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States Target School Cell Phone Use At least four states have banned or severely restricted the use of smart phones in schools in the current legislative biennium. Florida became the first state to do...
Compounded Weight-Loss Drugs Creating Headaches for State Regulators With popular weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy in short supply, many doctors, pharmacies and other providers have...
In their seminal book on the American health care system, legendary investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele offered a disturbing metaphor for the illogical nature of medical pricing...
PA Lawmakers Pass Bill Regulating PBMs The Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill ( HB 1993 ) aimed at increasing oversight of pharmacy benefit managers. If signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), the measure...
In a sign of the times, states have begun pursuing bills that require disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence. In March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed SB 149 , making the state the first...
Maine’s House narrowly approved a bill (LD 1977) that would impose restrictions on the digital information that companies can collect. Businesses would only be allowed to collect “personal data” that is “reasonably necessary and proportionate to provide or maintain a specific product or service requested by the consumer” and only be permitted to collect “sensitive data” that is “strictly necessary to provide or maintain a specific product or service requested by the consumer.” (PORTLAND PRESS HERALD)
The Arkansas Senate City, County and Local Affairs Committee approved two bills that would amend the Arkansas Data Centers Act (Act 851) passed last year, which restricted local governments’ ability to regulate “digital asset mining businesses.” SB 78 would impose noise limits on such businesses and prohibit foreign parties from owning them. SB 79 would require such businesses to be licensed by the state’s Department of Energy and Environment. (ARKANSAS ADVOCATE, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
Minnesota’s House passed a bill (HF 4077) that would institute consumer protections for users of social media. The bill would require social media platforms to allow users to determine what content they want to see. It would also require platforms to set strict default privacy settings and allow users to opt into “heightened” protections blocking features designed to keep them online, such as auto-play videos and infinite scroll, which platforms would have to automatically enable for minors. Platforms would also have to limit new account interactions to reduce so-called “burner” accounts, prevent user-generated content from being “scraped” for training artificial intelligence without user consent, and disclose information about how the platforms’ algorithms operate. (CENTER SQUARE)
The California Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee voted unanimously to advance AB 3080, which would require pornographic websites “to take reasonable steps to ensure” their content is only accessed by adults. Similar legislation has been passed by several red states, including Texas. (SACRAMENTO BEE)
The California News Publishers Association and the News/Media Alliance, two leading journalism trade groups, sent a letter last week urging California AG Rob Bonta (D) and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Google for possible violation of antitrust and unfair competition laws with its decision to remove California news from some users’ search results. Google’s decision was prompted by legislation pending in California (AB 886), the California Journalism Preservation Act, which would require online companies like Google to pay usage fees for the news content they link to. The measure was passed by the state’s Assembly last year but has been held up in the Senate. (SACRAMENTO BEE, CNBC, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK
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