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The rate at which the U.S. economy shrank last quarter, the first decline since the pandemic recession hit two years ago. However, consumers and businesses continue to spend.
With a housing market unable to meet demand and rents spiking, Minneapolis and St. Paul are turning to a practice many have scorned as bad housing policy.
A Pew analysis finds that a third of states lost residents in 2021. Analysts are debating whether these shifts and slowing population growth rates throughout the country really are signs of “demographic doom.”
In distributing rental assistance funds to prevent evictions, Indianapolis found a creative alternative model, working across departments to get the money out to vulnerable families.
The agency will create a “Fareness” panel which will analyze and recommend ways to discourage fare evasion through education, equity and enforcement to mitigate revenue loss, which is expected to reach $500 million in 2022.
The $2.45 million app, which launched on Monday, arrived nearly a month later than promised and after much of the state’s pandemic restrictions have been lifted. Just 1,425 people had registered by 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Legislative efforts to shut down offshore oil rigs along California’s coast were reignited after a major oil spill last October. But the costs of shutting down oil production may end up determining the legislation’s fate.
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California spokesperson Rebecca Kimitch, regarding the district board’s declaration of a water shortage emergency and requirement that cities and water agencies implement a water cutback on June 1 or face hefty fines. The Metropolitan Water District uses water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project to provide water to about 40 percent of the state’s population; the State Water Project estimates it will only be able to deliver about 5 percent of its usual allocation due to dry conditions. (Associated Press — April 27, 2022)
The median existing home price for all housing types in March, an increase of 15 percent from the year prior. The increase marks 121 consecutive months of year-over-year increases, the longest streak on record.
It started out as a grassroots medium for community speech, but now it’s struggling to survive. It needs a new platform that blends the best of its past with today’s technology.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers rejected two of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s nominees to the state’s Prisoner Review Board last month, highlighting how crime and politics have changed over the last several years.
A new report found that just more than one-third of the California county’s 190,000 total jobs were “quality jobs.” But a public-private initiative wants to upgrade the region’s employment by about 20 percent.
A study found the Pennsylvania county had the most homes and businesses, primarily in rural areas, with the slowest Internet connections in a 10-county region. The poor quality of broadband has become an equity issue.
Enforcement of the ban, which includes menthol cigarettes, won’t begin until January. Californians will vote on a possible statewide ban of flavored tobacco in the November elections.
Florida activist Chaz Stevens, in his petition sent to public school superintendents across the state requesting the removal of the Bible from schools. Stevens, who is known for his tongue and cheek petitions to local governments, sent the petition in response to state lawmakers’ decision to ban 54 math books and to highlight the hypocrisy of the policy. (NPR — April 26, 2022)
The proportion of students at both four-year and two-year universities who had experienced homelessness in the last year, according to an annual survey by The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University. Across the U.S., students are struggling to find university housing, with 43 percent of students at four-year universities having experienced housing insecurity in 2020, an increase of 8 percent from the year prior.
A new Urban Institute study finds tax rebates are a better solution, while efforts that discourage driving would have the most significant long-term impact on the inflation problem.
With the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, the yields on money market funds, state investment pools and bank accounts lag the payouts on safe securities. Staff needs to do its upside/downside homework.
We’re used to thinking of it as a waterfall of policies and fights flowing down from Washington. But increasingly it’s about ideas and movements that are erupting from the states.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the “Clean Green Schools” initiative, which will improve air quality, advance clean energy and reduce carbon emissions in public schools across the state.
The Louisiana city’s police department wants to deploy nine license plate readers to help identify stolen cars and drivers with outstanding warrants. But critics worry about the tech’s infringement on privacy rights.
Advocates are pushing for “clean slate” legislation, which would expunge criminal records for people with low-level or non-violent crimes. But until reform happens, these groups are helping to secure second chances.
The tax was imposed in 1994 to raise revenue for the Bay Area city’s library services. If the measure doesn’t pass in the June primary, the library system will have to cut 40 percent of its expenditures.
Alex Linser, deputy director of the Hamilton County, Ohio, election board, regarding the impact that the 2020 presidential election had on election misinformation. Now, mis- and disinformation spreads across social media and other Internet sites and sows distrust in secure and fair election systems that have worked for decades. (Associated Press — April 23, 2022)
The number of square miles that a wildfire in southwestern Nebraska had burned as of Sunday evening. The Road 702 Fire is spread over 78 square miles of Red Willow, Furnas and Frontier counties, and has killed one person, injured at least 15 firefighters and destroyed at least six homes.
Rising costs are starting to put pressure on budgets and may increase pension risk. Still, government balance sheets are in good shape and the economy remains in growth mode.
Advocates argue that cities and their connecting swaths of territory make an economic unit, despite the absence of real cultural affinities between distant metros.
As the 50th anniversary of the break-in approaches, a recent book charts the transformation of the Nixon administration’s bungled burglary to a redefinition of America’s relationship with its leaders and institutions.
Florida and Texas have passed social media censorship legislation, but both face legal pushback from advocacy groups. If their cases move forward, it could set a precedent for other states to propose similar legislation.
“Teach-ins” were inspired the first Earth Day. Andra Yeghoian of the San Mateo County Office of Education is leading efforts to make environmental and climate literacy top priorities throughout K-12 systems.
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