State Legislatures articles from October 2004

State Legislatures archives from October 2004

Helping the poor save.(Statestats)
October 1, 2004... The poor not only make less money, they also have fewer assets and no savings. There's not just an income gap between the poorest citizens and the most affluent, there's also an asset gap. But some states are helping poor working families...

People & politics.(Trends And Transitions)
October 1, 2004... Former Louisiana House Speaker Hunt Downer has been named the state's first secretary of veterans' affairs, a newly created position in Governor Kathleen Blanco's cabinet. Downer, a seven-term legislator, a brigadier general and second in...

Tax facts.(Trends And Transitions)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... $1,725,811,146,000 The amount of federal income tax collections in 2002. $13,184 The average revenue collected per federal individual income tax return in 2002. $20,431 The average that Delaware residents paid in federal income taxes...

Vaccines = autism? Scientists say no.(Trends And Transitions)
October 1, 2004... No link between autism and childhood vaccines has been proven, but the mere suggestion has had a negative impact on public health. Unvaccinated children have succumbed to and spread diseases that could have been prevented, as parents in eight...

The power of unity.(Trends And Transitions)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Insurance regulation is a state-based system that allows state leaders to meet local needs, but there are areas where everyone agrees greater uniformity is needed. One such area is the regulation of investment insurance policies, such as...

Mini motorcycles putt through regulation loopholes.(Trends And Transitions)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... If you live in the suburbs, chances are pretty good that you've seen--and heard--neighborhood kids racing around on mini motorcycles or pocket bikes. They look like motorcycles, but are only a fraction of the size. And they are fast and loud...

Vermont fed up with feds over drug costs.(Trends And Transitions)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... There have been rumblings from states facing the pressures of ever rising drug prices. And several states--Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wisconsin--have actually set up Web sites where residents can order lower cost, foreign...

Child porn laws cast a wide web.(Trends And Transitions)
October 1, 2004... Child pornography is illegal, but the volume circulated on the Internet is staggering and the number of people obtaining, trading and distributing these images is downright appalling." That was the assessment of Michael Heimbach, chief of the...

Big family boon.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Utah's big, stable, Mormon families--with extensive genealogical histories--are viewed by scientists as a perfect laboratory for the study of human genetics. Utah DNA is being used for scientific studies that seek to identify chromosomes linked...

Info for the masses.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Let's hear it for the Wyoming Legislature's Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee. It recently won an award from the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science for its leadership in making an online collection of eight...

Jury duty delight.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... People want to serve on juries and would prefer to be tried by juries if ever in court, according to a recent poll by the American Bar Association. Most Americans have a profound belief and trust in the jury system and disagreed with the...

Capturing history.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... A major concern about term limits is the lack of institutional memory and history in a legislature full of newcomers. Oklahoma Senate Media Specialist Malia Bennett plans to combat this problem with a compilation of recollections from...

Organ match.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Illinois is the first state to allow HIV-positive people to donate organs to other people living with HIV. Under current federal guidelines, organs from HIV-positive patients are discarded to prevent them from being transplanted to uninfected...

Smiley wins.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... License plate designs abound. Sometimes you can't tell what state they're from. And they even have their own beauty pageant. The Automobile License Plate Collectors Association recently announced their best license plate awards. And the winner...

Charter school challenge.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Since 2000, Arizona has passed along federal funding to approximately 30 for-profit education providers controlling an estimated 75 charter schools in the state. A 2004 U.S. Department of Education audit questioned the schools' authority to...

Michigan top digital state.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The Top 10 most digitally advanced state governments in the nation have been identified in a survey by the Center for Digital Government. The study examined the best practices, policies and progress made by state governments using digital...

A cliff hanger.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... An innovative library program in Phoenix is winning all kinds of awards--and getting kids to read, online. Librarian and youth services coordinator Tim Wadham put together federal and state grants with children's author James M. Deem to create...

Iowa's clean.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Iowa ranked lowest in the nation in the use of illegal drugs, according to a survey by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The state also has one of the nation's oldest populations, which could help account for...

Daisy delivers.(Stateline)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Miss Daisy (named for the movie "Driving Miss Daisy") is a $150,000 robot that Wyoming has purchased to handle bombs and hazardous waste anywhere in the state. She can be operated from a safe distance to remove and dismantle explosives. She...

Foiling I.D. thieves: identity theft is on the rise, and states are looking for ways to secure their citizens' vital records.
October 1, 2004... Every day in Des Moines, contract workers in the state Department of Public Health's Bureau of Health Statistics are involved in what seems to be an endless task: transferring more than 5 million birth, marriage and death records from old bound...

No bank, no rank: people without a checking or savings account find it hard to get ahead in life. States and the federal government are stepping in to help.
October 1, 2004... Imagine that today is pay day. Most of us won't receive an actual paycheck. The money will be deposited directly into our checking or savings accounts. It will be there waiting for us to draw it out through an automated teller machine (ATM),...

NCSL Annual Meeting 2004.(The Legislative Reality)
October 1, 2004... Today's state legislators serve in a complicated world. Technological advancements and cultural shifts have brought us to a time when it seems most anything is possible. As a result, more difficult choices bombard policymakers than ever before....

Two share top leadership award.(The Legislative Reality)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Connecticut House Minority Leader Robert M. Ward and South Carolina Speaker David H. Wilkins share the nation's top legislative honor, the 2004 Excellence in State Legislative Leadership Award. This is third time in the 10-year history of the...

The budget picture.(The Legislative Reality)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... States may be on the home stretch of a marathon budget crisis, NCSL's most recent state budget report shows. State Budget & Tax Actions 2004: Preliminary Report, released during the Annual Meeting, indicates that states ended fiscal year FY...

Passing the gavel.(The New Legislative Reality)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Maryland Delegate John Hurson became the new NCSL president at the Annual Meeting, and Jim Greenwalt, director of information systems for the Minnesota Senate, ascended to NCSL staff chair. Hurson, a Democrat, accepted the gavel from Utah...

Delegates adopt national policy positions.(The New Legislative Reality)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Major policy resolutions enacted at this meeting dealt with financial services, electronic commerce, welfare reform and drug reimportation. NCSL will call on Congress to swiftly consider and approve the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Act, giving...

Media offer perspective on NCSL's annual meeting.(The New Legislative Reality)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... After going to a handful of NCSL's annual meetings, I'd be among those who say there is value in the gatherings, inside and outside the meetings. Some states have found unique ways of dealing with problems faced by others." --Lucy Morgan,...

Next stop: Seattle.(The New Legislative Reality)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Since the moment the states came together to ratify our Constitution in 1788, the United States of America has evolved and challenged itself to become a stronger nation. And with new ideas and innovations coming from America's state...

The roar over credit scores: insurance companies love credit scoring, but consumer groups question who benefits from them. Legislators are looking at restrictions.
October 1, 2004... For insurers it seems like the perfect system a way to significantly reduce possible claims in a hard market made all the worse by the continuing effects of 9/11. It's called credit scoring. And it is a process that claims to be able to...

Debbe Leftwich: following in his footsteps: when her husband Keith died of cancer, Debbe Leftwich's family, friends and neighbors urged her to continue his legacy of public service.(One Of Our Own)
October 1, 2004... September 2004 marked two important milestones for Senator Debbe Leftwich. It was the one year anniversary of her husband's death and of her decision to carry on for him in the Oklahoma Senate. That journey actually began years earlier. It...

The perils of property tax: many legislatures cut or capped property taxes during the boom years of the 1990s, promising to make up local losses through sales and income taxes. But then the economy went bad, and they didn't do it.
October 1, 2004... State-local fiscal relations deserve another look in the wake of the economic recession that produced the deepest state deficits in 50 years. When coffers were brimming during the 1990s, states created new programs and services (and new...

Life after foster care: when foster kids turn 18, they often face great difficulties finding housing, health coverage, transportation, higher education, jobs, opening bank accounts and establishing credit.
October 1, 2004... In some ways, Risa Bejarano was a typical college sophomore. She worried about finding a place to live, getting a car and balancing school and work--all the things that trouble most college students. But in other ways, Risa was different....

Sunshine on a cloudy day ... a new federal standard to reduce smog is making states clear the air sooner rather than later.
October 1, 2004... Taxes weren't the only thing due on April 15. On that day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) charged all or parts of 474 counties in 31 states with violating its new ozone standard or contributing to another county's failure to...

Preparing for the unthinkable: a crisis can hit at any moment. And every legislature needs a plan.(Tools Of The Trade)
October 1, 2004... New York City Hall was rattled by the fatal shooting of Brooklyn Councilman James Davis during a city council session last year, posing a tragic and immediate crisis for leaders. The priorities were to care for the injured, secure the crime...

As they see it.(quips by politicians)
October 1, 2004... "Hey, I'm an incurable romantic." --California Senate President Pro Tern John Burton, to Knight Ridder, on a bill to allow military personnel on active duty overseas to marry by proxy their sweethearts stateside. "We're neighbors. We...