Author: The Center Square

Dutch Semiconductor Company ASM to Invest over $300 Million into Arizona

The Center Square

The semiconductor industry continues to make waves in Arizona.

ASM International, a Dutch semiconductor equipment company with offices in Phoenix, announced that they are investing over $320 million into a new campus in Scottsdale. They have had a presence in Phoenix since the 1970s, but they said this expansion will help with their overall growth. The transition to the Scottsdale facility is expected to be completed in 2026. The company didn’t have any estimates on new jobs in the facility.

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Alabama’s Tuberville Ends Nine-Month Hold on Most Military Promotions

The Center Square

Alabama Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday ended his nearly 10-month hold on most military promotions over the Department of Defense’s abortion policies.

Tuberville made his stand in response to Pentagon policy using taxpayers’ money to give service members time off and pay to travel to other states for abortions. The policy from the Biden administration was enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

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Ford, Xcel Plan to Deploy 30,000 Electric Vehicle Chargers Nationwide by 2030 for Business Fleets

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Ford Pro, the commercial division within Ford Motor Co., and Xcel Energy, a clean energy company, will deploy 30,000 electric vehicle charging ports in Xcel Energy service territories nationwide by 2030.

Ford Pro and Xcel Energy are launching the 30×30 initiative within Xcel Energy’s broader Electric Vehicle Supply Infrastructure program to scale EV adoption and increase access to charging infrastructure.

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Florida Community College Enrollment Is Up 4.4 Percent Compared to Last Year

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According to Florida officials, the number of students enrolled in state community colleges is up 4.4% from last year, accounting for 59% of the state’s increase in college enrollment this year.

The Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research held its Education Estimating Conference on Monday to discuss the Sunshine State’s college system enrollment.

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New Evidences Shows Monthly Payments to President Biden from Hunter Biden’s Business

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House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released evidence Monday of regular monthly payments from one of Hunter Biden’s business entities to his father, President Joe Biden.

Comer released bank records obtained via subpoena that allegedly show direct monthly payments from one of Hunter Biden’s business entities, Owasco PC, which is also under investigation by the Department of Justice tax-related charges.

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4,000 Auto Dealers Say Electric Vehicles Are ‘Stacking Up’ on Lots

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About 4,000 auto dealers from all 50 states have signed a letter to President Joe Biden saying electric vehicles are “stacking up on our lots” as the demand for electric cars has “stalled.”

“BEVs [battery electric vehicles] are stacking up on our lots,” the auto dealers stated in the letter. “Last year, there was a lot of hope and hype about EVs. Early adopters formed an initial line and were ready to buy these vehicles as soon as we had them to sell. But that enthusiasm has stalled. Today, the supply of unsold BEVs is surging, as they are not selling nearly as fast as they are arriving at our dealerships – even with deep price cuts, manufacturer incentives, and generous government incentives.”

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Greatest Number of State Legislatures Pass School Choice Bills in 2023

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Students and Teacher

Multiple legislatures across the country attempted to pass or passed some form of school choice legislation this year.

“Policymakers in 40 states debated 111 educational choice bills – 79 percent of which related to ESAs,” Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, said when announcing the findings of a newly published EdChoice report, the “ABC’s of School Choice.”

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Nguyen Outlines Possible Legislation Tackling Free Speech Issues at Arizona Universities

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Arizona State Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, told an audience in Scottsdale on Wednesday about what actions Republican lawmakers may take in the next session targeting public universities on free speech issues.

“We actually drafted quite a few things, including changes to ABOR – Arizona Board of Regents – to sort of make things a little tighter,” he said on a panel at the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual summit. 

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Audit: King Center Spends State Money on Facility Repairs, Updates

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The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change has received roughly $2.2 million in state funds over the past six years and has spent about three-quarters of it.

That’s the finding of an audit the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts conducted at the request of the House Appropriations Committee. The center received the money — allocated through the Department of Economic Development’s tourism program — between fiscal 2017 and October, primarily for facility repairs and updates.

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Report: Tennessee Transit Lacks Dedicated Funding Sources

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Music City Star

Tennessee has two of the four among the largest 50 metro cities that doesn’t have set tax funding for transit agencies, according to a new report.

ThinkTennessee found Nashville and Memphis join Orlando and Hartford as the only four that don’t have dedicated transit funding. The report showed that 39 of those cities collect sales tax to fund transit with those taxes ranging from 0.375% to 2% bringing in an average $394 million annually.

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‘Drones for Ducks:’ Federal Grants Fund Research to Use AI to Count Birds

The Center Square

How should researchers measure the populations of migratory birds? Researchers developed an idea around a campfire that was put to the test for the first time in Bosque Del Apache earlier this month, according to the University of New Mexico.

Each winter, wildlife managers must count migratory waterfowl as they fly down into refuges. However, this is a difficult task that involves scaring birds into the air by flying past them in airplanes.

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Pennsylvania Using New Emergency Savings Account Strategy

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The Pennsylvania Treasury switched investment strategies this week to grow the state’s emergency savings account.

The change of course comes after three years of hefty deposits from the General Assemby in what’s known as the Rainy Day Fund – a $6.1 billion account meant to sustain operations during economic downturns. Since 2021, the balance has increased 25-fold, taking the state’s ability to fund the government from two days to 48 days.

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Report: Virginia Criminal Case Workload Nearly Doubled, Multiple Factors Blamed

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Lawyers Working

A recent report revealed that Virginia’s criminal defense court-appointed and public defense attorneys are underfunded and that most cases are now taking twice as long to defend — leading to an even greater disparity between pay and hours worked.

The report, assembled by the commission that reviews the operation of the commonwealth’s policies and state agencies, attributed increased workload per case to changes in technology, mental health and a slew of policies ushered in by the previous governor’s administration.

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Arizona Ends Contract with Private Prison, Saying It Will Save $15 Million

The Center Square

The state of Arizona ended its contract with a company that operated a correctional facility in Marana.

Gov. Katie Hobbs praised the move of the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry, arguing that it will save roughly $15 million — $5 million in fiscal year 2024 and $10 million in fiscal year 2025, according to the news release.

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Study: States with Restrictive Abortion Bans See 2.3 Percent Hike in Births After Roe Overturned

The Center Square

In the first half of 2023, roughly 32,000 babies were born in states that implemented abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, a 2.3% increase, according to a new analysis.

In the first six months of 2023, “births rose by an average of 2.3 percent in states enforcing total abortion bans,” leading to an estimated 32,000 births that might have otherwise been aborted, according to a new analysis published by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics initiated by the Deutsche Post Foundation.

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Tennessee Court Advisory Commission to Hold Open Meeting due to Injunction

The Center Square

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure will hold a Dec. 5 meeting in Nashville that the group plans to live stream after The Center Square received an injunction earlier this year to open the meetings to the public.

The Center Square Vice President of News and Content Dan McCaleb received a May injunction from a U.S. District Court judge against the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts to open the meetings.

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Nine Arrested for Michigan Unemployment Insurance Fraud

The Center Square

Nine Michiganders face chargers of unemployment insurance fraud and operating as unlicensed builders in a sweep that involved the attorney general’s office, along with several local agencies.

The Michigan Department of the Attorney General, alongside the Detroit Police Department and other law enforcement agencies arrested nine on charges of operating as unlicensed builders and unemployment insurance fraud.

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Connecticut Reduces Workers’ Compensation Rates for Employers

The Center Square

Connecticut businesses will pay less for workers’ compensation insurance next year, with the state again reducing premiums paid by private employers, which regulators say reflects an ongoing decline in claims. 

The Connecticut Insurance Department has approved an annual workers’ compensation rate filing for 2024 with a decrease of 9.8% in voluntary market loss costs and a decrease of 10.5% in assigned risk plan rates. 

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Florida Expanding Semiconductor Manufacturing Capabilities with $28 Million in Grants

The Center Square

In another push to reduce reliance on China and other foreign entities, Florida is expanding its semiconductor manufacturing capability.

More than $28 million was recently awarded through the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund to expand semiconductor manufacturing and chip manufacturing through five workforce development projects. The awards are part of a $50 million initiative Gov. Ron DeSantis launched in September dedicated to supporting Florida’s semiconductor industry. It expands on grants awarded last year to entities in Osceola County.

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Georgia Report Suggests Steps Congress Should Take to SNAP ‘Benefits Cliffs’

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Tennessee Star

Design flaws in the federal food stamp program hinder recipients’ upward economic mobility and effectively force them into governmental dependency.

That’s the upshot of a new Georgia Center for Opportunity report exploring possible solutions for addressing the benefits cliffs in safety-net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

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Northern Virginia’s Stafford County Public Schools Includes ‘Palestine’ While Excluding Israel in Multicultural Fair

The Center Square
'Palestine' poster at Stafford County Public School Multicultural Fair

A Northern Virginia middle school chose “Palestine” as their country to represent as part of a school district-wide multicultural fair, omitting any recognition of the State of Israel – including maps.

The fair was recently presented by the Stafford County Public Schools “to empower multicultural awareness” for students and the community. All 33 schools in the district participated, with nearly 1,000 in attendance. Schools “were able to choose the country they wanted to represent,” according to the school district.

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Critics: Proposal Would Harm Small Farms, Drive Up Consumer Prices

The Center Square

North Carolina’s small farmers will be challenged, and may need to sell their land to larger corporations, congressmen say.

Attorneys general, nearly two dozen of them, also are against a proposed Department of Labor rule for farm workers in the H-2A program they say gives “unionization protections” and places “the interests of foreign nationals over the interests of United States citizens.” Julie Su, the interim secretary of the department, says empowering the workers and ensuring fair treatment are the goals of the initiative, the third in less than a year.

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Treasury Fines Binance $3.4 Billion for Failure to Report Suspicious Activity by Terrorists

The Center Square

The U.S. Department of Treasury on Tuesday levied a $3.4 billion fine against Binance Holdings, Ltd. in a settlement with the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange for failure to prevent and report suspicious transactions with terrorist organizations.

Binance was accused by the Treasury of failing to implement programs to prevent and report suspicious transactions involving terrorist groups such as Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

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28 States Didn’t Have Enough Money to Cover Their Bills in Fiscal 2022: Report

The Center Square

In fiscal 2022, 28 states didn’t have enough revenue to pay all of their bills, according to the 14th annual Financial State of the States report, published by the Chicago-based nonprofit Truth in Accounting.

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of all 50 states based on the latest available data from states’ fiscal year 2022 annual comprehensive financial reports.

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Ohio House Moves Closer to Pushing Aside Federal Gun Laws

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Ohio gun owners moved a step closer to guarantees that federal laws could not be used to take away those guns.

The Ohio House Government Oversight Committee recently advanced the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which would stop Ohio law enforcement agencies from enforcing what the act calls unconstitutional federal gun control laws, executive orders or agency rule interpretations.

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Personal Property Taxes Punctuate Virginians’ Holiday Celebrations

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As the holidays approach, so does another, less joyful event for some Virginia localities: Personal property tax deadlines. 

All states impose real estate property taxes on their residents, but not all states levy taxes on other forms of property, like motor vehicles, boats, planes or mobile homes. WalletHub released a study in February showing that of the 26 states with vehicle property taxes, Virginia has the highest tax rate, hovering, on average, around 3.96 percent.

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No Current Republican Frontrunners for 2025’s Virginia Gubernatorial Contest

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With an early declaration from Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger that she will be running for governor in 2025 and Virginia’s one-term policy preventing Gov. Glenn Youngkin from running consecutively, Republicans can only speculate who their candidates will be.

Spanberger has said she declared early due to next year’s congressional races in which her seat will be reelected. She wanted to give interested parties time to prepare a strong campaign to keep District 7 blue.

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Expert: Georgia Should Alleviate Burdensome Licensing Requirements

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Eliminating licensing requirements for some professions in Georgia could help businesses and bring more people into the workforce.

“We did a national ranking in terms of occupational licensing, and we had Georgia coming in at 32nd with first being the worst,” Edward Timmons, director of the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University, which recently rebranded from the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation, told The Center Square.

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Groups Disagree over Line 5 Shutdown Impact

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Man grinding a large pipe on a worksite

Is the Line 5 pipeline an essential source of energy or is it an environmental hazard?

Since 2019, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel have sought to shut down Line 5, which has been pumping about 540,000 gallons of hydrocarbons daily across the lakebed of Lake Michigan since 1953. Whitmer and Nessel say they fear a spill similar to the 2010 oil spill near the Kalamazoo River – the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history.

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