May 13, 2022

Tech Week: Loosening of Facial Recognition Bans, Cyber Insurance Alternatives for Local Governments & More

Cities, States Easing Off Facial Recognition Bans In the last few years, roughly a couple of dozen state and local governments have imposed bans on the use of facial recognition technology due to concerns about it being racially biased. But with recent research showing improvement in the accuracy of the technology across skin tones and crime on the rise, cities, and states are easing up on their earlier restrictions...

May 13, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Demand Dropping for Traveling Nurses, Decriminalization of Fentanyl Test Strips & More

Tide Turns for Traveling Nurses During the pandemic traveling nurses earned double, even triple what staff nurses did. But with state and federal coronavirus relief now drying up, travel nurse contracts are disappearing, and hospitals across the nation are focusing more on the recruitment of full-time nurses. According to the staffing agency Aya Healthcare, demand for traveling nurses dropped by a third in the month...

May 13, 2022

States Take Multiple Tacks Toward Easing Health Worker Shortage

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare any number of societal vulnerabilities, perhaps none more so than a growing shortage of health care workers some observers say is fast reaching crisis levels. With that shortfall expected to only get worse in the coming years, states are now scrambling to implement a wide range of strategies they hope will get more nurses, doctors and other practitioners into the field as fast as...

April 29, 2022

Tech Week: Twitter Buyout, Cities’ Wait-and-See Approach on Metaverse & More

Twitter Accepts Buyout Offer from Elon Musk Twitter announced last week that its board had accepted the offer from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to buy the company for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion. If the deal receives shareholder and regulatory approval Twitter will become a private company. Musk has repeatedly said that his main interest in buying the company is protecting free speech. But critics of the billionaire...

April 29, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Medical Mall Makeovers, CT Mental Health Bill & More

Medical Mall Makeovers on Rise The decline of the American shopping mall over the past decade or so has been a boon for big-city healthcare systems. Healthcare providers now occupy at least some part of 32 enclosed malls across the country, according to a database maintained by Ellen Dunham-Jones, a professor of urban design at Georgia Tech. Roughly a third of those medical makeovers have come since the start of the...

April 29, 2022

Governor's Spotlight: Transgender Sports Measures, Election Police, Teacher Shortages & More

More GOP Govs Sign Transgender Sports Measures Two more Republican governors, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed measures last week intended to prevent transgender girls or women from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. The measure Lee signed, HB 1895 , requires the state education commissioner to withhold a portion of state education finance funding from school districts...

April 28, 2022

Sports Gambling Continues to Expand Across the U.S.

If you’re a sports fan, you could be forgiven for thinking that sports gambling is now legal everywhere in the United States. These days, the logos for gambling brands are plastered all over sporting arenas, betting lines are frequently incorporated into pre-game shows, and gambling advertisements are as common on sports talk radio and television broadcasts as promotions for beer. But, in actuality, sports gambling...

April 15, 2022

Tech Week: Elon Musk’s Twitter Offer, Amazon’s Inflation Fee & More

Elon Musk Makes $43M Offer for Twitter Last Thursday (4/14), a little over a week after it was reported that Elon Musk held a 9.1 percent stake in Twitter, he offered to buy the company for about $43 billion and take it private. Musk said he invested in the company because he believed “in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” but he thought it could “neither thrive nor...

April 15, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Healthcare Facility Visitor Access Laws, New Healthcare Workforce Initiative in ME & More

States Mandating Healthcare Facility Visitor Access At least nine states – most recently Florida, on April 6 – have passed laws allowing visitors to healthcare facilities even during a pandemic. Some of the laws, including those passed last year in New York, Texas, and Washington, apply specifically to long-term care facilities. But “No Patient Left Alone” laws in other states, including Arkansas...

April 15, 2022

Governor's Spotlight: Truck Backlog, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Transgender Bills, Redistricting & More

TX Growers Irate at Gov Over Massive Truck Backlog Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is drawing intense criticism from Lone Star State agricultural interests over an ongoing backlog of commercial trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border caused by his order that each truck coming from Mexico undergo an intensive safety inspection. Truckers said that passing through the checkpoints at Juárez and El Paso normally takes around...

April 15, 2022

Maryland Latest State to Embrace Paid Family Leave

After at least a decade of debate and dashed hopes, advocates for paid family leave in Maryland have finally seen their efforts rewarded as majority Democrats easily overrode Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) veto of a measure that makes the Old Line State the 10 th to formally ensure workers can take paid time off to care for ill family members. The District of Columbia also has a paid family leave law. In his veto message...

April 01, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Transgender Sports Bans, Threats Against Healthcare Workers, Eviction Moratoriums & More

GOP Govs Split on Transgender Sports Ban A quartet of GOP governors has taken decidedly different tacks of late in addressing bills that bar transgender athletes from competing in school sports teams that align with their gender identity. In late March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb each vetoed such measures in their states, becoming the first – and so far, only - Republican governors to...

April 01, 2022

Tech Week: Comcast Thwarting WA Broadband Efforts, Airport Cyberattack in CT & More

Comcast, Telecoms Disrupting Broadband Development in WA Washington’s Public Works Board, one of three bodies in the state that award broadband grants, is considering changing its objection process to require objectors to provide more evidence to support their claims. Public utilities say their efforts to make use of the $400 million in mostly federal funds the state has set aside for broadband development have...

April 01, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Pharmacists’ Expanded Healthcare Role, Wastewater Surveillance & More

Expanded Role for Pharmacists in Many States Even before the coronavirus pandemic, states were expanding pharmacists’ role in providing healthcare. Over a dozen states allow pharmacists to test and treat people for the flu, strep throat, urinary tract infections and HIV prevention, according to the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations. Some also let pharmacists prescribe birth control and drugs to...

March 31, 2022

Policymakers Beginning to Address the Scourge of ‘Romance Scams’

Savannah Palmira’s heart sank when her 64-year-old mother announced over Christmas dinner that she had met a man online. “I just knew she was being scammed,” said Palmira, who lives in her hometown of Las Vegas. “She’s been scammed before.” Cheerfully, Palmira’s mom announced that the man she had met through Facebook was an orthopedic surgeon from Portland, Oregon who was...

March 24, 2022

Closing the Gender Pay Gap: State and Local Legislative Efforts to Increase Wage Equity

STATE NET ® THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES The first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 , which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other federal statutes to make it easier for employees to file equal-pay lawsuits regarding gender discrimination. The law was hailed by gender pay equity activists as a milestone in federal legislation that would bolster...

March 18, 2022

Governors Spotlight: UC Enrollment, Gas Tax, Equal Pay & More

CA Gov Signs Bill Restoring UC Enrollment California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a measure ( SB 118 ) last week that removes public college enrollment as a separate consideration under the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA. The new law nullifies a recent court ruling that required UC Berkeley to freeze admissions at 2020 levels, a response to a lawsuit by a Berkeley community group that wanted the...

March 18, 2022

Tech Week: 2021 State Cybersecurity Legislation, Biometric Data Restrictions in ME & More

Cybersecurity Big Concern for State Lawmakers in 2021 With high-profile cyberattacks like the one on Colonial Pipeline last May that caused fuel shortages in Eastern states and the targeting of public infrastructure in every state by hackers over the past couple of years, cybersecurity received considerable attention from state lawmakers last session. At least 45 state legislatures considered over 250 measures dealing...

March 18, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: MO’s Proposed Fix for Doctor Shortage, Healthcare Cost Watchdog in CA & More

MO Weighs Fix for Physician Shortage A bill introduced this year in the Missouri House ( HB 2296 ) would allow assistant physicians - medical school graduates who haven’t completed their residency - to become fully licensed as doctors after practicing for five years with a supervising physician, passing an examination, and meeting other training requirements. The measure comes in the same state that proposed...

March 17, 2022

States Move to Divest from Russia

A growing number of states have joined the U.S. government and a host of allied nations around the world in imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Several states, including California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, New York, and Illinois have announced plans to have their public employee pension funds either divest their holdings from Russian-controlled investment vehicles...

March 04, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Russian Sanctions, Transgender Sports Ban, COVID Relief Checks & More

Govs Push Russian Sanctions The outrage from world leaders at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has filtered down to state governors as well. According to Stateline , a publication of the Pew Charitable Trusts, governors in at least 12 states have ordered the removal of Russian-made liquors and other products from retail shelves, and at least 11 have moved to end all ties with Russian companies. Governors in at least...

March 04, 2022

Tech Week: UT Consumer Data Privacy Law, Facial Recognition Controversy in WA & More

UT On Verge of Passing Consumer Data Privacy Law Utah appears likely to become the fourth state to pass a comprehensive consumer data privacy law. Last month, the state’s Senate unanimously passed the Utah Consumer Privacy Act ( SB 227 ), which is modeled after but more business friendly than the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. The House amended the measure slightly before unanimously passing it last week...

March 04, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: New Multistate Opioid Settlement, Fallout from Single Payer Failure in CA & More

States, Purdue Pharma Agree to New Opioid Settlement The attorneys general for all 50 states have reached a new settlement with Purdue Pharma over its role in the opioid crisis. An earlier settlement had been appealed by eight states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The new deal includes an additional $1.2 billion contribution and apology from members of the...

March 04, 2022

States Making Pandemic Telehealth Policy Changes Permanent

Among the many changes Americans experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic was the sudden, widespread adoption of telehealth services when visiting medical professionals in person became effectively impossible. The dramatic surge in telehealth usage became possible as a multitude of pandemic-driven policy changes, executive orders and governor actions at both the state and federal level temporarily loosened the legal...

February 18, 2022

Governor's Spotlight: Private School Scholarships, K9 Cop Protection, Free Community College & More

IA Gov Makes New Effort for Private School Scholarships Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) is making another push to allow students to use public school funds to pay for private school scholarships. Reynolds first proposed sending the entire state per-pupil allocation with a student to their new private school last year, but the GOP-controlled legislature rejected the idea. Under the new proposal ( Senate Study Bill 3080 )...