At least 18 states have introduced bills this year mentioning the word “algorithm.” They include measures dealing with the use of algorithms to censure offensive, political or religious speech on social media (Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Virginia); automate government...

Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize the way we live and work, as well as drive economic growth for at least the next decade. At the same time, it threatens to disrupt the job market, increase inequality, diminish privacy, and, as some see it, end human beings’ existence. Still, there’s...

With the first tax season since the federal tax overhaul now in full swing, the $10,000 cap on state and local tax, or SALT, deductions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may have wealthy Americans in some high-tax states eyeing moves to cheaper locales. But state tax officials aren’t going...

As of mid-February, 21 states had passed laws streamlining regulations for the deployment of 5G or small-cell technology. In 12 of those states, Republicans controlled both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office when the laws were enacted. In six others, control of the government...

WI ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SPURNS REDISTRICTING CIVIL CASE WISCONSIN Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) is refusing to turn over documents or testify in a civil case related to political boundaries drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature eight years ago. Vos maintains the state Constitution grants lawmakers...

In 1955 the California Supreme Court ruled in Allen v. City of Long Beach (1955) that workers enter a contract with their employers from their first day on the job, and their pension benefits can’t be reduced unless they’re replaced with comparable benefits. The so-called “California...

TX Supreme Court Rules The TEXAS Supreme Court rules that the state does not have to reveal the identity of the manufacturer of the drugs used to carry out executions. Doing so, the court ruled, “would create a substantial threat of physical harm to the source’s employees and others”...

KS Supreme Court Rules The KANSAS Supreme Court rules that women in the Sunflower State have a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. Justices ruled that both the state and U.S. constitutions support that right. Opponents vowed to seek to amend the state constitution to block abortion in the...

After passing the House in March, a bill championed by Gov. Laura Kelly (D) to expand Medicaid in the Sunflower State appears to have died in the GOP-controlled Senate. Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley forced a procedural vote to move HB 2066 out of the Public Health and Welfare Committee...

By some accounts, insurance fraud has reached epidemic proportions, costing insurance companies and their policyholders tens of billions of dollars each year. State lawmakers have taken several measures in recent years to combat the problem, but this year they’re stepping up their efforts even...

Although the decennial census is a federal responsibility, with states having so much to gain from an accurate tally, 30 have established committees - either through legislation or executive order - to ensure their populations are fully counted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures...

Left to their own devices, humans are pretty good at wiping out native animal species. Such has definitely been the case for the so-called “prairie chicken” – known elsewhere as a grouse - of northwest Kansas. Long considered a nuisance, Sunflower State farmers and ranchers have recently...

Although the decennial census is required by the U.S. Constitution, it’s not a topic that makes the heart go pit-a-pat. After doing a TV episode on a census issue, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin observed that the very word “census” put the audience asleep. Nonetheless, the 2020 census...

As of the start of this year, at least 25 states had passed laws requiring businesses that handle personal data to implement security procedures to protect that information from unauthorized access, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. LexisNexis State Net’s legislative tracking...

If a hair stylist learns their craft and is licensed in Las Vegas and then moves across the state line to Arizona, does what they learned in Vegas stay in Vegas? Probably not. But their ability to work might. Or at least it used to. Presumably, the importance of sanitization of combs and the best...

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed legislation last week aimed at ending a long running battle with neighboring Kansas in which both states have spent hundreds of millions of public dollars to lure private companies back and forth across the border. Under SB 182 , the Show Me State would no longer...

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...

Faced with the imminent threat of litigation from her own attorney general, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) has dropped her effort to allow thousands of Show Me State residents to continue receiving food stamps without meeting state-mandated work requirements. Kelly announced in June she would allow...

MD TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION FACING BIG SHORTFALL The MARYLAND Transit Administration says it is facing a $2 billion-plus funding shortfall over the next decade. The agency also said it will need to spend $5.7 billion between now and 2028 to address the state’s aging infrastructure and equipment...

GA GOV ORDERS SWEEPING BUDGET CUTS GEORGIA Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has ordered all state agencies to cut their budgets by 4 percent this year and 6 percent next year. State agencies haven’t received such an order since the Great Recession. (WSB-TV 2 [ATLANTA]) ND RECEIVES FEDERAL APPROVAL...

More than 15 million Americans in eight states will likely vote in 2020 on voting machines without any paper backup, despite calls from elections efforts for auditable paper trails in light of known efforts by foreign governments to tinker with U.S. elections. A just released report from New York...

MN, NC MAY BE IN RECESSION MINNESOTA and NORTH CAROLINA may be in a recession, according to research indicating that when a state’s unemployment rate rises by at least 0.4 percentage points above its lowest rate in the preceding 12 months, there’s a 50 percent chance the state is in a...

A special committee in Kansas is looking into ways to control the rising cost of healthcare in the state. This month the members of the House and Senate Special Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance got a crash course on healthcare cost control measures other states have taken from Colleen...

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...

Many states have learned lessons from the Great Recession of 2007-09 and are better prepared for the next economic downturn, according to findings by the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) and other analysts. “Rainy day funds are growing as a share of state budgets,”...