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Court Ruling Against Robinhood Could Let States Impose Tougher Rules on Broker-Dealers Massachusetts’ top appellate court upheld a first-in-the-nation rule holding broker-dealers to the same standard as investment advisers, which had been challenged...

TX Judge Strikes Down ‘Death Star’ Law A county judge in Texas declared the state’s new so-called “Death Star” law preempting local ordinances, including those mandating water breaks for construction workers, “entirely...

Many Post-Pandemic Medicaid Disenrollments May Be Due to State Errors Federal officials have uncovered significant problems with the systems and procedures states have been employing to “unwind” Medicaid coverage protections put in place...

Financial Scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, thanks in large part to artificial intelligence. But the problems created by this new wave of technology are so numerous and complicated that addressing them will not be easy. Fraud Boom May Be...

NHTSA Reverses Direction on MA Right to Repair Law The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent a letter to the Massachusetts attorney general’s office last week giving the state the go-ahead to enforce the right to repair law...

New UPS Labor Contract Averts Strike The union that represents over 300,000 UPS workers ratified a new labor agreement last week, preventing a strike that might have crippled the U.S. economy. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said the contract...

Nation’s First Lawsuit over Post-Pandemic Medicaid Terminations Three Florida residents have filed a lawsuit alleging health officials in that state aren’t notifying disabled and low-income residents about Medicaid redeterminations. The...

Usage-based auto insurance has been around for over 25 years. But recently it has been drawing more interest from insurers and consumers, as well as state lawmakers. UBI works by using vehicle “ telematics ” to track an individual’s...

Lahaina Fire Insured Property Losses Estimated at $3.2B Catastrophe modeler Karen Clark & Company estimated insured property losses from the Lahaina wildfire at about $3.2 billion. With the death toll from the Maui fires having exceeded 100, they...

Red, Blue States Tackle Children’s Online Safety in 2023 Concern about the impact of social media on children and their online privacy prompted a flurry of legislation in the states this year. In Republican-controlled ones like Arkansas, lawmakers...

Workforce Development High Priority for State Lawmakers With virtually every sector of the U.S. economy suffering a major worker shortage, state lawmakers are taking steps to boost their workforces in the near- and long-term. To try to attract workers...

Lasting Health Policy Changes from Pandemic A number of health-related state policy changes made during the COVID-19 public health emergency appear likely to remain in place indefinitely. Over the past three years, hundreds of states have sought to...

For years, movies have been depicting a future where artificial intelligence would provide us with medical care and counseling. In Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith , Anakin Skywalker’s life is saved by droids who replace his missing...

Judge Dismisses Challenge to UT Porn Website Age-Check Law A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging a law enacted earlier this year in Utah ( SB 287 ) requiring porn websites to verify the age of their users. U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart...

PA Launches Infrastructure Workforce Development Program Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) issued an executive order directing up to $400 million in federal funding to a new infrastructure workforce development program. The Commonwealth Workforce Transformation...

Rise in Vaping-Related Nicotine Exposure Could Trigger More Regulation In spite of a 2016 federal law requiring child-resistant packaging on bottles of liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes, or vapes, reported cases of vaping-related nicotine exposure...

The weather, of course, is notoriously difficult to predict. But if early projections are to be believed, the cities of Austin and Dallas in Texas are in for some hot days come September. Both cities are expected to see temperatures in the low 90s and...

Feds Propose Higher Capital Requirements for Big Banks Federal regulators formally proposed significant changes to the rules governing how much capital larger banks must hold to cushion them from financial losses. The changes, which could increase the...

Court Battle Over Children’s Online Privacy Law Begins in CA Hearings began last week in a legal challenge to California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code law , which is aimed at protecting children’s online privacy. The lawsuit, brought...

WA Healthcare Facility Geofence Ban Takes Effect A new law ( HB 1155 ) took effect last week in Washington that, among other things, makes it illegal to set up a geofence around a healthcare facility. Supporters of the Washington My Health My Data Act...

Halfway through 2023, data privacy regulation remains a high priority for state lawmakers and business leaders alike. Here’s an update on the rapidly shifting, balkanized landscape of data privacy policies. Online Businesses Sue to Stop Arkansas...

States Focus on Drone Use As drones are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and sophisticated, state governments are coming up with new ways to use them. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced in May that the state would be adding 10 drones—including...

U.S. Maternal Death Rates More Than Doubled in Recent Decades The maternal death rate in the United States more than doubled between 1999 and 2019—from 12.7 per 100,000 births to 32.2 per 100,000 births—according to a new study in the Journal...

It’s not hyperbole to say that the United States may very well be on the brink of a homeowners insurance crisis, at least in its coastal areas. Consider what’s happened just this year: State Farm and Allstate , two of the nation's...

Biden Administration Mulling AI Chip Export Restrictions The Biden administration is considering restrictions on the export of advanced chips used for artificial intelligence to China. Administration officials have expressed concerns that China could...