At least 40 states have introduced legislation in 2019 aimed at reducing the cost of prescription drugs, according to LexisNexis State Net ’s legislative tracking system. Fifteen of those states have enacted such measures.

At least 189 bills dealing with independent contractors have been introduced in state legislatures this session, according to LexisNexis State Net’s legislative tracking system . Fifty of those measures have been passed by one or both chambers of their originating legislatures, including California’s...

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey was mad, mad, mad! Angry! Perturbed! Vexed! That commie pinko lefty wussbomb Nike had crumbled to PC pressure and cancelled plans to produce sneakers bearing the iconic Betsy Ross version of the American flag. But Nike bailed after love-him-or-hate-him football player/activist...

Local governments in at least four states have passed ordinances in 2018 or 2019 restricting the use of surveillance technology by government entities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) webpage and LexisNexis State Net’s local...

In May the Board of Supervisors for the City and County of San Francisco approved an ordinance banning the use of facial recognition technology by all city departments. It’s the only major U.S. city to have taken such action against the emerging technology. But the measure is part of a larger and...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved waivers allowing the imposition of work requirements for Medicaid enrollees in nine states, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. Approved waivers have been blocked by legal challenges in two states - Arkansas and Kentucky...

It used to be that getting caught in a lie was a bad thing. But with the patron saint of fibbery in the White House these days, lying is in vogue even when your lie can be easily disproved. Case in point comes from Arizona, where Gov. Doug Ducey last week said he never told the state Commerce Authority...

At least 26 states have introduced bills this session dealing with the collection and use of biometric information, such as fingerprints, speech patterns or gait, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures and LexisNexis State Net. Three of those states - Arkansas, New York...

At the start of this year, many observers believed states might be lining up to duplicate California’s tough new data privacy law, set to go into effect next year. That rush didn’t quite materialize, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers completely whiffed on data protection. According...

In 2008, Arizona voters overwhelmingly endorsed Proposition 200, which banned the practice of providing short-term, high-interest loans known as payday lending. But according to a report released this month by the Center for Economic Integrity in Tucson, payday lenders have since got around the ban by...

When SNCJ reported in August 2017 on medical balance billing - the direct charging of patients by healthcare providers for services that aren’t fully covered at the providers’ rate by the patients’ insurance - nearly half of the states had passed legislation addressing the practice...

Arizona Board of Regents Approves Proposal The ARIZONA Board of Regents unanimously approves a proposal to charge undocumented students who graduate from high school in the Grand Canyon State 150 percent of the in-state tuition rate, a 50 percent reduction from the out-of-state rate previously charged...

During the final week of this year’s legislative session in Arizona, state lawmakers passed a bill ( HB 2756 ) that, among other things, will require the state to calculate the additional state cost of any minimum wage increase above the state rate by a city or county, potentially resulting in...

At least 37 states have introduced legislation this year dealing with the cybersecurity of government agencies, 24 of which have enacted such measures, according to information from the National Conference of State Legislatures and LexisNexis State Net. The measures deal with a range of issues, including...

At least 18 states allow sports betting either in-person at casinos and other gambling facilities, or online via computer or mobile phone, according to the website BettingUSA.com. Eleven of those states allow both, while six allow only in-person sports wagering and one, Tennessee, allows such betting...

Arizona Supreme Court Rules in Phoenix Ordinance The ARIZONA Supreme Court rules that a PHOENIX ordinance that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination cannot be used to force artists to create custom wedding invitations for same-sex couples. The city said the ruling...

Wyoming has the largest estimated fiscal year 2019 rainy-day fund balance as a percentage of total state expenditures, at 109 percent, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers’ Spring 2019 Fiscal Survey of States . California has the largest FY 2019 rainy-day fund balance...

At least 27 states have considered legislation this year dealing with the privacy of consumer data, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures . Consumer data privacy bills were enacted in six of those states, while measures are still pending in several others, including California, where...

A person or persons attempted to breach West Virginia’s mobile voting system for military and overseas voters during last year’s midterm election, state and federal officials announced last week. The attack is believed to have come from inside the United States rather than from a foreign...

Although motor vehicle subscription services - similar to auto leases but with no long-term commitment, the ability to change vehicles periodically and insurance and maintenance bundled in - have only been around for a few years, they’ve been embraced by some automakers, insurers and consumers...

New York Governor Signs SB 5091 NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs SB 5091 , a bill that requires pharmacies to inform patients whenever a Class 1 recall has been issued for a prescription drug they're taking. The notification, which can be made by phone or mail, must come within three days...

In 2018 Texas had the most wildfires of any state, 10,541 of them, and the sixth highest number of acres burned, at 569,811, according to data compiled by the Insurance Information Institute from the National Interagency Fire Center. California had the second highest number of wildfires, at 8,054, and...

CA Budget Surplus Could Grow to $26B by 2021 A report from CALIFORNIA’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office indicates the state’s cash reserves could reach a record $26 billion by 2021. Over a quarter of that sum would be unrestricted funds that state lawmakers could spend as...

As of mid-October, 26 states had introduced legislation this year dealing with the privacy of consumer data, according to analysis of LexisNexis State Net legislative data by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seven of those states had enacted such measures, including Hawaii, where a consumer...

It’s the holiday season, and if most voters are thinking about politics at all they are probably pondering more about how to get through family festivities without a major blowup over differing political philosophies than they are about next year’s legislative agendas. But rest assured...