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This year marked another contentious legislative session for Minnesota, marked
by gubernatorial vetoes and tough negotiations over the budget and
healthcare. In the end, Gov. Pawlenty vetoed twenty bills, bringing his
eight-year total to 96. This year's vetoes included a wide range of
measures,...
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The Vermont legislature was able to compromise on next year’s
budget somewhat expeditiously. For fiscal year 2011, beginning in July,
the state will face a $154
million budget gap and will have to borrow about $71 million. Many
successes took place in the realms of health care, job creation,...
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Tennessee’s much-publicized educational reforms overshadowed the
fact that the state’s policy decisions during the 2010 legislative
session took a sharp rightward turn. Immigration and abortion were big
targets, but public health and safety were also negatively affected by
legislation that...
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The country is still reeling from the effects of the downturn. Though
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has undoubtedly benefited the economy, there are still 15
million Americans out of work.
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Last week, Delaware became the second state in the country to
pass legislation
that would adjust US Census data to count incarcerated people as
residents of their home addresses for redistricting purposes. It is
currently waiting for Gov. Jack Markell’s signature.
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Rhode Island’s HB 7407, now Public
Law No. 2010-203, creates the Green Economy Roundtable to advise
and assist the Governor and General Assembly in advancing Rhode Island’s
green energy economy by developing a statewide action plan.
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Based on an innovative model
from Washington state, states have the opportunity to help
veterans improve their benefits and save millions of dollars for their
own budgets.
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California lawmakers worked feverishly at the end of June to move
forward significant health reform legislation, including implementing
new Medicaid rules for the next five years, setting a framework for
establishing health insurance exchanges, and moving the state towards a
single-payer health...
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For the first time in the nation, Wal-Mart
has agreed to a higher wage standard at a new store to be built in
Chicago, Illinois. The retail giant’s commitment was part of an
agreement to assure City Council support for zoning approvals, on which the
Council voted Wednesday. The deal also...
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In a disappointing turn of events, Indiana’s Supreme Court ruled
4-1 in favor of the state’s voter ID law, overturning last year’s decision by the
Indiana Court of Appeals that deemed voter ID requirements
unconstitutional partly because it treated those casting absentee...
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Yet another set of anti-immigrant proposals, this time offered as
last-minute amendments to a Massachusetts state budget bill, failed
to gain traction last week. Twenty-seven pages of draconian anti-immigrant
amendments were reduced to text that simply re-states existing bars on
undocumented...
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While the new Affordable Health Care law provides a variety of funding
opportunities for states, one provision in the health law that could
shift billions of dollars from cash-strapped states to the federal
government. Under the National
Medicaid Drug Rebate Program created by the Omnibus...
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