Seven states suffer from weak governance, according to a report released last week by credit-rating agency Moody’s Investor Service. What earned those states - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin - the less than ringing endorsement from Moody’s...

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...

If you live in Detroit, Cleveland or Newark, odds are good the stress level in your world is pretty high. Conversely, if you reside in Fremont, California or Bismarck, North Dakota, life is likely a much smoother ride. Those conclusions are according to research by the personal finance website WalletHub...

Minnesota Governor Signs HF 2A MINNESOTA Gov. Tim Walz (D) signs HF 2a , an omnibus jobs and economic development package that will also make it a felony in some cases for employers to withhold workers’ wages. The new law, which went into effect immediately, also doubles the number of state...

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...

Cleveland City Council Approves New Regulations The CLEVELAND City Council approves new regulations that require landlords to pay for private inspections and obtain lead-safe certificates for rental units. Property owners will also be required to inform buyers about identified lead hazards (ROUTE...

Illinois Governor Signs HB 88 ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs HB 88 , a bill that caps interest rates at 5 percent on consumer debt of less than $25,000 following a court judgment, down from the current limit of 9 percent. The law also limits the window during which creditors can collect on...

NEWSOM SIGNS OFF ON CA CLEAN DRINKING WATER FUND CALIFORNIA Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed SB 200 , legislation that authorizes the use of $130 million in funds initially targeted for greenhouse gas reduction to instead pay for a clean drinking water program. The funds, which will be drawn on over the...

In the wake of the nation’s latest (as of this writing) mass shooting, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) proposed a package of reforms to his state’s gun regulations. The hard part will be not having them instantly shot down by his fellow Republicans that control the Buckeye State Legislature. ...

Legislation dealing with medical balance billing - the charging of patients by healthcare providers for services not fully covered at the providers’ rate by the patients’ insurance - has been introduced in 32 states this year, according to analysis by LexisNexis State Net . Seven of those...

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...

New Jersey Appeals Court Rules the State Can Move Ahead A NEW JERSEY appeals court rules the state can move ahead with a new law allowing terminally ill patients to seek life-ending drugs. The plaintiffs seeking to overturn the law indicated they would appeal to the state Supreme Court (ABC NEWS)...

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,”...

United State Court of Appeals Upholds Ruling The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholds the power of the Federal Communications Commission to roll back net neutrality rules, but also upholds the power of states to set their own neutrality laws. Several states have...

As of October 17, 68 lawsuits had been initiated against the Trump administration via a complaint or petition filed by multiple states, according to data compiled by Dr. Paul Nolette, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University, for the website AttorneysGeneral.org . Democrat...

Calling it “a step in the right direction," California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the state would closely monitor the NCAA’s decision to move toward allowing college athletes to profit from the use of their likeness, image or name. The move is a response to first-in-the-nation...

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and Attorney General Dave Yost (R) met for over three hours last month with attorneys and elected officials from cities and counties across the state seeking damages from drug makers and distributors over the opioid crisis. DeWine said the state and local governments were...

Eight states have enacted some version of the Data Security Model Law adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) in 2017, according to the National Law Review. Three of the states did so in 2018, with the other five enacting measures this year. At least two other states have...

The impending California Consumer Privacy Act and other state data privacy laws have done more than motivate companies to rethink how they manage consumer data; it also has many organizations thinking more than ever about how they manage their cyber insurance coverage. Once considered a niche product...

OH Senate Approves SB 155 & SB 208 The OHIO Senate approves two abortion measures: SB 155 , a bill that would require doctors to inform women about the option to reverse a medication abortion, a claim not supported by the medical establishment, and SB 208 , which would require doctors to report...

OH Governor Signs HB 189 Responding to the 2017 amusement park accident that killed one and seriously injured seven more, OHIO Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signs HB 189 , which will require Buckeye State officials to adopt an amusement ride classification system to help identify which rides need more comprehensive...

As of Oct. 15, governors or public health agencies in seven states had imposed temporary bans on the sale of vaping products, four of which had been at least partially blocked by legal challenges, according to Time . At least five states have also introduced bills this year aimed at banning flavored...

As public health officials confront an outbreak of lung injuries linked to vaping from e-cigarettes, a patchwork of state and local responses have cropped up in lieu of federal regulation. But with a developing and not yet fully understood problem, and with several e-cigarette bans in a handful...

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...