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MA Lawmakers to Weigh Four-Day Work Week The Massachusetts House Labor and Workforce Development Committee scheduled a hearing last week on legislation ( HB 3849 ) that would provide tax credits to businesses...
Bills to Overhaul Long-Term Care and Control Prescription Drug Costs on Move in MA The Massachusetts House unanimously passed a bill ( HB 4178 ) that would overhaul the long-term care industry, while...
OpenAI Ousts CEO Sam Altman The board of directors of OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, announced on the company’s blog last week that its CEO Sam Altman would be stepping down. The blog post said...
For more than half a year, labor strife has swept the country. First, Hollywood writers went on strike in May. Then actors joined them in walking off the set a couple months later, in July. Detroit...
IL Lawmakers Approve Bill Lifting Moratorium on Nuclear Power Plants: The Illinois General Assembly passed legislation ( HB 2437 ) that, as amended, will lift a nearly four-decades-old moratorium on new...
The massive $300 million budget approved by California lawmakers last week has generally been acknowledged as a placeholder that technically meets the June 15th constitutional deadline for getting a spending plan in place, thus allowing pols to keep getting paid while they work toward an agreement by the July 15th hard deadline. But while that means a lot of haggling is still to be done on many fronts, it seems assured that roughly 600,000 Golden State health care workers will divvy up around $933 million as a bonus for their work during the pandemic.
Details are pending, but state health officials said the incentive pay would be exempted from taxes. Bonuses are expected to be $1,000 for full-time workers and $750 for part-time workers. (SACRAMENTO BEE, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS)
In the wake of a mass shooting at an Uvalde elementary school that left 19 students and two teachers dead, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) proposed redirecting more than $100 million in state funding to mental health and school safety programs before school starts again in the fall. Lawmakers are out of session until January, so shifting the dollars will require undertaking a special process called budget execution. (TEXAS TRIBUNE, DALLAS MORNING NEWS)
Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) signed legislation (HB 2405) that requires Aloha State health insurers to cover gender-affirming care. The law also applies to mutual benefit societies and health maintenance organizations. (HAWAII NEWS NOW)
--Compiled by RICH EHISEN