State Legislatures articles from September 2002

State Legislatures archives from September 2002

Free "Custom" bill tracking. (Letters/Books).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Editor: In the July/August State Legislatures the Statestats article, "America Goes Online," lists states with free bill tracking services. Kansas has offered such a service for over a decade. Also on the site are calendars, journals,...

New Book on Privacy Laws. (Letters/Books).
September 1, 2002... Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws, by Robert Ellis Smith, Privacy Journal, Providence, R.I., 2002. 112 pages, $31 plus $4 shipping. To order send check to P.O. Box 28577, Providence, R.I. 02908. www.privacyjournal.net Robert...

Tax Freedom Days. (Statestats).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... The Tax Foundation annually calculates each state's Tax Freedom Day--the symbolic day when workers stop working to pay taxes and start working to earn money for themselves. The analysis includes all federal, state and local taxes. As a...

Ewe won't believe what New Hampshire is doing. (On First Reading).(use of sheep to control tree growth under power lines)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... As Joyce Kilmer noted in his poem, trees are lovely. Except when they grow tall and hit power lines--resulting in outages to customers, safety hazards and costly repairs. In fact, trees are the second most common cause of power outages. ...

Telemarketing regulations: A solution or a violation? (On First Reading).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Public meetings started this past summer on a proposal by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for a national "do not call" list. It would allow consumers to call one toll-free telephone number in order to stop most out-of-state telemarketing...

Report rates women's health: improvements needed. (On First Reading).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Are women getting the health care they need or deserve in the relatively affluent United States? Yes and no. "Despite limited advances, America s health policies are still failing women," says the National Women's Law Center, which...

Up in smoke (or maybe not): states eye crematoriums. (On First Reading).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Bodies and body parts in various stages of decomposition lay scattered about the grounds of the Georgia crematorium. Some rested in the woods, some were stacked in outbuildings, some in the pond... but none had been consigned to the flames as...

A levy on latte? (Stateline).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... A group of child care advocates in Seattle, Wash., birthplace of Starbuck's, wants to tax espresso drinks to improve the quality of the city's child care, including increasing workers' wages and helping low income families afford good care. The...

Unprepared teachers. (Stateline).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... States have a long way to go to meet the new federal requirement for a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom, charges U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. In his recent report to Congress on the state of teacher quality, he condemns...

Unfinished business. (Stateline).(adornment for Kansas capitol dome)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Kansans have been debating, discussing and arguing about a statue for the top of their Capitol dome since 1901. That year, the Legislature felt that a statue was too extravagant. Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, was to be the adornment,...

The nose knows. (Stateline).(Colorado identification cards)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Getting a fake ID in Colorado will be a whole lot harder after a new facial recognition system begins mapping the faces of everyone with a Colorado driver's license. The new technology will become a central security feature of the state's...

State house beautiful. (Stateline).(South Dakota)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... When driving through South Dakota, a stop at the Capitol in Pierre is a must. The building is beautiful, but the grounds are gorgeous! Congratulations go to the lawn keepers of the South Dakota State Capitol. It recently was named one of the...

Going to school at home. (Stateline).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... This fall, Idaho joins about a dozen states that have "cyber" charter schools, offering on-line instruction. This fall, any kindergartner through fifth grader in Idaho can enroll. He needs only a computer, and the school will even supply that,...

Got your goat? (Stateline).(marketing goat meat)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Goats, those animals who eat just about anything, are the latest cash crop for farmers seeking to diversify. Farmers have figured out that recent immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East are hungry for their...

Alcoholic look-alikes. (Stateline).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... For the first time, Iowa has removed a product from its list of about 1,300 alcoholic items because of safety concerns. Zippers, 24-proof gelatin shots, will no longer be allowed on Iowa's liquor store shelves. Lynn Walding, executive director...

A gift or a bribe? (Stateline).(Vermont requires reporting of gifts from drug companies to doctors and nurses)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Vermont has become the first state to take aim at drug companies' practice of showering free gifts--from ballpoint pens to trips--on doctors and nurses. Under the new law, any gift valued at $25 or more, other than free drug samples, must be...

Runoff worse than spills. (Stateline).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Petroleum released into U.S. coastal waters comes mostly from people, not spills from oil tankers. The National Research Council recently reported that 29 million gallons of oil enter the oceans around North America each year. Of that, 15.6...

A flood of new faces: Election 2002 will bring peak turnover in legislatures, what with redistricting and term limits kicking in.(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... The 2002 state elections are going to look like the old saying about what brides should wear ON their wedding day--something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Old issue are back again. Education, health care and the...

Letting the voters decide: initiatives and referendums around the country will give voters plenty to think about this November.
September 1, 2002... It's still too early to say definitively what will be on the ballot this fall in the 24 initiative states, but at least 28 initiative measures had qualified at press time, as well as more than 80 measures referred to the ballot by legislatures....

School funding--what's enough? determining exactly what is needed to do a good job teaching our children continues to be elusive. But there are some ideas that may help.
September 1, 2002... It's the newest wrinkle in a decades-old debate. Schools, in order to educate kids, need an idea of what a good education is and enough money to pay for it. The process of getting there can be "a nightmare," says Ohio Senate President Richard...

Focusing on results for kids: when it comes to children's issues, some Maryland legislators are trying to shift the focus of the legislative process from operations to results. It isn't easy.
September 1, 2002... What would state government look like if it paid more attention to the ends instead of the means? Could it mean better lives for children? Maryland legislators want to know. And using a new approach to legislating that focuses on results...

When foster care ends: for teens who grew up in foster care, starting life on their own is a jarring, sometimes frightening change. What are states doing to support their transition to adulthood?
September 1, 2002... Texas child welfare workers became involved in Gibby Serna's life when he was only 3 years old. At first he was placed with his grandparents, but they had trouble taking care of him. At 6, he entered the formal foster care system. For the...

The public life of e-mail: states need to decide if lawmakers' e-mails constitute a public record. Court cases are forcing the issue.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... What's in a word? Or, more importantly, what's in the e-mail people use to chat incessantly across the Internet? Plenty, say news organizations campaigning to make lawmakers' e-mail a matter of public record. Four news groups have sued...

Addicted to taxes: The only tax it might be popular to raise is the one on cigarettes.(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... There's hardly a legislator today who doesn't remember George H.W. Bush's infamous "read my lips" quote. Lawmakers in every state have had "no new taxes" on their lips for the past decade and are determined to respect that pledge. But...

Supreme Court sides with states--again: once more states won more than they lost in cases before the country's highest court.
September 1, 2002... The states continued a winning record in the U.S. Supreme court again this year. The justices upheld the principle that lawmakers can aid parents who choose private or parochial schools for their children. They opened the door somewhat for...

The legislature is like...: in response to last September's article looking at that old metaphor about the similaritities of making laws and making sausage, readers come up with metaphors of their own.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Last September we asked our readers to respond to an article by Alan Rosenthal that examined the metaphor comparing the legislature to a sausage factory attributed to German chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898). That age-old...