Faced with worsening drought conditions, OREGON Gov. Kate Brown (D) directed all state agencies to review their water usage, implement conservation plans and report their progress to the state Water Resources Department. Brown has declared a drought state of emergency in 20 of the Beaver State’s 36 counties (STATESMAN JOURNAL [SALEM]).
ARIZONA Gov. Doug Ducey (R) called for a “full scale investigation” into the causes of a riot that raged for days at a private prison facility near Kingman last week. It took almost 100 members of the Arizona Department of Corrections' special tactical-support unit to restore order at the facility (ARIZONA REPUBLIC [PHOENIX]).
Undertaking mergers and acquisitions demands confidence, especially in the arena of high risk-high reward emerging markets. Yet according to a poll of 1,300 professionals across industries ranging from financial services to technology and manufacturing, nearly 90 percent fail to conduct due diligence for compliance risks such as corruption, money laundering and fraud. Is it any wonder that only 10.4 percent express confidence in their management of M&A risks?
The survey, conducted by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, highlights a major stumbling block in M&A strategies—not looking deep enough into potential M&A targets. In a press release about the poll results, Bill Pollard, a partner in the forensic investigations practice of Deloitte said, “When deal timelines are compressed, the M&A market is strong and confidentiality agreements loom, it may be tempting to take shortcuts in certain diligence areas such as fraud, FCPA and other integrity risks.” Short cuts, however, may be the quickest route to trouble. You don’t have to look far for proof. Lately, enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have been hitting the headlines with alarming frequency.
You can’t always put the brakes on accelerated timelines for M&A activity—as the saying goes, you have to strike while the iron is hot. But failing to adequately vet the merger or acquisition target company—and its third-party relationships certainly isn’t a fast track to success. Instead, companies need to leverage tools that support an efficient, but thorough, due-diligence process. Here’s why:
M&A opportunities abound in today’s emerging markets and elsewhere, but with those opportunities come greater risk. Rather than relying on a superficial due-diligence strategy, you need to develop a due-diligence and monitoring program that looks beyond financial information so you can accomplish your next acquisition with confidence.
The OREGON House approves HB 2300, which would allow doctors to prescribe experimental medications not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to terminally ill patients with less than six months to live. It is now with Gov. Kate Brown (D) for consideration (OREGON PUBLIC RADIO). Also in OREGON, the Legislature gives final approval to SB 900, which would give consumers a better understanding of the cost of care by directing the state to set up a user-friendly website that displays median prices for the most common inpatient and outpatient hospital procedures, as paid by commercial insurers. It moves to Gov. Brown (KTVZ.COM [BEND]).
NORTH CAROLINA Gov. Pat McCrory (D) signs HB 652, more right-to-try legislation that would allow patients to access experimental medications. The Tar Heel State becomes the 22nd to approve such legislation since 2014 (see “More states ponder bills to let terminally ill try experimental meds” in the March 20, 2015 SNCJ) (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs AB 258, which bars hospitals from denying organ transplants based solely on a patient’s being a medical marijuana user (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
DELAWARE Gov. Jack Markell (D) signs HB 5, which extends the First State’s indoor smoking ban to include electronic cigarettes. The measure takes effect in October (NEWSWORKS.ORG). Also in DELAWARE, Gov. Markell signs HB 69, which requires health insurers to cover telemedicine services (IHEALTHBEAT.ORG).
WISCONSIN Gov. Scott Walker (R) signs SB 139, which allows a physician, physician assistant, or advance practice nurse prescriber to prescribe an epinephrine auto-injector to any entity or organization operating a business activity or event at which allergens capable of causing anaphylaxis may be present (FOX6NOW.COM [GREEN BAY]).
KANSAS Gov. Sam Brownback (R) issues Executive Order 05-15, which bars the Sunflower State from taking any punitive actions against clergy or religious organizations that refuse to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
NEW HAMPSHIRE Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) vetoes SB 116, which would have done away with a Granite State law requiring anyone wishing to carry a concealed weapon to first obtain a permit (NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER).
-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
Not so long ago California was considered by many to be a place so dysfunctional it was downright ungovernable. Nobody is thinking that nowadays, but a quick glance at the dozens of ballot measures pending approval for the November 2016 election shows that the Golden State still is second to none in the goony bird department. As Capitol Weekly in Sacramento reports, possible ballot measures include those that would do away with alimony and a half dozen that would in one way or another make California an autonomous nation. Among the six proposals: one that would bar the DMV from making anyone wait longer than a half hour and another that would change the title of California’s chief executive from Governor” to “President.” And no, despite his many failed attempts to work his way east, California Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t the person behind that last one.
The WASHINGTON House and Senate each approve HB 2136, which among several things directs the state to share marijuana sales revenue with local governments that allow sales in their jurisdictions, and allows them to adopt more flexible zoning for where pot is grown and where stores selling it can be located. The bill, which also allows counties and cities to reduce the buffer zone around businesses from the current 1,000 feet to as little as 100 feet for recreation and child-care centers, public parks or transit centers, libraries and arcades, moves to Gov. Jay Inslee (D) for consideration (SEATTLE TIMES).
The DELAWARE House approves SB 68, which prohibits companies from using web sites or cell phone apps aimed at children for marketing age-restricted products and services such as alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and body-piercing. It also prohibits using a child’s personal information to market those products and services to that child. The measure moves to Gov. Jack Markell (D) who is expected to sign it into law (DELAWARE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE). Also in DELAWARE, the House gives final approval to HB 109, which bars employers from requiring job applicants or employees to grant them access to their personal social media accounts or forcing employees or applicants to “friend” them. It moves to Gov. Markell (DELAWARE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
The PENNSYLVANIA House gives final approval to HB 466, a bill that will allow liquor sales at grocery and other retail stores and phase out state-run liquor outlets in the Keystone State. It is now with Gov. Tom Wolfe (D) for consideration (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signs HB 4052, a bill that bars Wolverine State municipalities from requiring businesses to pay wages, benefits or provide sick days exceeding state or federal requirements (DETROIT NEWS).
The always-fractured relationship between Maine lawmakers and the state’s often-pugnacious governor has taken another nasty turn as a handful of House members said they will seek to launch impeachment proceedings against Gov. Paul LePage (R). At issue is their belief that LePage pressured a private organization into rescinding an employment offer to House Speaker Mark Eves, a Democrat.
“I’m asking my fellow legislators to study abuse of authority, conduct unbecoming and possible misuse of public assets,” Jeffrey Evangelos, who is leading the effort, told the Bangor Daily News. “I believe that Gov. LePage has violated his authority by intimidating a private entity with the end objective of violating speaker Eves’ civil rights, his ability to seek outside employment and provide for his family.”
The confrontation is just another in a long string of battles LePage has had with the Pine Tree State Legislature. Most of those brawls have been with Democrats, but in recent months LePage has also sparred regularly with his fellow Republicans, most often over lawmakers’ unwillingness to go along with the governor’s wish to do away with the state income tax. He has vowed to veto all Democrat-authored bills until lawmakers acquiesce. But his veto pen has also nixed several bills authored by his fellow Republicans, which has resulted in lawmakers working together in bipartisan fashion to override almost all of those rejections. The veto-override process continued on Monday, when LePage vetoed the lawmakers’ $6.7 billion budget proposal. Lawmakers overrode that veto the next day.
But the big story was LePage’s alleged interference in the job offer Eves received from the non-profit Good-Will Hinckley School, a charter aimed at helping troubled youth. The school was set to make Eves its next president, but LePage – calling Eves unfit for the position – threatened to pull $500,000 in state funding if they did not pull back the offer. Fearing that would also threaten other private matching funds, the school yielded to LePage’s demand. Eves accused LePage of blackmailing the school and said he is considering legal action against the governor. He said he will have no role in impeachment proceedings.
Whether the House will follow through with impeachment is unclear. Any actual impeachment proceedings will take place in the GOP-controlled Senate, with a two-thirds vote needed to remove the governor from office. While LePage has angered and frustrated a growing number of Republican lawmakers of late, getting a majority to support impeachment is likely to be a prohibitively heavy lift. But while LePage is not likely to be removed, his damaged relationship with lawmakers could doom the rest of his agenda, with more than three years left in office.
At least one Democratic lawmaker said the situation is having a negative impact on Maine outside of the state’ borders.
We’re the laughingstock of the country,” Rep. Pinney Beebe-Center told the Bangor Daily News. “This is lower than low.”
But LePage has no plans to just sit back and wait for lawmakers to act. In a letter sent last Wednesday to the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA), his legal counsel said the agency doesn’t have the legal authority to investigate the governor. But in an interview with the Portland Press Herald, Dmitry Bam, an associate professor teaching constitutional law at the University of Maine Law, disagreed, saying that “with the power of impeachment comes the implied power to conduct an investigation to find the facts for that impeachment.” Whether OPEGA is the arm lawmakers can use is yet to be determined. (NEW YORK TIMES, BANGOR DAILY NEWS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, PORTLAND PRESS HERALD)
One of the many talking points about the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide has been the speed at which that decision has come. As Bloomberg noted, in a little over a decade gay couples have gone from not being able to wed in any state to being able to do so in all 50, while it took nearly two centuries for interracial couples to make that same journey, from the time the first states allowed interracial marriages in 1787 until the high court’s 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia.
Even county clerks in some of the 14 states that still had laws banning gay marriage before last month’s ruling began issuing marriage licenses.
“Based upon careful examination of the Supreme Court’s opinion, my counsel and I concluded that the order is definitive, so it should be implemented without delay,” said Jon Gegenheimer, clerk for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, which neighbors New Orleans.
But the change was too fast for some. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) called the Supreme Court’s ruling a “lawless decision” and pledged to support county officials in his state who refused to marry same-sex couples due to personal religious objections.
“Numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs, in many cases on a pro-bono basis,” he said in a statement, adding that he would do everything he could “to be a public voice for those standing in defense of their rights.”
Thomas Enright Jr., executive counsel to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), provided similar guidance to officials in that state.
“Appropriate accommodations may be made for state employees who express a religious objection to involvement in issuance of same-sex marriage licenses, and judges and justices of the peace may not be forced to officiate a same-sex wedding ceremony when other authorized individuals who have no religious objection are available,” he stated in a memo.
But Daniel Pinello, a professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and an expert on same-sex marriage rights, said it’s unlikely clerks will be legally allowed to opt out of providing same-sex marriage services.
“I’m aware of no general legal doctrine or precedent holding that county or other public officials are exempt from abiding by rights articulated by the Supreme Court in the event the religious beliefs of those public employees are in conflict with the federal right,” he said.
Joe Godfrey, executive director of the conservative Alabama Citizens Action Program, however, argued that support of gay marriage can’t be a prerequisite for elective office.
“If we come to the point where you can’t run for public office [because] you have to do something that goes against your convictions, what that’s saying is that Christians no longer have a right to serve in public office, and I think that’s wrong,” he said. (BLOOMBERG, WASHINGTON POST, TEXAS TRIBUNE)
By now, most folks have heard of the goofball who introduced a proposed ballot measure in California that called for the killing of homosexuals. Attorney General Kamala Harris thankfully managed to get the courts to squish that one outright, but she’s not the only one who called its author on the carpet. As Capitol Weekly also reports, one of the 36 ballot proposals awaiting approval is dubbed the “Intolerant [Donkey] Act,” which would require anyone proposing something like the so-called “Sodomite Suppression Act” to attend sensitivity training for three hours each month for a year and donate $5,000 to a pro-gay or pro-lesbian organization. Another proposal clearly aimed at mocking the SSA’s homophobic author, the Shellfish Suppression Act, would ban the selling or eating of shellfish, with violators facing a fine of $666 per occurrence, or jail time of six years, six months and six days. Nice.
In an interview with The New York Times last month, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said the U.S. commonwealth wasn’t able to pay its roughly $72 billion in debt.
“The debt is not payable,” he said. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.”
Padilla said the island would probably seek major concessions from its creditors, including deferral of some debt payments by up to five years, setting up a major test for the municipal bond market, which U.S. cities and states rely on to fund such basic necessities as road and school construction.
The market has already been roiled by municipal bankruptcies in Detroit; Stockton and Vallejo, California; and elsewhere. The value of Puerto Rico’s bonds at maturity is roughly eight times higher than the value of Detroit’s bonds, and debt restructuring on that scale could make municipal bond investors more difficult and costly for state and local governments to attract. Much of Puerto Rico’s debt is also widely held by individual U.S. investors in mutual funds and other investment accounts. And as a commonwealth, Puerto Rico is not able to file for bankruptcy, so there’s no Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection for those investors, meaning that a default would likely create a financial mess that could take years to sort out. (NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST)
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes since 1996, when California became the first to do so with Proposition 215. Four states and the District of Columbia have gone further, legalizing recreational use of the drug.
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures
Legend:
Legalized medical marijuana use: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont
Legalized recreational and medical marijuana use: Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, DC
There is an old jest that says the fastest way for a business to run off its customers is to adhere to the motto: In God we trust; all others must pay cash. But for the legal marijuana industry, cash and carry is almost always the only option, and it really is no laughing matter.
Since 1996, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Since 2012, four of those states and DC have gone a step further by allowing adults to use small amounts of pot strictly for recreation. These have been profitable ventures. Overall, according to a report by The ArcView Group, a cannabis industry research and investment firm in San Francisco, the marijuana industry took in over $2.7 billion in 2014. That’s a 74 percent jump from 2013, and the numbers are poised to only get bigger this year.
In most businesses, such profitability would be very good news. But proprietors in the cannabis industry face a unique problem: banks don’t want their business. Dealing in marijuana remains a federal crime. Fearful of running afoul of federal drug and racketeering laws, banks have generally opted to reject setting up accounts with pot sellers, forcing those businesses to operate on a strictly cash basis. A growing number of state officials say this reluctance by banks has posed a range of problems, from increasing the potential for crimes against cash-flush pot operators and customers to cannabis operations being forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars every month on security.
With no money trail to follow, officials say, there is no way to monitor sellers for illegal activity or to ensure that pot companies are reporting the full amount of income they make and thus paying up the required taxes generated by those sales. And while nobody knows for certain if anyone in the legal pot trade has actually shorted state or local coffers on taxes, it is known that without access to a checking account, legal sellers who pay their taxes from marijuana profits are forced to do so in cash. Anecdotes abound of pot entrepreneurs showing up at local tax agencies bearing boxes or bags stuffed with huge amounts of cash in small bills.
There is good reason for banks to be wary of handling marijuana assets. The federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, the same as heroin, cocaine and other highly addictive narcotics. That makes it a federal crime to possess or sell pot, and it also makes it illegal for banks to knowingly do business with someone who sells pots for a living, even in a state where medical or recreational weed is legal. That prohibition could even chain out to include security companies that provide legal weed outlets with security or transportation services.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sought to mitigate the problem. The agency’s financial enforcement arm, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network or FinCEN, issued guidelines in 2014 that gave banks a pathway for dealing with marijuana businesses. Those include a requirement that such businesses take responsibility for making sure their marijuana clients are obeying the laws of their state and notify federal authorities of suspicious transactions. Other actions have since followed, including a Department of Justice directive to U.S. Attorneys ordering them not to prosecute banks that deal with pot sellers as long as the banks adhere to federal guidelines. Congress also prohibited the DOJ from spending money to go after medical marijuana dispensaries that are obeying their own state’s rules.
But most banks remain unconvinced. Beth Mills, Vice President for Communications and Marketing for the California Bankers Association, says that is because the Department of Justice has also made it clear they would prosecute banks that do not strictly adhere to the guidelines.
“They’re saying, ‘go ahead and do it, but if you make a mistake we’ll pull your charter,’” she says. “It just makes banks extremely leery of doing business with those companies.”
Even so, some banks are making the effort, though how many is unclear. FinCEN says less than 200 banking institutions across the nation – mostly small banks and credit unions – have agreed to work with marijuana retailers. The identity of these banks and credit unions has been a closely guarded secret. Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, says most banks do not want to broadcast their connection for fear of being inundated with pot sellers desperate for banking services.
“Banks that are handling these accounts are doing so very quietly,” she says.
Many likely are aware of the experience of MBank, a small community bank in Gresham, Oregon that sought to offer its services to the legal pot industry. President and CEO Jef Baker said the bank had about 75 marijuana clients, mostly in Oregon but a handful in Washington as well. The bank had also made inroads into Colorado, but complying with the federal requirements to closely monitor all aspects of its customers’ operations proved to be too much and it announced in April it was closing out those accounts and getting out of servicing the industry.
“When we started out, we had a concept of how it would be,” he says. “But the expectations and demands on our resources became too intense. We just did not have the resources to maintain that much oversight on those customers.”
Because financial institutions are largely regulated by the federal government, states are limited in what they can do to ease this situation. Colorado took action last year when Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed legislation to allow the creation of a state-chartered credit union geared specifically to handle the legal pot industry. But federal law requires all banks and credit unions to also have a master account with the U.S. Federal Reserve in order to be allowed to process checks and credit cards. Fourth Corner applied for such an account last December. Most applications from a state-chartered bank take only a week to process; Fourth Corner has been waiting for over six months, with no thumbs up or down decision even on the horizon.
MBank’s Baker is skeptical of Fourth Corner’s chances for approval, saying the credit union’s focus on a singular industry may well discourage the Fed’s endorsement.
Regardless of what happens with Fourth Corner, the situation has definitely got lawmakers’ attention. Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler (D) sent a letter last month to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew asking the federal government to give banks full assurance they can do business with legal marijuana dealers without facing prosecution and loss of their charters. Wheeler cited potential safety threats to legal dealers and the challenge of keeping tabs on illegal operations without being able to monitor fiscal transactions.
He is not alone. Multiple bills have been introduced in Congress, including HR 2076 by Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D). The so-called “Business Access to Banking Act” would grant banks “safe harbor” and other civil protections for dealing with weed-based businesses. Perlmutter noted that approximately 213 million people currently live in the states and DC where medical or recreational marijuana is legal, adding that “it is coming to a state near you soon.”
He could well be right. Pro marijuana groups are working to get legalization measures on the ballot in at least five more states in 2016: Nevada, California, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine. Of those, California is the obvious big prize. The Golden State is in fact already home base to about three quarters of the nation’s approximately 2,000 legal medical marijuana dispensaries and many observers believe California allowing recreational sales as well could be the tipping point for prompting Congress to move legal pot into the financial mainstream.
“Having California legalize recreational marijuana will absolutely put pressure on Congress to change the law,” says the National Cannabis Industry Association’s West. “The more members of Congress with constituents impacted by this the more likely they will act.”
Not that it is a given. West notes that Congress has a well-chronicled propensity for failing to reach consensus.
“The biggest hurdle in D.C. has for years been Congressional dysfunction,” she says.
MBank’s Baker agrees that California’s sheer size could have a lot of influence on what Congress does. But he believes every state should be on board as well.
“Federal drug laws are not really the problem here,” he says. “The real challenge is that banks are being asked to serve as a kind of front-line law enforcement operation monitoring the legal marijuana industry because banks are the only resource to monitor the business financially. So it would be my hope that every state would increase pressure to help banks get into the system because they are truly needed.”
- By RICH EHISEN
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of allowing OKLAHOMA to continue using a controversial lethal injection process for executing condemned inmates. The High Court rejected a plea from three death row inmates to end use of the drug midazolam, which is intended to render the prisoner unconscious before the injection of other extremely painful agents that cause death. The drug failed to work as intended in at least three executions in 2014 (NEW YORK TIMES).
HAWAII Gov. David Ige (D) announces he will veto SB 569, a bill that would raise the monetary value of retail goods that suspected thieves can steal before they are charged with a felony from $300 to $750. Ige said raising the threshold would “eliminate the deterrent effect within retail markets” (PACIFIC BUSINESS NEWS).
Perhaps seeking to avoid the raucous protests and rowdy crowds that dogged vaccination bill SB 277 throughout the legislative process, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the controversial measure that makes California the third state in the nation to do away with all but medical exemption for parents who want to avoid vaccinating their kids. Hordes of red-clad protestors had swamped the Capitol for every hearing and vote in both the Senate and Assembly, and the bill’s primary author, Sen. Richard Pan (D), received death threats that required him to receive extra security. Others were also targeted, with the California Medical Association complaining that opponents of the measure were harassing lobbyists who advocated for the bill. When asked if Brown signed the bill the first day it reached his desk because he truly believes in its objective or to avoid having hundreds of protestors clogging Capitol hallways for the next 12 days, one long-time Brown colleague said, “both.” (SACRAMENTO BEE, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Arizona voters acted legally when they amended the state’s Constitution in 2000 to transfer the power to draw the state’s congressional districts from lawmakers to an independent redistricting commission. While the majority acknowledged that the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause granted the legislature of each state the right to decide the “time, place, and manner” of congressional elections, including how districts are drawn, it also maintained that the power to make laws resides in the people and not just in their elected representatives.
“The people of Arizona turned to the initiative to curb the practice of gerrymandering and, thereby, to ensure that members of Congress would have an habitual recollection of their dependence on the people,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority. “In so acting, Arizona voters sought to restore the core principles of republican government, namely that the voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.... The Elections Clause does not hinder that endeavor.”
Advocates for nonpartisan redistricting commissions are hopeful that the court’s ruling in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission will spur other states in addition to the 13 that already use such commissions to create them.
But while GOP strategist Sean Noble conceded that the Arizona ruling was significant, he said dislodging Republicans’ House majority and domination of congressional redistricting would be difficult.
“It's a sweeping decision that lays the groundwork, but the work still has to be done” by the supporters of independent commissions, he said. “And whether they have the time, money or will has yet to be determined.” (ARIZONA DAILY STAR [TUCSON], ASSOCIATED PRESS, WASHINGTON POST, WHBQ FOX 13)
Last year, a state audit of accounting records at the California state Controller’s Office uncovered 200,000 hours -- $6 million worth -- of questionable sick leave, vacation, holiday and furlough credits due to data entry errors.
“We found circumstances where instead of eight hours, it was 80 and in one case, 800,” said California State Auditor Elaine Howle.
In 2012 Pennsylvania’s secretary of environmental protection told Congress that hydraulic fracturing hadn’t impacted water quality at any of the state’s tens of thousands of wells. Two years later the same department reported 248 incidents of well-water damage due to gas development, and an audit revealed that the state’s tracking system for water quality complaints was unable to provide “reliable information to effectively manage the program.”
Ohio State Auditor Dave Yost said poor quality government data, like that discovered by the audits in California and Pennsylvania, “is probably the most important emerging trend for government executives, across the board, at all levels.”
A Governing magazine telephone survey of public officials who analyze data seems to support that view. Nearly 70 percent of the respondents to that survey of 75 officials in 46 states said they encountered data problems “frequently” or “often.” And not one of them said they encountered such problems “rarely.” (GOVERNING)
The DELAWARE House approves SB 79, which among several thing bars education technology service providers from selling student data or using that data to market to students or their families. The measure also bars them from building profiles on students for non-educational purposes or disclosing student data except under certain conditions permitted by the bill. It moves to Gov. Jack Markell (D) who is expected to sign it into law (DELAWARE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE).
The COLORADO Supreme Court rules that a school voucher program in Denver violates the state’s constitution because it provides funding for students to attend religious schools. The program’s supporters are expected to appeal the ruling in the federal court system (REUTERS).
The NEW JERSEY Senate approves AB 4587, which would allow students who suffer from debilitating illnesses to use medical marijuana. The measure, which would authorize parents, guardians, or primary caregivers to administer the medical marijuana on school grounds or busses in a location the school designates, moves to Gov. Chris Christie (R) for consideration (STAR-LEDGER [NEWARK]).
Reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage across the nation had the predictable outcome of public joy and outrage. In the former column, many people on social media chose to show their support by overlaying their profile photos with rainbow colors. Surprisingly enough, among them was former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. We say surprisingly because this is the same “Governator” who twice vetoed measures to legalize such unions in the Golden State. While his support might seem out of sync with past performance, his response to one follower who voiced his displeasure over it was not. As the Contra Costa Times reports, Arnold responded with his signature phrase, “Hasta la vista.” He left off the “baby” but we forgive him.
The MAINE Legislature overrode Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) veto of the state’s next two-year budget. The $6.7 billion spending plan includes modest income and property tax cuts for many residents (PORTLAND PRESS HERALD, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
CONNECTICUT Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D) signed a package of bills enacting a two-year, $40 billion state budget and rescinding $178 million of the roughly $1.5 billion in tax increases approved by the General Assembly on June 3 (HARTFORD COURANT, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET). * OHIO Gov. John Kasich (R) signed a $130.3 billion, two-year state budget last week but only after using his line-item veto to eliminate 44 provisions, including one that would have required the state Lottery Commission to add electronic games at bars and restaurants (CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER).
PENNSYLVANIA Gov. Tom Wolf (D) vetoed the $30.1 billion budget passed by that state’s Republican-controlled Legislature. Wolf said the spending plan didn’t adequately fund education or provide property-tax relief and would worsen the state’s finances (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a $115.4 billion budget that provides more money for schools and establishes an earned-income tax credit for working-poor families, among other things (FRESNO BEE).
A day after approving funding for elementary and secondary education, ILLINOIS Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) vetoed the remainder of the state’s operations budget, saying it was as much as $4 billion out of balance (STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER [SPRINGFIELD], LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
NEW HAMPSHIRE Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) vetoed the $11.35 billion budget approved by the state’s GOP-led General Court, saying it was unbalanced and gave tax handouts to big corporations (UNION LEADER [MANCHESTER]).
-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Air Act by failing to undertake a cost-benefit analysis in deciding whether to set limits on emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants. The rules remain in place but must be rewritten to take into account the cost of meeting those regulations (NEW YORK TIMES).
The NEW YORK Department of Environmental Conservation finalizes rules that make permanent a ban on the oil and gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The Empire State first imposed a moratorium on fracking seven years ago (NEW YORK TIMES).
Reacting to the death of a NEW JERSEY woman stabbed to death by an ex-boyfriend, Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced a new state regulation to require applications for gun permits for victims of domestic violence, other violent crimes or “those living under a direct or material threat” to be processed within 14 days, down from the current standard of 30 days (STAR-LEDGER [NEWARK]).
OREGON Gov. Kate Brown (D) backed away from a proposal to do away with the state’s low-carbon fuel standard in favor of a $343 million package of transportation improvements funded by a gas-tax increase, higher vehicle fees and an increased transit tax. Brown said there was not time to negotiate a sufficient deal with lawmakers before the session ends (WILLAMETTE WEEK).
MARYLAND Gov. Larry Hogan (R) completed his first round of chemotherapy last week. He was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkins lymphoma (BALTIMORE SUN).
- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
Six MAINE House members said last month they are exploring disciplinary action against Gov. Paul LePage (R) -- including impeachment - for allegedly forcing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job as president of a private nonprofit by withholding $530,000 in annual funding for that organization’s charter school, the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences (See Governors in this issue). The six lawmakers are: Independent Reps. Jeffrey Evangelos and Ben Chipman, and Democratic Reps. Pinny Beebe-Center, Lydia Blume, Roberta Beavers and Charlotte Warren (PORTLAND PRESS HERALD, BANGOR DAILY NEWS).
Fresh off its momentous 2015 term, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge next year to the mandatory union representation fees paid by nearly all CALIFORNIA teachers. Harvard Law School professor Benjamin Sachs said the case is “very significant” and “may well be life or death for the unions” (LOS ANGELES TIMES).
The CALIFORNIA Assembly Business and Professions Committee rejects SB 323, a bill that would have allowed nurse practitioners to treat patients without the supervision of a doctor (SACRAMENTO BEE). Also in CALIFORNIA, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs SB 277, a bill that eliminates the personal beliefs and religious exemptions for parents who don’t want to vaccinate their kids as a condition of entering them in a public school. The Golden State becomes the third, after WEST VIRGINIA and MISSISSIPPI, to allow only doctor-verified medical vaccination exemptions (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).
The OREGON Senate approves SB 895, which requires Beaver State schools to publish their immunization rates and to break those rates down by disease. It moves to the House (REGISTER-GUARD [EUGENE]).
HAWAII Gov. David Ige (D) signs two anti-smoking bills: SB 1030, which raises the Aloha State legal smoking age to 21, and HB 525, which bars tobacco products from being used at state parks and beaches (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER)
Politicians will apparently just never learn that social media is a double-edged sword. The latest such fiasco for an elected comes courtesy of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who thought it would be a great idea to host a Twitter Q&A with the hashtag #AskBobby. But because this is the Internet, folks from across the globe used the opportunity to relentlessly mock Jindal with questions like “How will you respond when your Republican primary opponents point out that you’re less popular in Louisiana than Obama?” and “When people rode dinosaurs, did women do it side-saddle?” It didn’t get better for him from there. My question: will he fire whoever suggested this idea to him?