State Legislatures back issues from January 2006:
Statistics good only if all factors considered.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 01, 2006; ... Editor: In regards to your Oct/Nov 2005 issue Stateline section, "Hard Heads or Helmets" article, it is noted that motorcycle deaths increased 81 percent since the helmet law was repealed in Florida. What you don't include in your article is that new motorcycle registrations in ...
Minnesota has 67 senators.(LETTERS)(Correction Notice)
Jan 01, 2006; ... Editor: In your Sept. 2005 issue of State Legislatures on page 6 you incorrectly state that the Minnesota Senate consists ...
Don't forget Nebraska.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 01, 2006; ... Editor: You missed Nebraska on the map in your December issue of State Legislatures showing states with tax incentives for restoration and rehabilitation of historic ...
Our children's well-being.(STATESTATS)(social and demographic conditions)(Illustration)
Jan 01, 2006 ... More kids are finishing high school. The teen birth rate is dropping. And fewer children live in single-parent households. That's good news. But 4 million children--an increase of more than 1 million since 2000--live with parents who face persistent unemployment and poverty. ...
Lee Daniels, a 30-year veteran of the Illinois House, long time Republican leader, one-term speaker and former president of NCSL, has announced he will not seek another term.(People & Politics)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Lee Daniels, a 30-year veteran of the Illinois House, long time Republican leader, one-term speaker and former president of NCSL, has announced he will not seek another term. Daniels, who is a partner in a Chicago law firm, will also chair a $3.5 million capital campaign for Seguin ...
Jim Bruce.(People & Politics)(resigns from Kentuky. General Assembly)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Kentucky's longest-serving member in state history will step down at the end of his term. Representative Jim Bruce was first elected to the General Assembly in 1964. His legislative career has spanned the administrations of 10 governors. Bruce chaired the House Banking and Insurance ...
The oldest member of the Delaware General Assembly has announced she will step down at the end of the current session. Representative Tina Fallon, 88, is serving her 14th term.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... The oldest member of the Delaware General Assembly has L announced she will step down at the end of the current session. Representative Tina Fallon, 88, is serving her 14th term. She brought some 50 family members, friends and supporters to her announcement and said she plans to spend more ...
Oklahoma Speaker Todd Hiett, who led the GOP to its first majority in 80 years in the election of 2004, has announced he is running for lieutenant governor.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Oklahoma Speaker Todd Hiett, who led the GOP to its first majority in 80 years in the election of 2004, has announced he is running for lieutenant governor. Elected in 1994 at age 27, Hiett became House minority leader in 2002. As speaker, he pushed through the largest tax cut in state ...
Rupert Theobald.(People & Politics)(chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Rupert Theobald, the respected former chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau for 30 years, died Nov. 9 after a lengthy illness. Theobald was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1930, and came to Wisconsin at age 20 to study at the University of Wisconsin on a scholarship and pursue a ...
Alabama Representative Jack Venable, chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, died in November of leukemia.(People & Politics)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Alabama Representative Jack Venable, chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, died in November of leukemia. He was 66. First elected to the House in 1974, Venable was editor and publisher of the Tallahassee Tribune, former member of the Auburn University ...
Dennis Byars.(People & Politics)(First and 14th Amendments of the Constitution's violation )(Brief article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... A Nebraska senator, whose re-election bid was rejected by the secretary of state, is filing a challenge to the state's term-limits law with the Nebraska Supreme Court. Senator Dennis Byars filed for re-election even though he has served the maximum two consecutive terms allowed under the ...
Going after video game violence.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... California has passed a law to ban the sale or rental of ultra-violent video games to children under the age of 18 unless they have permission from their parents. "Ultra-violent" is defined as depicting serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious or ...
Sticker shock.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(expected cost of heating a home with heating oil and natural gas)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
Jan 01, 2006 ... <Pre> NATURAL GAS Expected cost of heating a home with natural gas this winter. Nationwide, nearly 62,000 homes use natural gas. $673 40.6% $1,127849.5% $1,305 26.9% $959 44.4% National average $1,048--41.2% HEATING OIL Expected cost of heating ...
Price gouging: not in my state.(TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... In the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, over 40 bills aimed at protecting citizens from price gouging schemes were introduced in at least 13 legislatures. Three states--Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia--passed amendments in 2005 that prohibit unreasonable price increases in ...
The lowly shepherd.(STATELINE)(law on sheepherder's employment)(Brief article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Wyoming lawmakers are looking at a proposal to make it a crime to offer a better job to a sheepherder. The problem, according to the Wyoming Wool Growers Association, is b-a-a-a-a-d. Sheepherders, who are typically foreigners earning about $800 a month, are being lured away from their ...
Finger pushups?(STATELINE)(physical education in schools)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Squeezed out of many test-driven curriculums, gym classes are on the decline in many schools. Yet we've all heard the startling fitness statistics of today's youth. So some high school students at a handful of Arizona schools (and elsewhere from Florida to Minnesota) are now taking ...
Fired up by wood.(STATELINE)(school districts to heat schools using waste wood and other biomass to avoid rising natural gas price)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Voters in Kellogg, Idaho, have approved a bond to heat schools using waste wood and other biomass to avoid rising natural gas prices. They are the second school district in the state to do so. The biomass system will burn about 600 tons of wood chips, spindly trees and fibrous organic ...
Warm river.(STATELINE)(global climate change )(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... A significant decline in the number of days in which ice affected the flow of northern New England rivers provides more evidence that the region's winters are milder than they used to be. The U.S. Geological Survey studied 16 rivers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The total days of ...
Cord promise.(STATELINE)(public umbilical cord and placental blood banks by New Jersey )(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... New Jersey has created the nation's first public umbilical cord and placental blood banks specifically for use in research. "We have a responsibility to pursue every single research opportunity," said former acting Governor Richard Codey. State officials hope that increased availability of ...
College catalyst.(STATELINE)(college scholarships for high school graduates )(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Anonymous benefactors are offering college scholarships for at least the next 13 years to nearly all high school graduates in Kalamazoo, Mich. The scholarships will be good at any of Michigan's public universities or community colleges. The amounts will depend on bow long the student has ...
But does it smell?(STATELINE)(ethanol plant in Nebraska to use cow manure)(Brief article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... A new ethanol plant under construction in Nebraska will use cow manure from 30,000 feedlot cattle as its energy source--a first of its kind, according to the company, E3 BioFuels. Company officials say their complex will be a "closed loop" system: methane from cow manure will generate ...
Rockfish rock.(STATELINE)(spawning)
Jan 01, 2006 ... One of the Chesapeake Bay's most popular sport fish, the rockfish, is making a comeback. Also known as the striped bass, state officials in Maryland say the recent rate of successful spawning is significantly above its 52-year average. A fishing moratorium in effect from 1985 to 1990, ...
New gold rush.(STATELINE)(gold mining)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... There's gold in them thar hills. And with prices hovering at $460 an ounce, Alaska hasn't seen this kind of frenetic exploration for it since the early 1980s. Other precious metals, including nickel and copper, are also fetching a high price. Mineral exploration spending in 2004 was $64.4 ...
Knife bonanza.(Transportation Security Administration's weapon auction)(Brief article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... Forgetting what's in their pockets, lots of people have had their nifty little Swiss Army knives confiscated at airport security check points. In Wisconsin, officials just recently held their first online auction of these potential weapons taken from travelers. Items included knives, ...
Worker friendly.(STATELINE)(Work Environment Index' survey)(Brief Article)
Jan 01, 2006 ... The Work Environment Index recently rated working environments in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in terms of average pay, employment opportunities, employee benefits, percentage of low-income workers, fair treatment between genders and ability for employees to unionize. The report, ...
Challenges in 2006: states' top 10.(National Conference of State Legislatures)
Jan 01, 2006; ... Here's a forecast of the hot policy issues facing legislatures this session. 2006 will be an intense year for state lawmakers. They'll react to the natural disasters, federal actions and court decisions of 2005. And they'll look years ahead as they craft energy, education and ...
Washington watch: 10 top issues for states: state lawmakers have to keep an eye on Congress this session defending against unfunded mandates and preemption.
Jan 01, 2006; ... Washington's budget deficit reduction plans end up costing states money. Concerns about cost shifts and preemption will be the predominant themes for state legislatures when Congress reconvenes this month. "Congress seems to be exporting the federal deficit to the states," says ...
Leaders: what matters now: state legislatures magazine gathered a group of legislative leaders to talk about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Here's what they had to say.(CONVERSATIONS)
Jan 01, 2006 ... CHANGES AHEAD SL: How do you see the role of the legislature--and the legislator--changing in 21st century America? House Minority Leader Bob Ward: We are already spending a lot more time on legislative business in Connecticut. Running for the legislature is harder ...
How to create a great bill draft: follow these suggestions and get the bill you want.(TOOLS OF THE TRADE)
Jan 01, 2006; ... The public often hears about Senator Smith or Representative Rogers authoring a bill, but the days of legislators writing their own bills are long gone. State legislatures employ professional bill drafters to mold a legislator's idea into a clear, concise, well-organized and legally ...
Coloradans reach their limit with TABOR: in one of the fiercest issue campaigns watched nationwide, Colorado voters chose to give money back to the financially strapped state.(Taxpayer's Bill of Rights)
Jan 01, 2006; ... It is the national anti-tax movement's Foundation Stone--the Colorado constitution's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). This fall, big-government spenders sweet-talked voters into taking sledgehammers to The Rock. And by doing so, taxpayers chained themselves to more government spending ...
Schwarzenegger rebuffed: voters soundly defeated the California governor's ballot measures, and the Legislature may be stronger as a result.(Arnold Schwarzenegger)
Jan 01, 2006; ... Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's yearlong battle to wrest control of the state budget from the Legislature, move redistricting to an independent commission, and hem in California's powerful public employee unions fell flat on Election Day when four ballot measures he was backing were ...
Eminent domain--for the greater good? The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London has prompted states to look at their own eminent domain practices.
Jan 01, 2006; ... When Suzette Kelo received a notice from the city of New London, Conn., to vacate her property, little did she or the city know that they were about to embark upon an historic journey that would wend its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And little did she know that the case that ensued, Kelo ...
Prime time democracy: a growing number of public affairs networks demystify democracy.
Jan 01, 2006; ... How's everybody positioned? Are we good to go?" a programming coordinator asks in the TVW control room as technicians switch from camera to camera, checking the lighting. One room away, on the set of "Inside Olympia," anticipation builds as host Dave Ammons prepares for his ...
As they see it.(opinions on legislators on different issues)
Jan 01, 2006 ... "It sure looks like 'rational exuberance' is what we have here." --Chairman of the Washington House Finance Committee Representative Jim McIntire, commenting in the Olympian about an economic forecast that the state will take in an extra $305 million in revenue by 2007. He ...