State Legislatures articles from October 2005

State Legislatures archives from October 2005

Kids having kids declines.(STATESTATS)
October 1, 2005... The teen birth rate fell to a record low in 2003--to 41.6 births per 1,000 women 15 to 19 years old, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That's the lowest number of births to women under 20 years of age since 1946, the first...

Connie Johnson, a former health and human services senior legislative analyst for the Oklahoma Senate, has won a bid to fill the seat being vacated by Senator Angela Monson.(People & Politics)
October 1, 2005... Connie Johnson, a former health and human services senior legislative analyst for the Oklahoma Senate, has won a bid to fill the seat being vacated by Senator Angela Monson. Monson, former president of NCSL, is chair of the Senate Education...

Georgia House Republicans saw their majority move to 100 in the 180-seat chamber when Representative Greg Morris switched parties in August.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Georgia House Republicans saw their majority move to 100 in the 180-seat chamber when Representative Greg Morris switched parties in August. First elected to the House in 1998, Morris said the GOP is more in line with his positions and those of...

Fourteen lawmakers and legislative staff called into military service received NCSL's Medal of Civic Honor at the Strong States, Strong Nation Annual Meeting in Seattle in August.(National Conference of State Legislatures)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Fourteen lawmakers and legislative staff called into military service received NCSL's Medal of Civic Honor at the Strong States, Strong Nation Annual Meeting in Seattle in August. "We pay tribute to men and women whose service strengthens our...

John Hurson.(Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association appoints executive vice president )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Former NCSL President John Hurson, delegate from Maryland, has resigned from the legislature to become a lobbyist on Capitol Hill. He will be executive vice president of government affairs for the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association....

Missouri voters will go the polls Nov. 8 to replace three legislators.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Missouri voters will go the polls Nov. 8 to replace three legislators. Republican Senator Larry Gene Taylor died in July. Republican Representative Richard Byrd died in May the day after the legislative session ended. Former Democratic...

Who represents the most constituents?(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Population per State Legislator in 2004 CALIFORNIA 295,704 TEXAS 122,202 FLORIDA 106,369 NEW YORK 90,519 OHIO 86,635

Who represents the least?(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... MONTANA 6,117 WYOMING 5,569 NORTH DAKOTA 4,495 VERMONT 3,439 NEW HAMPSHIRE 3,037 Sources: NCSL and Morgan Quitno Press, 2004.

More young adults uninsured.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... UNINSURED AGES 19-29, FY 2000 11 MILLION UNINSURED AGES 19-29, FY 2003 13 MILLION Thirty percent of young adults aged 19 to 29 lack health insurance, nearly double the rate for adults over 30. Thirteen million young people in 2003 had...

Counting on the future: changing demographics.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)
October 1, 2005... Demographic forecasting is becoming a popular tool to help lawmakers make informed decisions on myriad public policy issues, a leading demographer told state legislators and staff at the National Conference of State Legislatures' 2005 "Strong...

Marketing of prescription drugs gets attention.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)
October 1, 2005... Lawmakers are considering a variety of new requirements on pharmaceutical manufacturers. The legislation would require the companies to report gifts to doctors, to report or restrict direct-to-consumer advertising, to publicly disclose or post...

Cars now safer in parking lots.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Tucked into the new highway bill passed by Congress in late July is a provision that authorizes states and localities to enact laws that would protect citizens from unscrupulous towing companies. This national solution is based on a similar law...

WiFi, why not?(whether municipal government should provide internet service )
October 1, 2005... When your city utility bill arrives, could it soon include water, garbage... and wireless broadband Internet? Legislators attending the Annual Meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Seattle heard a panel of experts...

Here come da ferrets.(Wyoming plans to breed black-footed ferrets)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... State and federal wildlife officials plan to reintroduce a group of black-footed ferrets north of Medicine Bow, Wyo., in an effort to expand the range of the first reintroduced colony. Black-footed ferrets were feared to be extinct before the...

Taxing troubles.(North Carolina's electronic funds transfer systems collects four time the correct amounts)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Taxpayers in North Carolina got a bit of a shock after a new electronic payments system withdrew up to four times the correct amounts of withholding taxes from their checking accounts. More than 350 tax-payers who arranged for the state to...

City politics.(direct correlation between a city's political ideology and its racial makeup)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... A new study by the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research ranks the political leanings of American cities. Detroit; Gary, Ind.; and Berkeley, Calif., win as the most liberal and Provo, Utah; and Lubbock and Abilene, Texas, come in as...

How are the kids?(Kids Count Data Book)(Brief Article)(E-book Review)
October 1, 2005... Legislators and legislative staff familiar with the KIDS COUNT Data Book, published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, take note. Profiles of children's well-being are now available online by state legislative district. The resource includes...

Pretty people pay.(state legislatures imposes tax on certain cosmetic surgery procedures for funding health care for the poor )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... A growing number of states are considering raising general revenues and funding health care for the poor by taxing certain cosmetic surgery procedures, including face-lifts, hair transplants, tummy-tucks, liposuction and Botox injections,...

The gross factor.(STATELINE)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Oregon recently joined 11 other states in allowing students to forego a teenage right-of-passage--dissecting fetal pigs and formaldehyde-soaked frogs in science classes. They can now learn about anatomy through models, interactive CD-ROMs or...

Let it snow.(Wyoming weather modification project)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Parts of Wyoming should see a direct increase in snow pack of at least 10 percent due to a new cloud-seeding program to begin this winter. The Sierra Madre, Medicine Bow and Wind River mountain ranges are the targets for the state-funded...

Student drinking.(STATELINE)
October 1, 2005... The California Legislature recently passed two bills limiting the sale of certain high fat and sugar drinks and snacks in vending machines and school stores on all public school campuses. The new laws are considered to be the most stringent in...

Hard heads or helmets?(STATELINE)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... New Hampshire safety officials say a rise in motorcycle fatalities is not related to the lack of a mandatory helmet law. The state's highway safety coordinator says deaths likely are up because more people are riding without taking safety...

Paying to puff.(Utah State Tax Commission sent notices of taxes to smokers )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The Utah State Tax Commission has tracked down smokers who owe the state more than $130,000. They bought their cigarettes over the Internet without paying taxes. Notices of taxes due were mailed to 250 Utahans identified by the companies from...

What? Constitution day.(STATELINE)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Did you take note of this year's Constitution Day (September 17)? It might have been more obvious because U.S. Senator Robert Byrd recently got a requirement tucked into a massive appropriations bill that every one of the estimated 1.8 million...

Lessons of Rocky flats: three state and federal agencies set aside distrust to clean up one of America's dirtiest Superfund sites.(Cover Story)
October 1, 2005... Hillside 881. It certainly wasn't the dirtiest spot within Colorado's 6,250-acre Rocky Flats plant--a Superfund site of epic proportions that had once been a nuclear weapons complex during the Cold War. Eighteen drums of buried radioactive...

Trade rules gamble with state laws: the WTO ruling on Internet gambling seems to favor the states, but some fear it also left the door open for another challenge in the future.
October 1, 2005... When North Dakota Representative Jim Kasper introduced two bills earlier this year to legalize online poker, he thought he was identifying an untapped revenue source by acknowledging "what a lot of people are doing every day." "There are...

Bliss or blues: with state revenue performance improving, states appear to have turned the corner on the latest national recession.(STATE BUDGETS)
October 1, 2005... State budgets are healthier than they've been in five years, thanks to improving revenues and careful balancing of priorities. Although the downturn seemed to last forever, the turnaround has occurred quickly. While final numbers for fiscal...

Editorial boards: the power of influence: winning an endorsement from a newspaper editorial board can spur public support for an issue or even change a candidate's political fate.(TOOLS OF THE TRADE)
October 1, 2005... Trying to persuade an editorial board can be intimidating if you don't understand the process and know very little about the people who make the decisions. As Mark Twain said, "Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel." Politicians...

The rise and fall of the California governor: Schwarzenegger's approval ratings, along with the Legislature's, have taken a nose-dive after a divisive and unproductive year.(Arnold Schwarzenegger)
October 1, 2005... Riding high in the polls and brimming with confidence, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger greeted Republicans at a party convention in February with a call to action for what he vowed would be an historic year of reform. The Democrats...

An ounce of prevention: early detection of certain diseases in infants can save lives and prevent suffering.
October 1, 2005... Like most parents, Jill Kelly and her husband, Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly were thrilled when their infant son Hunter came home from the hospital. Along with the new arrival came sleepless nights, but the Kellys were pros, with two...

Quotes from NCSL's "Strong States, Strong Nation" 2005 annual meeting.(AS THEY SEE IT)
October 1, 2005... "I probably get more spare than anyone." --Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who noted that he was intrigued by one spare e-mail that, for a few dollars a month, promised to pay his legal bills. "It's a little ironic to have a university...

Utah legislative web site wins Online Democracy Award.(SEATTLE HOSTS 2005)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Utah's state legislative Web site was recognized for its design, content and technology at the NCSL 2005 Annual Meeting. Two national organizations, the Legislative Information and Communication Staff Section and the National Association for...

Lawmakers enact policy resolutions.(National Conference of State Legislatures's principles for medicaid reform)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... State lawmakers enacted policy resolutions in Seattle that will guide NCSL's lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill over the next year. Chief among them was a set of guiding principles on Medicaid reform. Legislators and legislative staff spent the...

Officers pass the gavel.(National Conference of State Legislatures appoints new office bearers)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... New officers took charge at NCSL's Annual Meeting. Illinois Senator Steve Rauschenberger is now NCSL president and Susan Clarke Schaar, clerk of the Virginia Senate, is staff chair. Senator Rauschenberger, a Republican, accepted the gavel...

Excellence in State Legislative Leadership Award.(John Chichester receives State Legislative Leadership Foundation award)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate John Chichester received the nation's top state legislative honor--the 2005 Excellence in State Legislative Leadership Award. Each year, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the...

State budget crises ebb.
October 1, 2005... State budgets are healthier than they've been in five years thanks to improving revenues and careful balancing of priorities by state legislators across the country, according to State Budget & Tax Actions 2005: Preliminary Report, released at...

Next stop: Nashville.(National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The strength of our nation will take center stage again at the 2006 "Strong States, Strong Nation" Annual Meeting in Nashville, August 15-18, 2006. Voices from legislatures across America will gather to give and receive insights on the issues...

Women's network turns 20.(Women's Legislative Network)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... The Women's Legislative Network of NCSL celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The group commemorated this milestone at the 2005 Annual Meeting in Seattle--the same city in which it was officially formed at NCSL's Annual Meeting in 1985....