With more and more baby boomers reaching retirement age and many of them wishing to remain in their homes as they age, pressure is being placed on states to provide more home-based health care. “The trend is shifting at every level to care...
Speaking of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, with his time in office short and most people clearly ready to see him go he made it clear last week he is all out of [expletives] to give about currying favor with voters. As numerous media outlets reported...
We all know someone – okay, lots of someones – who has bent our ear of late about what they see as truly terrible choices for the presidency of the United States this election year. If this is you, there is now hope. Let us present Duke, the...
The NEW YORK Assembly approves AB 7260, which would require state veterans affairs officials to develop plans for assisting veterans of military sexual trauma. The measure moves to the Senate (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET). -- Compiled by RICH EHISEN
Culminating a broad effort to prevent several major policy issues being decided by voters at the ballot box, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed off on a so-called “grand bargain” that will gradually raise the Bay State minimum wage...
A slight majority of states are better prepared for a recession than they were when the last one hit. Over the past seven years, the median state rainy day fund balance has risen from 1.9 percent of fund expenditures to 5.8 percent, topping the pre-recession...
IL GOVERNOR VETOES BILL FOR CAR SHARING ILLINOIS Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) vetoes a bill that would have required peer-to-peer car sharing companies to generally follow the same rules and pay the same taxes as traditional car rental companies. The veto...
Responding to the Federal Communications Commission decision to overturn net neutrality rules, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) issued an executive order on Jan 22 barring any internet service provider with a government contract from blocking or charging...
New Jersey Department of Health Finalize Rules The NEW JERSEY Department of Health finalizes rules that allow pharmacies without a medical director to apply for a standing prescription to dispense the anti-overdose drug naloxone. The state began allowing...
Last week, facing strong public opposition to the penny-an-ounce tax on soda and other sweetened beverages imposed in Chicago a little over two months ago, the Cook County Board voted 15-2 to repeal it, effective Dec. 1. The vote marked another...
If you live in Wisconsin and you’ve always thought your grandma’s cookies were so good she ought to sell them, take heart. As Wisconsin Public Radio reports , it’s now perfectly fine for home bakers to sell their scrumptious goodies...
Special legislative elections will be held in 10 states this month. Several of them were necessitated by sexual misconduct scandals. Two special elections are being held in Minnesota on Feb. 12, for example, to choose replacements for a pair of...
Oregon Approves SB 558 The OREGON Senate approves SB 558 , which would extend health care coverage under the state’s Medicaid program to an estimated 15,000 children in the state who otherwise would be prohibited from signing up because they...
In a direct challenge to the immigration policies of President Donald Trump, California’s Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bill ( SB 54 ) along party lines last week that would “prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies, including...
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has unveiled his latest alternative proposal to expanding Medicaid as called for under the federal Affordable Care Act. The proposal he announced last Thursday would use federal money intended to pay for expansion of the joint...
Environment In WY A federal court halts the implementation of U.S. Bureau of Land Management rules governing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, by the oil and gas industry on public and tribal lands. U.S. District Court of WYOMING Judge Scott W. Skavdahl...
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) unveiled a proposal last Wednesday seeking to renegotiate the Bay State’s soon-to-expire Medicaid waiver with the federal government. The proposal, which seeks to extend the current waiver for five years, beginning...
With a sharp drop in oil prices and declining production having blown a $3-billion hole in his state’s budget, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I) has proposed a plan to convert the state’s Permanent Fund into a “sovereign wealth fund”...
If being sworn into office is fun, why not do it twice? That’s what new Massachusetts state Sen. Michael Brady did a few weeks ago. As Statehouse News reports, Brady believed he was to be sworn in at 1:00pm on the 10 th . Alas, Gov. Charlie Baker...
We’re still in election silly season, which means we are elbows deep in candidates spewing the kind of stuff that usually exits the southbound end of a northbound bull. In that regard the venerable New York Times recently investigated a claim from...
On June 12 U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) and several cosponsors, including U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chair Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Virginia), introduced the “No Regulation Without Representation Act of 2017” ( HR 2887 ), mandating...
Last August British Columbia began imposing a 15 percent tax on the sale of homes in Vancouver to foreign buyers. Starting this year, owners of vacant homes in that city will also have to pay a tax in the amount of 1 percent of their homes’ value...
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen from accounts in the Iowa Public Employee’s Retirement System (IPERS) last month, according to a statement from the state’s largest public employee pension fund, which provides pensions to 115,000...
NY GOVERNOR SIGNS AB 6571 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs AB 6571 , an energy bill that requires the state Public Service Commission to establish a portfolio of energy storage policies, including a long-term energy storage target. The Empire State...
I still marvel that some people shoot off their mouths on social media when they know they are in no way smart enough or tough enough to handle the Internet mob. Case in point from Election Night comes from uber right wing commentator/gasbag Ann Coulter...