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21 Alabama cities have been classified as a “metropolitan” under the American Rescue Plan Act, which allocates significantly less federal relief aid than initially anticipated, sometimes reducing by more than half.
The Senate Elections Committee has advanced the Republican-sponsored election bill that would overhaul the state’s election laws and it would increase voter identification requirements for voting in person or by mail.
Jim Baker, executive director of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, regarding a new report that found that the private equity investment firm Pretium Partners has been evicting residents in majority-Black counties at a much higher rate than those in majority-white counties. The report found that in predominantly white counties, Pretium has been filing for eviction against about 2 percent of people renting from them, whereas in majority-Black counties the company has filed to evict 10 to 12 percent of its residents. Pretium Partners owns 55,000 homes, making it the nation's second-largest owner of single-family rental residences. (NPR — June 3, 2021)
The current capacity of California's 1,500 reservoirs in comparison to the levels they should be at during this time of year. State officials are concerned that if water levels continue to drop, which they are expected to do throughout the summer, power plants will need to be shut down and water supplies to farmers and households will be significantly or completely reduced.
Conservative efforts to keep it out of public schools amount to an esoteric cultural war aimed at dividing us further. We should teach the truth — the good and the bad — about our history.
Any new federal infrastructure program should provide states and localities with the flexibility to tap the private-sector innovation and expertise that can produce new revenues, meaningful savings and operational efficiencies.
A report has found that the state’s strict coronavirus regulations have set the state up to have one of its best years of economic growth. It is estimated that the state’s GDP will grow 7.1 percent this year.
The Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission would enable common-pleas judges to electronically determine a felony sentencing, aiming to reduce bias and errors. But some judges worry the system will diminish judicial independence.
State Sen. Chuck Edwards has proposed a bill that would pay jobless residents for returning to the workforce, either $800 or $1,500 depending on how quickly they become employed.
“Your task is to determine the depth of the harm, and the ways in which we are to repair that harm.”
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, regarding the state’s newly formed task force that will study and advise state leaders on reparations for African Americans. The task force is the first of its kind. (Associated Press — June 2, 2021)
The proportion of American adults who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. President Biden announced a “month of action” to urge Americans to get vaccinated in a final push to reach the administration’s goal of having 70 percent of Americans vaccinated by Independence Day.
It's gaining in popularity around the country, touted as a way to restore civility and bipartisanship. But it's not a perfect solution, and it doesn't come without costs.
No city in the country has had as much success keeping its residents safe from the coronavirus as San Francisco.
In what seems like retaliation after Democratic lawmakers walked off the floor to boycott a contentious elections bill, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he would veto the part of the budget that funds legislators’ paychecks.
The state depends almost entirely on the Colonial Pipeline, which recently was shut down for several days after a cyber attack. While industry advocates say pipelines are secure and green, officials may want to consider other options.
Officials are beginning to wonder if work-from-home flexibility after pandemic restrictions subside will be beneficial to their employees. For some agencies, working remotely has increased productivity and cost savings.
The estimated proportion of President Biden's 1,500 federal agency appointees that identify as LGBTQ.
Ricco Wright, the owner of The Black Wall Street Gallery in New York City, after someone smeared white paint on the gallery's glass facade. The gallery was featuring tributes to those who were killed in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. (NPR — June 1, 2021)
In many cases, state and local governments have more jobs than applicants. HR departments are fighting employee burnout, rising retirement and competition from the private sector to fill them.
Technology leaders in California, Colorado and Minnesota convened at NASCIO to offer best practices on bridging connectivity and digital literacy gaps in their states.
Taking away a license over unpaid fines for minor traffic infractions makes work and family life a misery for low-income Americans. States should reform this punitive, unjust practice.
It’s a bold attempt to transform cybersecurity. State and local government organizations, along with their vendors, will benefit from strengthened federal requirements.
Jealously guarded as the country's most sacred text, the highest law in the land is an artifact of history even as competing forces put demands on it to guide the country into the future.
Big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple could soon face a 2 percent tax in New York state for profiting off of consumer data — if a recently proposed bill gains enough support to become law.
Body-worn cameras and freedom of information laws do enable oversight and accountability of the police, but they also hold the potential to force sensitive data and stressful episodes in private citizens’ lives into public view that’s easily accessible online.
The breach highlighted the ability of ransomware to interrupt the vital services on which Americans rely. The incident raises important legal and ethical questions surrounding ransomware payments. Just because paying off cyber attackers may be lawful in some contexts, that still doesn’t make it the morally correct thing to do.
Editor-at-Large Clay Jenkinson, commenting on how the country has not only embraced the 1787 Constitution in precisely the way Jefferson feared, but has also been hesitant about amending it to keep it current with changing demographics, technologies and domestic geopolitical challenges. (Governing — May 30, 2021)
The legislative package addresses wildfire prevention, workforce training, disaster relief and wetland protection. The state is already spending $536 million on fire-prevention projects.
The state’s unemployment system incorrectly labeled Paulie Keener ineligible to receive nearly $600 in jobless aid. Keener’s lawsuit claims he hasn’t been provided equal protection under the law.
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority board of directors has unanimously supported an idea to create a program that allows students and low-income people to ride Metro’s trains and buses for free.
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