State Legislatures articles from January 2006

State Legislatures archives from January 2006

Statistics good only if all factors considered.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... Editor: In regards to your Oct/Nov 2005 issue Stateline section, "Hard Heads or Helmets" article, it is noted that motorcycle deaths increased 81 percent since the helmet law was repealed in Florida. What you don't include in your article...

Minnesota has 67 senators.(LETTERS)(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2006... Editor: In your Sept. 2005 issue of State Legislatures on page 6 you incorrectly state that the Minnesota Senate consists of 98 seats. The actual number is 67 seats. Christopher Martin House Republican Research Minnesota

Don't forget Nebraska.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... Editor: You missed Nebraska on the map in your December issue of State Legislatures showing states with tax incentives for restoration and rehabilitation of historic buildings. In 2005, we passed LB66 that provides property tax abatements...

Our children's well-being.(STATESTATS)(social and demographic conditions)(Illustration)
January 1, 2006... More kids are finishing high school. The teen birth rate is dropping. And fewer children live in single-parent households. That's good news. But 4 million children--an increase of more than 1 million since 2000--live with parents who face...

Lee Daniels, a 30-year veteran of the Illinois House, long time Republican leader, one-term speaker and former president of NCSL, has announced he will not seek another term.(People & Politics)
January 1, 2006... Lee Daniels, a 30-year veteran of the Illinois House, long time Republican leader, one-term speaker and former president of NCSL, has announced he will not seek another term. Daniels, who is a partner in a Chicago law firm, will also chair a...

Jim Bruce.(People & Politics)(resigns from Kentuky. General Assembly)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Kentucky's longest-serving member in state history will step down at the end of his term. Representative Jim Bruce was first elected to the General Assembly in 1964. His legislative career has spanned the administrations of 10 governors. Bruce...

The oldest member of the Delaware General Assembly has announced she will step down at the end of the current session. Representative Tina Fallon, 88, is serving her 14th term.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The oldest member of the Delaware General Assembly has L announced she will step down at the end of the current session. Representative Tina Fallon, 88, is serving her 14th term. She brought some 50 family members, friends and supporters to her...

Oklahoma Speaker Todd Hiett, who led the GOP to its first majority in 80 years in the election of 2004, has announced he is running for lieutenant governor.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Oklahoma Speaker Todd Hiett, who led the GOP to its first majority in 80 years in the election of 2004, has announced he is running for lieutenant governor. Elected in 1994 at age 27, Hiett became House minority leader in 2002. As speaker, he...

Rupert Theobald.(People & Politics)(chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Rupert Theobald, the respected former chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau for 30 years, died Nov. 9 after a lengthy illness. Theobald was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1930, and came to Wisconsin at age 20 to study at the...

Alabama Representative Jack Venable, chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, died in November of leukemia.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
January 1, 2006... Alabama Representative Jack Venable, chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, died in November of leukemia. He was 66. First elected to the House in 1974, Venable was editor and publisher of the Tallahassee Tribune, former member of the...

Dennis Byars.(People & Politics)(First and 14th Amendments of the Constitution's violation )(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... A Nebraska senator, whose re-election bid was rejected by the secretary of state, is filing a challenge to the state's term-limits law with the Nebraska Supreme Court. Senator Dennis Byars filed for re-election even though he has served the...

Going after video game violence.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... California has passed a law to ban the sale or rental of ultra-violent video games to children under the age of 18 unless they have permission from their parents. "Ultra-violent" is defined as depicting serious injury to human beings in a...

Sticker shock.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(expected cost of heating a home with heating oil and natural gas)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
January 1, 2006... NATURAL GAS Expected cost of heating a home with natural gas this winter. Nationwide, nearly 62,000 homes use natural gas. $673 40.6% $1,1278 49.5% $1,305 26.9% $959 44.4% National average $1,048--41.2%...

Price gouging: not in my state.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... In the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, over 40 bills aimed at protecting citizens from price gouging schemes were introduced in at least 13 legislatures. Three states--Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia--passed amendments in 2005 that...

The lowly shepherd.(STATELINE)(law on sheepherder's employment)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Wyoming lawmakers are looking at a proposal to make it a crime to offer a better job to a sheepherder. The problem, according to the Wyoming Wool Growers Association, is b-a-a-a-a-d. Sheepherders, who are typically foreigners earning about $800...

Finger pushups?(STATELINE)(physical education in schools)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Squeezed out of many test-driven curriculums, gym classes are on the decline in many schools. Yet we've all heard the startling fitness statistics of today's youth. So some high school students at a handful of Arizona schools (and elsewhere...

Fired up by wood.(STATELINE)(school districts to heat schools using waste wood and other biomass to avoid rising natural gas price)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Voters in Kellogg, Idaho, have approved a bond to heat schools using waste wood and other biomass to avoid rising natural gas prices. They are the second school district in the state to do so. The biomass system will burn about 600 tons of wood...

Warm river.(STATELINE)(global climate change )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... A significant decline in the number of days in which ice affected the flow of northern New England rivers provides more evidence that the region's winters are milder than they used to be. The U.S. Geological Survey studied 16 rivers in Maine,...

Cord promise.(STATELINE)(public umbilical cord and placental blood banks by New Jersey )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... New Jersey has created the nation's first public umbilical cord and placental blood banks specifically for use in research. "We have a responsibility to pursue every single research opportunity," said former acting Governor Richard Codey. State...

College catalyst.(STATELINE)(college scholarships for high school graduates )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Anonymous benefactors are offering college scholarships for at least the next 13 years to nearly all high school graduates in Kalamazoo, Mich. The scholarships will be good at any of Michigan's public universities or community colleges. The...

But does it smell?(STATELINE)(ethanol plant in Nebraska to use cow manure)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... A new ethanol plant under construction in Nebraska will use cow manure from 30,000 feedlot cattle as its energy source--a first of its kind, according to the company, E3 BioFuels. Company officials say their complex will be a "closed loop"...

Rockfish rock.(STATELINE)(spawning)
January 1, 2006... One of the Chesapeake Bay's most popular sport fish, the rockfish, is making a comeback. Also known as the striped bass, state officials in Maryland say the recent rate of successful spawning is significantly above its 52-year average. A...

New gold rush.(STATELINE)(gold mining)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... There's gold in them thar hills. And with prices hovering at $460 an ounce, Alaska hasn't seen this kind of frenetic exploration for it since the early 1980s. Other precious metals, including nickel and copper, are also fetching a high price....

Knife bonanza.(Transportation Security Administration's weapon auction)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Forgetting what's in their pockets, lots of people have had their nifty little Swiss Army knives confiscated at airport security check points. In Wisconsin, officials just recently held their first online auction of these potential weapons...

Worker friendly.(STATELINE)(Work Environment Index' survey)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The Work Environment Index recently rated working environments in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in terms of average pay, employment opportunities, employee benefits, percentage of low-income workers, fair treatment between genders and...

Challenges in 2006: states' top 10.(National Conference of State Legislatures)
January 1, 2006... Here's a forecast of the hot policy issues facing legislatures this session. 2006 will be an intense year for state lawmakers. They'll react to the natural disasters, federal actions and court decisions of 2005. And they'll look years...

Washington watch: 10 top issues for states: state lawmakers have to keep an eye on Congress this session defending against unfunded mandates and preemption.
January 1, 2006... Washington's budget deficit reduction plans end up costing states money. Concerns about cost shifts and preemption will be the predominant themes for state legislatures when Congress reconvenes this month. "Congress seems to be exporting...

Leaders: what matters now: state legislatures magazine gathered a group of legislative leaders to talk about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Here's what they had to say.(CONVERSATIONS)
January 1, 2006... CHANGES AHEAD SL: How do you see the role of the legislature--and the legislator--changing in 21st century America? House Minority Leader Bob Ward: We are already spending a lot more time on legislative business in Connecticut. Running...

How to create a great bill draft: follow these suggestions and get the bill you want.(TOOLS OF THE TRADE)
January 1, 2006... The public often hears about Senator Smith or Representative Rogers authoring a bill, but the days of legislators writing their own bills are long gone. State legislatures employ professional bill drafters to mold a legislator's idea into a...

Coloradans reach their limit with TABOR: in one of the fiercest issue campaigns watched nationwide, Colorado voters chose to give money back to the financially strapped state.(Taxpayer's Bill of Rights)
January 1, 2006... It is the national anti-tax movement's Foundation Stone--the Colorado constitution's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). This fall, big-government spenders sweet-talked voters into taking sledgehammers to The Rock. And by doing so, taxpayers...

Schwarzenegger rebuffed: voters soundly defeated the California governor's ballot measures, and the Legislature may be stronger as a result.(Arnold Schwarzenegger)
January 1, 2006... Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's yearlong battle to wrest control of the state budget from the Legislature, move redistricting to an independent commission, and hem in California's powerful public employee unions fell flat on Election Day when...

Eminent domain--for the greater good? The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London has prompted states to look at their own eminent domain practices.
January 1, 2006... When Suzette Kelo received a notice from the city of New London, Conn., to vacate her property, little did she or the city know that they were about to embark upon an historic journey that would wend its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And...

Prime time democracy: a growing number of public affairs networks demystify democracy.
January 1, 2006... How's everybody positioned? Are we good to go?" a programming coordinator asks in the TVW control room as technicians switch from camera to camera, checking the lighting. One room away, on the set of "Inside Olympia," anticipation builds...

As they see it.(opinions on legislators on different issues)
January 1, 2006... "It sure looks like 'rational exuberance' is what we have here." --Chairman of the Washington House Finance Committee Representative Jim McIntire, commenting in the Olympian about an economic forecast that the state will take in an extra...