State Legislatures articles from October 2003

State Legislatures archives from October 2003

Gambling hits the jackpot in a few states.(Statestats)
October 1, 2003... Slot machines, video gaming, lotteries, casinos and racetracks are being eyed as a way to fill state budget shortfalls, but gambling is a hard sell in states that don't already allow it. Only Oklahoma has authorized a new form of gaming (a...

Eating fish is good for you ... sort of ...(On First Reading)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... If you purchase fish at a California grocery store, you'll see a sign that says: "WARNING! Pregnant and nursing women, women who may become pregnant, and young children should not eat the following fish: SWORDFISH, SHARK, KING MACKEREL, TILE...

Maine adopts low-cost health care plan.(On First Reading)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Sometimes it's hard to get much done in a week. Not so in Augusta, Maine, this past spring. In eight days in June, a new health plan passed through committee with unanimous support, passed both chambers of the Legislature by a greater than...

New life coming to a quarry near you.(On First Reading)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Wisconsin sand, stone and gravel quarries are no longer the pits--thanks to legislation that provides a new lease on life to closing sites. "A potential liability becomes an asset," says Philip Fauble, a hydrogeologist with the state...

States seek ways to stop infant SIDS deaths.(On First Reading)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Deaths from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) have been cut nearly in half in the decade following an American Academy of Pediatrics campaign to ensure babies were put to sleep on their backs. But there are still some 2,500 cases a year....

Mentoring lawyers.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The gap between theory and practice can be daunting to new law school grads. The disconnect between what they learned and real life has prompted a few states to consider whether providing attorneys with a mandatory, formal apprenticeship after...

Can you read this?(prescription legibility)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Pharmacists and patients have long struggled to read doctors' written prescriptions, sometimes leading to dangerous errors. Now Florida and Washington require, by law, that doctors write legibly. In Florida, doctors must spell out months rather...

Homeland security testing site.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... A new homeland security testing, demonstration and training site has just been established by the U.S. Department of Energy near Casper, Wyo. The area's varied types of terrain, availability of land, unique facilities, vacant buildings,...

Fury over foreign garbage.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Michigan has a $40 million agreement with Toronto, Canada, to accept 1.1 million tons of trash each year into its landfills. But some groups are concerned with the environmental and national security risks the rubbish presents. In addition to...

Execution without doctors.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Illinois recently passed a law removing the requirement for doctors to be involved with executions, either by administering a lethal injection or pronouncing the death of a prisoner. It declared that assisting in or performing a lethal...

Chatting with Utah government.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Renewing car registrations, applying for marriage licenses and trying to do a hundred other things online just got easier in Utah. The state's Web site recently added a live "chat" service so that, in real time, a state customer service...

A national winner.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Cinda Hughes, a receptionist for the Oklahoma Senate, won this year's Ms. Wheelchair America pageant. "I was very grateful and very surprised and overwhelmed by the confidence people had in me," she said. Senate President Pro Tern Cal Hobson...

Goose on the loose.(Canadian geese)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Connecticut residents have had all they can take. The state's 57,000 nonmigratory Canada geese (and the pound of droppings each one leaves a day) have been multiplying wildly. So the legislature passed a law to allow homeowners to kill geese....

Tax cheaters beware.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The federal government is asking states to help them ferret out tax cheaters, who cost it billions of dollars annually. The IRS hopes to sign agreements with tax authorities in all 50 states--even those that don't have a state income tax--to...

Primary apathy.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Voter turnout is dismal in the United States. And in party primary elections, it is almost nonexistent. This is especially troubling because primaries determine the overall winner in most legislative districts. Voters in Virginia and New Jersey...

Falling birth rate.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... American women had even fewer babies last year, putting the birth rate at a record low. The rate was 13.9 per 1,000 people in 2002, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced. That compares with 14.1 a year ago. The most recent...

The influence of TV.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... A bill informally dubbed the Kramer-Newman Prevention Act was recently signed into law in California. The law penalizes those who profit from out-of-state bottle deposit scams similar to that attempted in a "Seinfeld" episode. The TV characters...

Teacher tracking.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... In Delaware, parents can find out quite a lot about their child's teacher long before school even starts. The Delaware Educator Data System, part of the state Department of Education's Web site, allows public access to information about every...

Paying for the pleasure.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Everyone needs one from time to time. Other parts of the world have them. They're better than "for customers only" versions, If they're clean, who cares? What are they? Pay toilets. New York is hoping to overflow its coffers once 20 pay toilets...

Energy: vital, but vulnerable: the recent massive power outage caused people to stop, look and take stock of our critical energy infrastructure.
October 1, 2003... Turn on the water. Answer the phone. Surf the Internet. Heat your house. Flip on the lights. Every one of these activities depends on energy in ways that most people--including the 50 million American and Canadian citizens plunged into darkness...

Where does the buck stop when the bucks stop? It's tempting to seek a scapegoat for state budget woes, and critics have been quick to blame lawmakers. But a closer examination of the facts points to causes outside of policymakers' control.
October 1, 2003... It's been a tough two years for state legislatures. Facing the worst fiscal conditions since the Great Depression, states have struggled through a sea of red ink to balance budgets with woefully inadequate revenues. The fiscal problems in...

Connecting America 2003: National Conference of State Legislatures: the forum for America's ideas.
October 1, 2003... As states' economies negotiated a precarious corner this summer, legislators from across the nation met in San Francisco to find strength, hope and inspiration in each other. The National Conference of State Legislatures brings together...

'Civic soldiers' honored at NCSL meeting.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Twenty state legislators and legislative staff members from 15 states who were called into recent military action were awarded the National Conference of State Legislatures' Medal of Civic Honor in July. NCSL paid tribute to those who...

Idaho speaker recognized for term limits efforts.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The nation's leading state legislative organizations bestowed their highest honor, the William M. Bulger Excellence in Leadership Award, on Idaho Speaker Bruce Newcomb for his 14 years in leadership and for his role in overturning Idaho's...

Utah House Speaker, Mississippi staff director receive top NCSL posts.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Utah House Speaker Martin Stephens was named the new NCSL president at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Max Arinder, executive director of Mississippi's Legislative PEER Committee, became the new NCSL staff chair. Speaker Stephens, a...

States end troubling fiscal year with balanced budgets.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The states that have balanced their budgets amid this fiscal crisis--the worst in decades--have done so largely without relying heavily on broad tax hikes, according to NCSL's mid-July fiscal report, "State Budget and Tax Actions 2003."...

Homeland security report outlines state efforts.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Since the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, state legislatures have been busy strengthening laws to prevent future terrorist activity, according to a report released at NCSL's 2003 Annual Meeting. "State legislators and our legislative staff...

Next stop: Salt Lake City.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The Utah Legislature will host the next NCSL Annual Meeting, July 19-23, 2004, in Salt Lake City. The meeting will draw the largest number of state lawmakers and legislative staff of any other national policy meeting. The conference theme,...

Budget woes push lawmakers into uncharted territory: relentless fiscal problems stood out as the biggest challenge facing lawmakers in 2003.
October 1, 2003... When most people reflect upon a standout year, they reminisce about noteworthy achievements, difficult to attain accomplishments and stellar performances. Yes, 2003 had some of those characteristics. But this year was marked more by the trials...

Will our leaders pass the back-to-school? Elected officials have to provide the support to keep education reforms working.(Where we stand: the AFT on critical issues)
October 1, 2003... You don't have to look far to find public schools where commonsense education reforms like class size reduction, proven reading programs, and higher standards are leading to increased achievement for students. But it's even easier to see that...

Keeping high quality teachers: it's difficult to argue against ensuring a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom. But some legislators are worried that states won't be able to recruit and retain enough teachers to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
October 1, 2003... On her first day of summer break, Melissa Fine, a sixth grade teacher at Thunder Ridge Middle School in Aurora, Colo., found out that, despite 25 years of classroom experience and 11 years of teaching math and science to sixth graders, she is...

Gerrymandering goes to court: this fall the U.S. Supreme Court will consider a little known case that could change the way legislative and congressional districts are redrawn.
October 1, 2003... Rarely does such a potentially landmark court case get so little press. But most people outside of Pennsylvania have never heard of Veith vs. Jubilirer, which will likely be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court early next year. Observers say it...

Grassroots health care coverage: local communities are trying novel approaches to providing care for the indigent and working uninsured.
October 1, 2003... The statistics are grim when it comes to health care in one of the wealthiest nations in the world: * There are 44 million Americans without health insurance. * The United States loses between $65 billion and $310 billion annually...