MN Considering Taxing Social Media Apps Minnesota’s Senate Taxes Committee heard a bill ( SB 3197 ) last week that would make the state the first in the nation to tax social media apps. The measure would require social media platforms with between 100,000...
AR Lawmakers Pass Bill Banning PBMs from Running Pharmacies The Arkansas legislature passed a bill ( HB 1150 ) that would make the state the first in the nation to prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from operating retail pharmacies. A spokesman for Gov. Sarah...
Patchwork of Paid Leave Laws Set to Continue There’s currently no federal law requiring paid leave. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 only requires employers to provide unpaid time off. But 19 states have laws requiring paid sick leave...
‘Predictive Pricing’ Top Priority for CA Lawmakers Predictive pricing, a practice involving the use of artificial intelligence to set prices for customers based on factors like the websites they visit or the places they live instead of supply and...
Insurer Payouts for LA Wildfires Top $12B California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara (D) announced that insurers have now paid out over $12 billion in claims from the largest of the Los Angeles wildfires. That sum is almost twice the $6.9 billion that insurers...
Google Weighs in on Social Media Age Verification Days after Utah passed a first-in-the-nation law ( SB 142 ) requiring app stores to verify the age of users, Google finally weighed in publicly on the subject of minors’ access to social media. In a blog...
UT Passes App Store Age-Verification Bill Utah became the first state to pass legislation requiring app stores to verify the age of users and obtain parental consent for minors to download apps. The bill ( SB 142 ), which now awaits the approval of Gov. Spencer...
OR Looks to Allow Striking Workers to Collect Unemployment A hotly debated bill ( SB 916 ) passed out of committee in Oregon’s Senate last week would allow striking workers in both the public and private sector to collect unemployment benefits. Although...
MT Targets Insurers’ Use of AI Montana’s House Committee on Business and Labor held a public hearing last week on a bill ( HB 556 ) that would regulate the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare utilization review and management. Among other...
State Lawmakers Take Aim at Crypto Kiosks Lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced bills to regulate cryptocurrency kiosks, which are often found at convenience stores and gas stations. The bills would limit transactions, generally to $1,000 per day, and...
Battle of Social Media Titans Shaping Up in SD Meta, Snap and X are lobbying in favor of a bill in South Dakota ( SB 180 ) that would require app stores to verify the age of users instead of social media platforms. The development sets up a potential battle with...
CA Bill Focuses on Mental Health of Wildfire Victims A bill ( AB 1032 ) introduced in the California Assembly would require healthcare service plans and insurers to reimburse enrollees or insureds who live in a county where a state or local emergency has been...
Flurry of Legislative Action on Wildfires in CA In response to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles last month, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara (D) and several state lawmakers have proposed a 10-bill package of legislation aimed at improving...
TX, NY & VA Target DeepSeek Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) launched an investigation into the privacy practices of the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek. The state claims the company violated the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act. ( KXAN...
AR Lawmakers Considering Aggressive PBM Regulation A bill ( HB 1150 ) under consideration in the Arkansas House may be the most aggressive effort to regulate pharmacy benefit mangers yet. The measure would bar PBMs from owning pharmacies, potentially forcing...