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 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...

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...

COOPER SIGNS NC GUN ORDER NORTH CAROLINA Gov. Roy Cooper (D) issued an executive directive ordering that state Bureau of Investigation and other state agencies to take more action against gun violence. The order directs the BOI to conduct more threat assessment training for local police and provide...

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...

Speaking of things that defy logic...Rick Perry. Nobody will ever accuse the former Texas governor and current U.S. Secretary of Energy of being, uh, a rocket scientist. As AFP reports , Perry recently fell for an Internet hoax dealing with the sharing of photos on Instagram. Now we are very aware that...

Some people believe we’re officially in a post-truth world. That’s the only rationale I can come up with for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent claim that “the vast majority” of the homeless folks in San Francisco migrated to the City by the Bay from Texas. Now anyone...

WA LEG SUES INSLEE The WASHINGTON Legislature filed suit against Gov. Jay Inslee (D), arguing the governor had violated the Evergreen State Constitution when he issued several partial vetoes of the 2019-21 transportation budget. Inslee acknowledged the unusual nature of the vetoes in his veto message...

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...

This year more than 70 state and local governments have been targeted by hackers that have locked up their computer systems and demanded ransoms to release them. A majority of states have taken legislative action in recent years to protect data held by government agencies. But the current ransomware...

NJ FACING BIG PUBLIC PENSION HIT NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) decision to phase in a reduction in the public pension system’s expected rate of return from 7.6 percent to 7 percent, which former Gov. Chris Christie (R) made just before he left office in 2018, could leave the state...

The attorneys general of every state but Alabama and California have officially launched an antitrust investigation of Google. Standing on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court along with officials from 11 other states and the District of Columbia last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R)...

In spite of screeching from some quarters, America is now and always has been built on diversity. And as the personal finance site WalletHub reports , based on a wide range of measurements no state is more diverse than California. This is likely not a surprise to anyone, but the runner-up might be. Yep...

PUSH FOR ‘JUNGLE PRIMARY’ IN FL FLORIDA billionaire Mike Fernandez, who left the Republican Party because of his opposition to President Trump, is spending millions of dollars to place a measure before voters in 2020 that would shift the state to a “jungle primary” system,...

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...

WA GOV ORDERS VAPING BAN Citing a rising number of illnesses and deaths linked to e-tobacco use, WASHINGTON Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said he will ask the state board of health to adopt emergency rules enacting a statewide ban on flavored vaping products. At least four other states – MICHIGAN, NEW...

Big property tax increases appear to be coming to some of Texas’ biggest cities and counties this fall. El Paso, Harris, Tarrant, Travis and Webb counties and the cities of Austin, Corpus Christi and El Paso are all among those pushing for increases of as much as 8 percent, the maximum amount that...

SCOTUS DECLINES TO CONSIDER WV SUPREME COURT IMPEACHMENT CASE The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of an October 2018 ruling by a specially appointed WEST VIRGINIA Supreme Court halting impeachment proceedings against four justices for alleged maladministration, corruption and neglect...

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...

Last week Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure making it more difficult to impose an income tax in the state. The measure, Proposition 4, authored by Rep. Jeff Leach (R), asked voters if they supported adding a prohibition against a state income tax to the Texas Constitution. With nearly...

A new temporary homeless camp fostered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is so far not doing much to alleviate the growing homelessness problem in Austin. A week after the camp was opened at a former maintenance yard for TxDOT vehicles in East Austin, advocates for the homeless say barely a dozen people...

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...

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...