Editor's Picks From Around the Web
PA: Zombie cities targeted in Pennsylvania bill
Under a bill poised for passage as soon as today, communities must exit the state’s program for distressed municipalities within eight years or risk bankruptcy or even dissolution. Pittsburgh and Scranton are in the program along with 19 other communities.
FL: Florida’s shrinking workforce
Since 2000, the state’s budget has grown by $25 million, but Florida has almost 10,000 fewer public sector jobs. As a result, many state agencies are struggling to get important work done.
NJ: New Jersey bill aims to protect driving data
Most new cars are equipped with event data recorders that record how fast you drive, where you go and even how many people are with you. Assemblyman Paul Moriarty has proposed legislation to regulate who can access that data and how.
TX: Perry says feds should screen for Ebola
Six days after a man in Dallas became the first person in the U.S. diagnosed with Ebola, Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry called on the federal government to establish enhanced screening procedures and set up quarantine stations at all U.S. points of entry to contain the spread of the virus.
DC: The State of the Non-State, Washington, D.C.
Proponents have sought statehood for the District of Columbia for over half a century, but the political timing never seems to be right.
ID: Non-physicians in Idaho can still prescribe hydrocodone
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's decision to place more restrictions on the addictive painkiller hydrocodone will have less of an effect in Idaho than in some other states.
OR: Oregon rolls out legal pot plan far different than Washington's
Oregon voters will decide this fall whether to allow recreational marijuana use. The initiative calls for lower taxes and the ability to process more pot than allowed in neighboring Washington state.
WI: Backlog in investigations of lawyers called unsustainable
The Wisconsin office that regulates lawyers is facing a big backlog of cases largely because of a cumbersome disciplinary process and the timidity of investigators, a new study has found.
DE: Veterans' court expands across Delaware
A new specialty treatment court program for veterans who get in trouble with the law will be expanded later this month so that each of Delaware’s three counties will have one.
ND: Rural transportation system vital, underused
Officials say North Dakota’s underused public bus system provides rides for people who use it all the time and have no other means of transportation.
RI: Next governor might have to deal with childcare providers’ pact
The administration of Democratic Gov. Lincoln Chafee has not yet reached an accord with the union seeking a first-ever contract for 540 private contractors who work out of their own homes but who get state subsidies to look after other people’s children.
NM: Medical pricing website proposed in New Mexico
An independent think tank says New Mexico could help make health care more affordable by establishing a website to provide consumers with information about the cost of medical procedures and quality of care at hospitals.
