
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, struck down a GOP-backed legislative redistricting plan in Alabama that critics say packed black voters into districts in a way that reduced their voting power. Last week the now shorthanded court took...
Chicago has the largest unfunded pension liability of any city in the nation - more than seven times its annual operating revenues - according to a new report from Moody’s. But four of the other cities on the financial analysis firm’s list...
CO Ballot Measure Raises Bar for Future Initiatives Last month COLORADO voters approved Amendment 71 , raising the bar for passage of constitutional amendments from a simple majority to a vote of at least 55 percent, and requiring signatures from 2...