State Legislatures articles from April 2008

State Legislatures archives from April 2008

Publishers want their say.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... Dear Editor: I was genuinely excited about NCSL weighing in on the ongoing textbook debate but, after reading the article in the February issue, I have some serious concerns. Price is important but the price issue without sufficient...

Predicting droughts.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dear Editor: With drought exerting an impact of up to $8 billion on the U.S. economy annually-water resources, as covered in your March issue, is of great interest to us at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...

Another reason to opt out of real ID.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... Dear Editor: Your piece on the REAL ID rebellion in the March issue of State Legislatures covered many of the compelling reasons why states should opt out of the REAL ID regime. However, the article did not mention that there is a...

Closing the achievement gap?(STATESTATS)
April 1, 2008... The U.S. Department of Education boasted about the rising test scores for students of color, with the release of the 2007 National Assessment of Academic Progress (NAEP) results last year. The achievement gap between students of color and...

The New York Senate Republicans suffered stunning defeat in a special election that puts Democrats within one seat of the majority--at least temporarily.(People & Politics)
April 1, 2008... The New York Senate Republicans suffered stunning defeat in a special election that puts Democrats within one seat of the majority--at least temporarily. Democrat Craig Johnson won the seat of retiring Republican James Wright, a seat that had...

California voters defeated Proposition 93 which would have relaxed legislative term limits by allowing lawmakers to serve 12 years in the Assembly and 12 years in the Senate or some combination of 12 years in both chambers.(People & Politics)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... California voters defeated Proposition 93 which would have relaxed legislative term limits by allowing lawmakers to serve 12 years in the Assembly and 12 years in the Senate or some combination of 12 years in both chambers. The original law,...

Georgia Speaker Glen Richardson proved that he rules with an iron hand.(People & Politics)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Georgia Speaker Glen Richardson proved that he rules with an iron hand. When four Republicans opposed former Representative Stacey Reece, Richardson's choice for chair of the state Department of Transportation board, and voted to re-elect Mike...

Juan LaFonta.(People & Politics)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Representative Juan LaFonta wants Louisianans always to remember the anniversaries of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the devastation they delivered in 2005. He has introduced legislation to make August 29 and September 4 state holidays....

Curtis Anderson.(People & Politics)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Wikipedia, the largest free-content encyclopedia on the Internet, has some 9 million articles in more than 250 languages, and it's about to get 188 more. Maryland Delegate Curtis Anderson is creating profiles of the state's lawmakers so...

In North Carolina, Republicans are optimistic that they will increase their numbers--the Democrats control the House 68-52 and the Senate 31-19--because they have recruited more candidates than in the past two elections, making them more competitive in more seats.(People & Politics)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... In North Carolina, Republicans are optimistic that they will increase their numbers--the Democrats control the House 68-52 and the Senate 31-19--because they have recruited more candidates than in the past two elections, making them more...

Lisa Brown.(People & Politics)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Washington Senate Majority Lisa Brown filed suit in the state Supreme Court in March charging that provisions in Initative 960 violate the state constitution. Approved by voters in November, the initiative requires a two-thirds vote in both...

Women in power.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... While almost 24 percent of state legislatures are made up of women, only 16.3 percent of the U.S. House is female. In many countries around the world, women make up a much bigger piece of the legislative pie. Here's the percent of women in...

Utah company wants Italian waste.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(EnergySolutions)
April 1, 2008... EnergySolutions, a Utah-based company that provides technology and services to manage and treat hazardous waste, has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to import 20,000 tons--the largest ever--of low-level radioactive waste from Italy...

Seat belt laws.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Twenty-six states have primary seat belt laws that allow law enforcement officers to stop vehicles and issue citations solely for seat belt violations. Twenty-three states have secondary laws that require police to stop vehicles for other...

Rainy day fund facts.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The slumping housing market has slowed tax collections in at least 26 states. And several are currently looking at tapping their rainy day funds to make up the shortfall. States created rainy day funds with a common...

Immigration and the workplace.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Twenty states passed laws last year directed at both immigrant workers and employers. Federal law already prohibits employers from hiring unauthorized workers. It requires employers to verify the identity and the...

Split refunds help save.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Earned Income Tax Credit)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Beginning this year, the IRS will let taxpayers split refunds into as many as three different accounts. For example, a taxpayer could deposit half of his refund into a savings account and the rest into his checking...

Beer and bombs.(STATELINE)(under aged armed forces to buy alcohol)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A South Carolina lawmaker wants to give members of the armed forces younger than 21 the right to buy alcohol. "It's absurd that people serving in the military are trained to kill on the battlefield but at the same...

Vaccine void.(STATELINE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Too few adults are getting vaccines, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Most adults are not getting many of the newly available vaccines, including ones to protect against shingles, whooping cough and...

Home sweet home.(STATELINE)(Arizona State Capitol)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Arizona's House and Senate may be getting a new home. A report by a task force recommends putting the Old Capitol back into limited use, and either expanding or replacing the current legislative buildings that house the Legislature. The changes...

Heat ban melted.(STATELINE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... A snowy, cold winter in Wisconsin forced the Legislature to abolish a statewide ban on heated sidewalks, stairs, entrances and pedestrian walkways passed in response to the energy crisis of the 1970s. Better technology and the prospect of using...

Southern shutdowns.(STATELINE)(nuclear reactors)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Nuclear reactors in the Southeast might be forced to temporarily shut down later this year if the drought continues to dry out rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the tremendous amounts of water they need to operate. Utility...

Dress discrimination.(STATELINE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Iowa Representative Wayne Ford has proposed a bill that would prohibit businesses from discriminating based on the brand of clothing people are wearing. He says some nightclubs are barring African Americans wearing...

No to newspapers.(STATELINE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Maryland Delegate Tanya Shewell wants a "Do Not Deliver" registry that would work like the "Do Not Call" registry to stop unwanted free newspapers from being dropped in front yards. Shewell says her constituents...

Hunting homework.(STATELINE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Here's a new idea: provide hunter training in public schools. "It's a way to take this kind of education in the classroom and make it more convenient for young people," says West Virginia Senator Billy Wayne, who introduced a bill to allow...

Owl wins.(STATELINE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... A federal judge in February upheld protections for the endangered Mexican spotted owl in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, denying a legal challenge from Arizona cattle ranchers. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that 8.6 million...

Fish safety.(STATELINE)(Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission has issued consumption advisories for Ojibwe tribal members in the northern Great Lakes region to eat no more than four meals per month of walleye, a fish that commonly has concentrations of...

Faux fur fears.(STATELINE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... What if your faux fur coat wasn't faux after all? What if it was coyote, or raccoon or even dog! According to the Washington Post, the Humane Society reported that several big name stores were selling coats that were trimmed with raccoon dog,...

Four too many.(STATELINE)(binge drinking)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A U.S. Department of Health survey found that binge drinking is still popular, especially in the Midwest. Officials defined binge drinking as having five or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion within the past 30...

Cold shoulder for coal: concerns about the environment have stopped the building of new coal-tired power plants. But what will take their place?
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If history served as a guide, the application on behalf of the Sunflower Electric Power Corporation to build two new coal-fired power plants in western Kansas should have been a pretty routine thing. After all,...

Just the beginning: newborn screening and tracking diagnosed children into adulthood varies among states.(SCREENING NEWBORNS)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Stephen Monaco's life was forever changed on May 30, 2001. That morning the normally energetic 3-year-old who loved Clifford the Big Red Dog was found unresponsive. Today Stephen sits in a wheelchair, brain-damaged...

Closing the online tax loophole: the popularity of e-commerce has refocused the need to simplify sales taxes.
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Internet sales are a national phenomenon. Consumers spent $136.4 billion on purchases they made online in 2007, a 19 percent increase over the previous year. It's quick, it's easy, and in most cases you don't...

License to serve: a model law could make it easier for medical volunteers to respond immediately during emergencies.
April 1, 2008... When the next natural disaster, epidemic or terrorism act hits, will the stricken states be able to put enough health professionals from other states quickly to work? Physicians and other health care practitioners from all over responded...

Adults or kids? States debate what the best response is to teenagers who commit crimes.
April 1, 2008... When teenagers break the law, do they need rehabilitation or punishment? For several years in the 1990s, state lawmakers decided to treat young lawbreakers as adults, sending them to prison with tough sentences. In recent years, however, some...

As they see it.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... "When I first came here, people said, "You're the first comedian to come to the statehouse.' I say, "I'm the first professional comedian to come to the statehouse." --Vermont Representative Jason Lorber, who does standup gigs, produces...