U.S. Hospital Use of Volunteers May Violate Federal Rules: Volunteer workers have become an integral part of the labor force at hospitals across the country. According to analysis of federal and other data by Kaiser Health News, hospitals may use over...

As the nation has transitioned to living with COVID-19, the attention of state lawmakers has shifted away from pandemic-related matters like testing availability and vaccine distribution to other concerns. Many of the issues we expect to top state legislative...

STATE NET ® THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES What It Takes to Build an Effective DEI Program Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) has been an agenda item in corporate boardrooms for some time, but it has attracted more Growing Importance of DEI...

More GOP Govs Ban TikTok Citing data privacy concerns, a growing number of Republican governors have issued orders barring the use of the popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from state-owned devices. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem started...

Big Tech Sues to Block CA Child Online Protection Law The tech industry group NetChoice is suing to block California’s new Age-Appropriate Design Code Act ( AB 2273 ), which is aimed at making the internet safer for kids. NetChoice, which includes...

FL Approves Major Property Insurance Reforms Florida lawmakers passed sweeping legislation aimed at ending the state’s years-long property insurance crisis. If signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the bill ( SB 2 c ), which sailed through both chambers...

Hospitals Getting Creative to Mitigate Staffing Shortages With contract labor expenses up almost 500 percent from where they were before the pandemic, a growing number of hospital systems are creating in-house staffing systems to help them deal with...

Former longtime U.S. Rep. Tip O’Neill (D-MA) famously lived by the mantra that “ all politics is local .” It was certainly true in O’Neil’s heyday, and it was still so when I got to the State Net Capitol Journal in 2002...

NY Gov Partially Limits Bitcoin Mining, Signs NIL Bill New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has signed legislation imposing the nation’s first temporary ban on new fossil fuel-powered cryptocurrency mining projects. The moratorium under AB 7389 applies...

SF Authorizes Police Use of Lethal Robots On an 8-3 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors authorized police to deploy robots with lethal force in very rare cases involving violent suspects such as mass shooters. A minority of the board opposed...

Many LA Homeowners Insured by Small, Untested Carriers Before Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005, most homeowners insured their properties with industry giants, like Allstate, Farmers, State Farm or USAA. But now many homeowners in the state...

Judge Blocks KS Law Banning Telemedicine Abortions A judge in Topeka, Kansas issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of a 2011 Kansas law banning telemedicine abortions on a women’s clinic in Wichita, pending a ruling in the associated...

Once again, Twitter played a meaningful role in the 2022 Midterm Elections, as it has in several previous elections. Democrat John Fetterman used Twitter to relentlessly mock his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz in their Pennsylvania Senate race while...

MA Gov Signs $3.76B Development Plan Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed off on a $3.76 billion development plan that allocates hundreds of millions of dollars to affordable housing and helping hospitals and businesses harmed by the pandemic...

No Clear Direction on Crypto Regulation after FTX Crash The collapse this month of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume , has intensified calls for regulation of the industry. But exactly how to proceed...

Most U.S. Counties Suffered Natural Disaster in Past Decade Between 2011 and 2021, 90 percent of counties in the United States suffered a hurricane, flood, wildfire, drought or other natural event severe enough to have been declared a federal disaster...

Medical Bill Financing Adding to Patient Debt Hospitals and other healthcare providers have traditionally offered patients interest-free payment plans to help them manage their medical bills. But providers have increasingly been relying on payment plans...

Along with deciding which party will control Congress and many state legislative chambers next year, voters across the country also weighed in this month on over 100 ballot measures. A number of those measures dealt with abortion and other health-related...

CA Gov Blocks $1B in State Funds to Cities Not Doing Enough to End Homelessness Saying “Californians demand accountability and results, not settling for the status quo,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) blocked $1 billion in state funding...

Tech Company Job Freezes, Cuts Continue Amazon publicly disclosed last week that it was pausing corporate hiring due to economic uncertainty. The news came on the same day that ride-hailing company Lyft said it was laying off 13 percent, or about 650...

Judge Green-Lights Geico Class Action Suit A federal judge gave the go-ahead for a lawsuit accusing Geico Corp. of overcharging over 2 million California policyholders for car insurance early in the coronavirus pandemic may proceed as a class action...

CO Seeks to Reduce Healthcare Costs through Consumer Incentives Colorado has launched an initiative enabling employers in the state to band together to negotiate lower prices for health care. The program also allows employees that choose lower-cost...

The U.S. Department of Labor last month returned to a question vexing government officials and business leaders coast to coast: What makes a worker an employee versus an independent contractor? On October 13, the federal agency published a Notice of...

MI Gov Vetoes Suite of GOP Bills to Limit Emergency Powers Saying the measures do not “grapple with the real threats that sometimes necessitate swift action,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) vetoed eight GOP-sponsored bills intended to...

Pay Transparency Requirements Coming to NY Starting Nov. 1, employers in New York City will have to comply with a new pay transparency law requiring the disclosure of salary ranges in job advertisements. Employers statewide may soon have to comply...