Jean-Pierre Mean is an anti-corruption lawyer who played a leading role in the development of ISO 37001, a recent global standard by which companies can measure their anti-bribery and corruption policies. He is now leading the working group which looks...
CO City Council Endorses The DENVER City Council unanimously endorses new rules that, among several things, require so-called “slot homes” – town homes that face sideways, allowing developers to fit more units on the property –...
GA Governor Signs SB 402 GEORGIA Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signs SB 402 , which begins a state process to bring high speed Internet lines to rural areas of the Peach State. The law allows for internet lines in public rights of way along state and limited...
IA Governor Signs SF 359 As expected, IOWA Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signs SF 359 , which would bar abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, often as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. The law’s supporters say their intention is to...
NH House Approves SB 313 The NEW HAMPSHIRE House approves SB 313 , which would expand Medicaid eligibility to cover an additional 50,000 residents. It has returned to the Senate (UNION LEADER [MANCHESTER]). CO House Approves HB 1436 The COLORADO...
CT Senate Approves SB 7 The CONNECTICUT Senate approves SB 7 , a bill that would adopt a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent below 2001 levels by 2030. The measure would also update statutory references to sea level rise to reflect...
CT House and Senate Endorse SB 9 The CONNECTICUT House and Senate endorse SB 9 , a bill that would double the amount of renewable energy that Constitution State utilities will be required to purchase over the next decade, from 20 percent in 2020 to...
Going On In MA The MASSACHUSETTS Supreme Judicial Court rules that professors and staff at Bay State colleges can be sued for failing to act after learning a student was considering suicide. The decision came in a suit over the death of a Massachusetts...
VT Senate Approves HB 196 The VERMONT Senate approves HB 196 , which would grant workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave a year. The bill, which would ensure employees are paid 70 percent of their wages for a maximum of 12 weeks of combined parental leave...
When considering the great problems and injustices facing our world, the lack of availability of a good Mimosa before noon on Sunday is right up there. Or at least it has been for the good people of Georgia, where brunch patrons have just had to make...
California lost another old school GOP stalwart last week, as longtime Assemblymember and Senator Sam Aanestad died at 71 after a lengthy illness. An oral surgeon by trade, much of his time in office was focused on health care issues. This was on prominent...
The California Capitol community lost a classic old school Republican last week, as former Gov. George Deukmejian passed away at age 89. Most rightly recall him as being representative of what Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney called “the...
It’s now the thick of primary season, aka prime endorsement gathering time. Which is kind of like mating season in the animal world, just with even crazier behavior. Case in point this week comes from the California Lieutenant Governor’s race...
NY AG RESIGNS NEW YORK Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) a prominent antagonist of the Trump administration - and a prominent advocate for the #MeToo movement - abruptly resigned last week, hours after news broke that four women had accused him...
Primary elections were held in four states - Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia - on May 8 and, as FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver pointed out , both Democrats and Republicans managed to “mostly avoid self-inflicted damage.”...
BAKER OPEN TO NEW MA DEATH PENALTY In the wake of the murder of a Bay State police officer, MASSACHUSETTS Gov. Charlie Baker (R) says his office is talking with lawmakers and law enforcement officials about crafting a bill to reinstate the death penalty...
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) said he needs to study a bill lawmakers sent him last week that would make the Green Mountain State the first to import prescription drugs from Canada. That measure, SB 175 , would create an importation program for buying widely...
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) vetoed a controversial bill last week that would have given police the power to pursue hackers who probe computer systems but don’t steal any data. Opponents said the bill would also have prohibited so-called “white...
CA ECONOMY NOW WORLD’S 5TH LARGEST CALIFORNIA’s economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth-largest, according to data released this month by the U.S. Department of Commerce. California’s 2017...
State and local tax collections increased by 9.4 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively, in the final quarter of 2017, roughly three times the average quarterly growth rate for the last year, according to a report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government...
Between 2014 and 2017, tax revenues from the sale of marijuana shot up about 400 percent in Washington. In Colorado they surged about 900 percent. But the $314 million and $223 million in marijuana tax revenues, respectively, in the two states that were...
Soaring premiums and declining insurer participation in the health insurance marketplaces states set up in accordance with the Affordable Care Act have been among the most common complaints about the federal healthcare law. To address those issues states...
Since 2016 at least 19 states have introduced and 9 have enacted legislation creating a state reinsurance program and/or authorizing the state to apply for a State Innovation Waiver under Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act to obtain federal funding...
CA Federal Judge Strikes Down A federal judge in CALIFORNIA strikes down a ban on shipping coal through the Port of OAKLAND . U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said the City Council did not have enough evidence that the coal operations would pose...
MI Senate Approves SB 741 The MICHIGAN Senate approves SB 741 , which would bar local governments from banning the ownership of certain dog breeds. The bill, which would nullify all current bans and bar municipalities from imposing new ones, moves...