Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Thursday called on U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to stop the agency’s “continued support of Cuba’s communist interests.”
She did so after Cuban-American lawmakers raised the alarm about Chinese spies operating in Cuba, reportedly targeting Cuban-Americans as well as about the Biden administration recently allowing Cuban regime officials to tour TSA facilities at the Miami International Airport.
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Connecticut employers will be required to provide workers with up to a week of paid leave under a proposal signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont, despite a number of concerns from the state’s business community that it will drive up costs and hurt bottom lines.
The new law pushed through the state Legislature despite Republican opposition, will require Connecticut employers in most retail and service occupations to provide up to 40 hours of annual leave. It would allow eligible workers to accrue one hour of paid time off for every 30 hours worked up to a maximum mandated benefit of 40 hours a year.
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The jury announced its verdict in former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial Thursday evening, and social media was set ablaze.
Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records that could have been harmful to his 2016 presidential campaign.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ceremonially signed a pair of “child safety” measures on Wednesday, including one mandating age verification on websites with sexually explicit content.
H. 3424, the Child Online Safety Act, mandates that sites with at least one-third of their content being “obscene material” enforce an age verification system starting Jan. 1, 2025. This would ostensibly bar users under 18 from accessing the site’s material.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced broad goals for affordable Michigan housing yesterday.
At the Mackinac Policy Conference held annually by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, the governor pushed an increased housing construction goal and low-income household energy financing.
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Democrats continue to make abortion a top issue of their campaign in the 2024 election in Arizona.
Congressman Greg Stanton was joined by United States House of Representative Democratic Minority Whip Katherine Clark and abortion access advocates for a roundtable on the issue on Thursday.
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The Ohio House approved in special session Thursday what it said was a compromise between House and Senate Republicans that would prohibit foreign contributions to any political campaign and create a legislative fix to allow President Joe Biden on the November ballot.
The two bills come despite the Democratic National Committee saying Tuesday it would hold a roll call vote ahead of the planned late-August convention to officially nominate Biden and beat Ohio’s Aug. 7 deadline to make the general election.
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A new federal rule on fossil fuel power plants would hurt Ohio’s energy grid and limit the state’s ability to attract new business, Gov. Mike DeWine said.
The governor and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted each signed a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Michael Regan opposing the rule, which many think will lead to the quicker decommissioning of operating power plans.
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A whistleblower who worked in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office says she was fired after raising concerns about the misuse of federal grant funds.
Amanda Timpson worked with the office from 2018 until 2022 and served as the director of gang prevention and intervention under previous District Attorney Paul Howard. Timpson told the Senate Special Committee on Investigations she faced retaliation under District Attorney Fani Willis after raising concerns about how the office planned to spend a federal grant.
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A series of Georgia Senate study committees will probe hot-button issues, ranging from safe firearm storage to preserving Georgia’s farmlands to artificial intelligence.
Lt. Governor Burt Jones appointed members to seven 2024 Senate Study Committees. The committees will make recommendations that could guide lawmakers’ actions during next year’s legislative session.
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While Milwaukee Republican National Convention planners continue to push to move the city’s planned protest zone, protesters are angrily pushing back.
The Coalition to March on the RNC recently demanded the Secret Service leave the convention protest zone in Pere Marquette Park.
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Michigan Senate Republicans universally signed a letter opposing Attorney General Dana Nessel after she threatened to sue the fossil fuel industry.
Nessel issued a statement earlier this month seeking assistant attorneys to litigate on behalf of the state, saying the industry has knowingly caused the state harm. In response, the senate Republicans described the lawsuit as a mistake.
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The Biden administration’s energy policies are increasingly costly for Americans, a newly released report says.
U.S. House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released the report, which argues Biden’s energy policies have increased costs for Americans and hurt the economy.
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Tennessee has handed out $21.7 million in FastTrack business incentive grants so far this year through April to a total of 21 businesses.
The Department of Economic and Community Development’s FastTrack grant program are state grants sent to companies to help offset the costs of expanding or moving into the state with the goal of increasing the number of full-time jobs and the average wages of jobs available in an area.
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Two Ohio senators want federal lawmakers to amend the U.S. Constitution to eliminate the idea that money equals free speech.
Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, and Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, want Senate Resolution 180 to push a federal move to eliminate what they call corporate personhood and end or limit dark political money.
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The annual point-in-time count of homeless conducted by the Maricopa Association of Governments presented stabilized news for the county.
The count that took place in January 2024 determined that there are 9,435 people who are experiencing homelessness in the county, 57% of which are sheltered and 43% are unsheltered. This figure was a 2% decline from 2023, which marked 9,642 people as homeless. When broken down, there was a 17% decline from 2023 in unsheltered and a 13% increase in those who were sheltered.
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The Biden administration’s energy policies are increasingly costly for Americans, a newly released report says.
U.S. House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released the report, which argues Biden’s energy policies have increased costs for Americans and hurt the economy.
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When Albuquerque announced plans to acquire a new fire engine, New Mexico’s governor lauded the “zero emissions” technology while a fire department spokesman called it “all electric” and KRQE 13 gushed about the “fully electric” fire truck.
San Diego’s NBC 7 reported on what it called that city’s first “all electric fire apparatus.” When the electric fire engine debuted in Portland, NBC’s KGW 8 quoted a fire department spokesman lauding the “monumental” “zero emissions” vehicle.
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The increase of migrant workers during the last two years cooled an overheated labor market and slowed wage growth across industries and states, according to an analysis of government statistics.
“The influx of immigrant workers appears to have helped alleviate the severe staffing shortages in certain industries that were pervasive during the pandemic’s volatile period,” Elior Cohen, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, wrote in the organization’s Economic Bulletin. It serves Colorado, Kansas, western Missouri, Nebraska, northern New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming.
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Ohio lawmakers will return to Columbus on Tuesday, attempting to pass legislation securing President Joe Biden’s name on the November ballot.
Gov. Mike DeWine called for a special session late Thursday. In a brief press conference, the Republican governor was perturbed, saying it was “ridiculous” that legislation hadn’t passed earlier.
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Venezuelan Tren de Aragua prison gang members are being arrested thousands of miles from the border after having illegally entered the U.S. in Texas.
The Venezuelan prison gang is well-known for orchestrating murders, bribery schemes and money laundering, drug and arms trafficking, and kidnappings for ransom money. In March, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Maria Elvira Salazar, both Florida Republicans, called on the president to officially designate Tren de Aragua as a Transnational Criminal Organization.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued three federal agencies Tuesday to “stop an unlawful attempt to redefine federal law through agency guidance” that mandates “gender identity” accommodation in the workplace.
Paxton sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other federal officials to block April 29 EEOC guidance that redefines the meaning of “sex” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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If two Ohio lawmakers get their way, the Cincinnati Bengals will play on real grass rather than turf.
Rep. Rodney Creech, R-West Alexandria, and Rep. Terrance Upchurch, D-Cleveland, recently introduced a bill requiring professional sports stadiums in the state to use natural grass fields.
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Georgia’s Regional Commissions saw their unemployment rates tick downward in April.
Statewide, the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission, which includes 13 counties around Gainesville and the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, reported the lowest unemployment rate at 2.3% in April, up from 2.1% last year.
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New polling numbers show that Republican Kari Lake is still well on her way to win the party’s nomination for Senate.
In a Noble Predictive Insights poll of 364 registered Republican voters, Lake leads with 46% compared with Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb’s 21%. Still, 25% of voters are unsure and 9% are backing “someone else.” The poll has a 5.14% margin of error and it was conducted from May 7-14. The pollster noted that this is a decrease from 54% in February, but more 8% more Republican voters are now in the undecided column.
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New Hampshire and the Canadian province of Quebec signed a “historical security agreement” to address border security.
Gov. Chris Sununu and a representative from Quebec, Laurence Gagnon, signed the agreement Monday in response to “new challenges related to cross-border security emerge,” including a rise of “illegal border crossings.” The governor says it is the first border security “arrangement” between the state and a foreign territory.
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Connecticut veterans with disabilities will get a break on their property and vehicle taxes under a bill signed by Gov. Ned Lamont.
The measure, which passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, covers veterans with a permanent and total disability rating resulting from their active-duty service. The exemption, expected to impact about 1,200 veterans in the state, will apply to the primary resident owned by an eligible disabled service member or, if they don’t own a home, to one motor vehicle owned by the service member.
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Wisconsin’s uninstructed, or uncommitted, voters are out with a new poll that says they could keep President Joe Biden from winning the state in November.
The Americans for Justice in Palestine-Action group commissioned the poll from YouGov. It says 1-in-5 Democrats and Independents in Wisconsin say they are less likely to vote for the president because of how he’s handled the war in Gaza.
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First-time home buyers in Pennsylvania may soon get help from the state government.
Two bills cleared a joint House committee on Tuesday meant to make it easier for buyers just entering the market as record-high housing prices push the dream out of reach for many.
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin gathered with legislators Wednesday for a ceremonial signing of bills passed unanimously by the General Assembly designed to prevent and counter child exploitation in the commonwealth.
Senate Bill 731, patroned by Sen. Tara Durant, R-Fredericksburg, criminalizes the use of artificially generated depictions of children in child pornography. Durant said the bill modernizes Virginia law so it’s no longer trailing criminal activity.
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Federal authorities are giving up to $75 million in federal tax dollars to a private company to help Georgia semiconductor manufacturing.
The money, part of the roughly $54 billion CHIPS Act of 2022, will go to Absolics, a subsidiary of South Korea’s SKC, to support the construction of a 120,000-square-foot facility in Covington. Officials said the project should create roughly 1,200 manufacturing and construction jobs.
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With border exposure and natural ports, Michigan Republicans want to change state law to make human smuggling illegal and criminalize harboring and transporting people who are or have entered the country illegally.
There are no state-level criminal penalties for human smuggling.
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Several groups have sued over a new Bureau of Land Management leasing rule they argue will harm indigenous communities and put small businesses out of business.
Western Energy Alliance, the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, North Dakota Petroleum Council, Petroleum Association of Wyoming, and Utah Petroleum Association sued Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the BLM in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming.
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The federal government wants to force the divorce of Live Nation and Ticketmaster more than a decade after it allowed the entertainment giants to merge.
“It is time to break it up,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday.
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Changes for regulation of the cryptocurrency industry passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon in legislation opposed by the White House.
Lawmakers voted 279-136, moving the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act – known colloquially as FIT21 – forward. Seventy-one Democrats were among those in favor.
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Republican and Democratic leaders remain confident President Joe Biden will be on the Ohio ballot in November, but none believe it will come through a fix from the Legislature.
Both House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, and Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said lawmakers are unwilling to vote on a change in state law that would allow Biden to appear on the ballot despite the timing of the Democratic National Convention.
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The Republican governors of two dozen states, including Georgia and South Carolina, penned a letter to President Joe Biden opposing the World Health Organization’s proposed “Pandemic Agreement,” which they said could “undermine national sovereignty” and states’ rights.
The state executives argue the treaty “would seek to elevate the WHO from an advisory body to a global authority in public health.” They contend the proposed accord could also allow the WHO to establish “a global surveillance infrastructure” and force participants to censor free speech.
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Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have faced ongoing ethics questions in recent years, but a new bill seeks to bring any such problems to the surface much sooner.
A new bipartisan piece of legislation would require presidents and vice presidents to disclose gifts received, conflicts of interest, foreign financial dealings and more ethical gray areas within two years of taking office.
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Business groups are pushing back against a new Biden administration rule that would allow third-parties, including union representatives, to accompany federal inspectors of job sites.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the final rule earlier this year, but critics say the rule goes beyond safety needs and panders to unions and their recruitment efforts. The rule would apply even to job sites where workers have not unionized.
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Tennessee’s District Attorneys General Conference will collect and compile data on the costs related to illegal immigrants in the state who are charged or convicted of a criminal offense through at least 2032 after the immigration bill was signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee.
The report will be sent to the governor and both the House and Senate speaker.
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Lawmakers have threatened to revoke the appropriations for a federally-funded scholarship program that an audit found favors liberally leaning students over conservatives by a ratio of 10 to 1.
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation was established in the 1970s to award scholarships to students who “demonstrate outstanding potential for and who plan to pursue a career in public service.”
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An Ohio senator wants state lawmakers to send a message to the U.S. Department of Education to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity from Title IX.
U.S. Rep. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, recently introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 11 that calls on the Biden administration and Congress to remove all references from sexual orientation and gender identity from Title IX.
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The Human Rights Campaign wants spend millions of dollars to connect with equality voters in Wisconsin this election season.
The Human Rights Campaign bills itself as the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. It says equality voters are people who share their LGBTQ focus and agenda.
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More school districts in Virginia are starting to implement school cell phone bans, prohibiting students from using their phones during the school day and, in some cases, even on the bus.
Many districts ban student cell phone usage at elementary schools, and some ban them at their middle schools, but until recently, high school policies have often been more permissive.
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The Michigan Department of Transportation will begin four new road repair projects this week in Dickinson, Jackson, Marquette and Ontonagon counties.
The projects are all expected to be completed by the end of the summer, and officials say will support an estimated 2,022 jobs across the state.
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Florida regulators denied a request for oral arguments on Tuesday in two petitions by utilities seeking electricity rate hikes.
On April 2, Tampa Electric Company and Duke Energy Florida filed petitions to the Public Service Commission requesting rate increases beginning in January 2025 if the commission approves.
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The budget in Maricopa County will presumably go down by 11% in fiscal year 2025.
A decrease in the budget compared with the current fiscal year is largely attributed to less “one-time spending” and a decrease of $32.7 million in retirement costs. In total, the difference between fiscal year 2024 and 2025 was over $493 million. The budget totals at roughly $3.87 billion, with 47.6% going toward public safety and 25,78% going toward health, welfare, and sanitation.
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A coalition of lawmakers is pushing forward the ongoing investigation into just how much taxpayer money Pentagon officials are taking away from national defense and putting toward diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives.
The Pentagon has been under increasing scrutiny for its focus on DEI, even as the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars continue.
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Continued hiring and millions in building projects pushed an Ohio public school system to a financial cliff, including a projected $90 million deficit by 2028, state Auditor Keith Faber said.
A new state performance audit says the Mt. Healthy City School District in suburban Cincinnati hired dozens of new teachers and staff and advanced $18 million in building projects without formal plans or funding to sustain operations.
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The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority re-opened its Airport Station on Monday following a six-week closure as part of a multi-million-dollar station update.
The $55 million upgrade to the station connected to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is part of a systemwide, roughly $1 billion multi-year Station Rehabilitation Program initiative to overhaul all 38 stations. The transit agency is paying for the upgrades using State of Good Repair Funds from its capital budget.
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