State Legislatures articles from September 2005

State Legislatures archives from September 2005

Lawmaking--a personal business.(Inside the State House: Lessons from the Speaker )(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Inside rite State House: Lessons from the Speaker by Ralph G. Wright. May 2005. CQ Press, Washington, D.C., 236 pages. Paperback, $29.95. Ralph Wright, Vermont's longest serving speaker is a legend. A staunch liberal, be was elected in...

This is Senator Enzi.(CORRECTION)(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2005... State Legislatures apologizes for mistaking a photo of Casper Community College President Walter Nolte for Wyoming U.S. Senator Mike Enzi on page 60 of the July/August issue. The real Senator Enzi is pictured above and in the corrected version...

Driving while young.(STATESTATS)
September 1, 2005... Car wrecks are the leading cause of death for teens between the ages of 15 and 20, and the risk of crashing is especially high for teens during the first few years they have their licenses. Since the early 1990s, 44 states and the District...

People & politics.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Angela Monson, Tom Tedcastle, Laness Northrup )(Obituary)
September 1, 2005... Oklahoma Senator and former NCSL President Angela Monson is leaving the Legislature in the middle of her third Senate term because of the state law that limits legislative service. Following a challenge by her Republican opponent, the state...

Free lunch.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The change in the percent of children eligible for the free school lunch program has increased 24 percent between 1988 and 2003. In 2003, 30.5% of the nation's children were eligible. States with the highest percentage of children eligible are:...

Right to refuse vs. easy access.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(contraceptives, pharmacists)
September 1, 2005... Two pharmacists at a drugstore in Texas refused to fill a prescription for an emergency contraceptive known as the "morning after pill" for a woman said to be a rape victim. They were later fired. In Wisconsin, a judge reprimanded a...

Knowledge is power.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(SchoolMatters.com)
September 1, 2005... A Web-based national education data service that provides in-depth information and analysis about public schools, districts and state education systems, is now available to all SO states. At SchoolMatters.com you can find information on student...

Disclosure of data security breaches.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)
September 1, 2005... ChoicePoint, a corporation that collects and compiles personal and financial information on millions of consumers, disclosed last February that it been the victim of a security breach. The company had sold personal information about almost...

Birthday blues.(STATELINE)(drinking laws)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Hoping to stop "power hour" drinking excesses, North Dakota recently approved legislation that orders bars to wait until 8 a.m. to serve any customer who has just turned 21 years old. The law is targeted at customers who begin drinking just...

Pack a picnic, please.(STATELINE)(Michigan Department of Natural Resources)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Facing a $3 million deficit, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is getting creatively aggressive in luring campers, fisherman and hunters into its parks. The department is increasingly reliant on user fees to pay its bills because the...

Classroom computing.(STATELINE)(South Dakota, Maine, Wyoming, more classrooms with computers)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... When it comes to making school computers available to students, South Dakota, Maine and Wyoming lead the way. According to Education Week's Technology Counts report, they have the most access to computers and the Internet per students. Oregon,...

There's money in noni.(STATELINE)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Hawaii is looking at a traditional healing plant as a potential new agricultural industry. For centuries, residents of the South Pacific have used the noni plant to treat a host of ills, from arthritis to breathing problems to pain. The...

Lion kill.(STATELINE)(license to kill sea lions, salmon protection)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Four Indian tribes want state agencies in Washington and Oregon to give them the authority to protect salmon by killing sea lions that are feasting on them in the Columbia River near Bonneville Dam. The Marine Mammal Protection Act gives states...

Poultry poop's a problem.(STATELINE)(streams contamination)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Lawmakers in Arkansas listened to a presentation by developers of a product that could reduce the amount of phosphorous in chicken litter by as much as 75 percent. They asked for a grant to do a pilot project. The problem is that a common...

Tanning temptations.(STATELINE)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Tanning salons are feeling the heat from state lawmakers who are proposing bills that would force patrons to sign waivers stating they are aware of the potential hazards. Those include rashes, eye damage and the risk of skin cancer. Many bills...

Health food/health care.(STATELINE)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Patients visiting Kaiser Permanente's Oakland, Calif., Medical Center may want to take a grocery list along. Promoting the idea that good health begins with good eating, the health care provider started a first-in-the-nation food market...

And the winners are ...(STATELINE)(National Civic League, All-America Cities Award)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The National Civic League recently crowned the 2005 winners of the All-America Cities Award. They are (in alphabetical order by state): Seward, Alaska; Canoga Park, California; Lauderhill, Florida; Pompano Beach, Florida; Port Huron, Michigan;...

Horses, more or less?(STATELINE)(wild horse population)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Unhappy with what he calls perennial under-counts of Utah's wild horse population by the Bureau of Land Management, Senator Tom Hatch, a rancher, believes the state could--and should--do a better job of managing the herd. "]'he wild horses have...

Shower and shave.(STATELINE)(Mt. Rushmore statues cleaned)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Washington's chin was dirty and that could have pockmarked the president's complexion. Lichens were eating away at Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln and Washington. But help came from the across the ocean. A German company donated a free hot water...

Clicking through classes.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2005... Moving can be stressful for any teenager. But when 15-year-old Kaitlyn Parrott began high school near her new home in Lee County, Fla., she was traumatized to the point of losing the will to live. "It was a nightmare from day one," said her...

Higher ed: dangers of an unplanned future: this education expert believes we need to engage in a national dialogue to discuss funding, pricing, governance and society's expectations for public colleges and universities.
September 1, 2005... There is cause for concern about the future of public higher education. The unease is driven in part by the recent cuts in state funding of most public universities and by the harsh reality that today's strains are merely a continuation of a...

Supreme decisions: as usual, the states won some and lost some during the recent Supreme Court session.
September 1, 2005... The Supreme Court ended its term during the summer by upholding the states' broad power over property and taxing, but these wins were offset by the loss of its strongest voice for states' rights with the retirement of Justice Sandra Day...

The States' champion: Sandra Day O'Connor was an eloquent defender of the states' role in our federal system.
September 1, 2005... Sandra Day O'Connor was a pioneer for women before she was named to the Supreme Court in 1981. A decade earlier, she was the first woman to be the majority leader of the Arizona Senate. And in her long career at the U.S. Supreme Court, she...

Mile high turnover: Democrats, controlling both chambers for the first time in 44 years, try to dig Colorado out of a budget mess.
September 1, 2005... Republican lawmakers watching a small group of jubilant Democrats saunter into the Colorado House of Representatives singing and strumming "When the Saints Go Marching In," may have looked out the window onto that snowy January morning and...

Write it right: there's nothing like a letter to make constituents feel appreciated. Let them know you value their input by answering their correspondence promptly.(TOOLS OF THE TRADE)
September 1, 2005... People are more likely to be involved--and trust government--if they receive personalized letters from their elected representatives. Writing to your constituents is a great way to respond to inquiries, provide information about your work and...

Questioning capital punishment: DNA has been used to exonerate a number of death cow inmates, calling into question the reliability of the system.
September 1, 2005... Convicted serial rapist and killer Michael Ross was on Connecticut's death row for 18 years. He was executed in May. Connecticut had not executed anyone in 44 years, most of Ross' life. As appeals are exhausted and execution dates close in on...

As they see it.(political leaders)
September 1, 2005... "Democrats say it was God saying we didn't spend enough, and Republicans say is was because we spent too much." --New Hampshire Representative Neal Kurk, in the Associated Press, on the timing of a lightning strike that forced evacuation of...