California’s longest-ever period of economic growth is slowing, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said, warning that next year’s budget may not be as flush as this year’s. “You’re already seeing the plane land in terms of the slowdown,” Newsom said.
The Greater New York Hospital Association wrote two checks to the New York Democratic Party, totaling more than $1 million. Soon after, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo quietly authorized an across-the-board increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates for the first time since 2008 — a move likely to cost the state roughly $140 million a year in extra payments to hospitals and nursing homes.
Massachusetts has the strictest anti-vaping measures in the country. Its unintended consequences are coming into focus: customers crossing the border to buy e-cigarettes in New Hampshire, former smokers switching back to cigarettes, sick patients fearfully experimenting with unfamiliar alternatives, and others turning to the illicit market despite the risk of tainted products.
New Mexico oil drillers just across the Texas border have never been busier, expanding along narrow and deadly rural roads. Worker camps surround Carlsbad, N.M., and traffic deaths at the state border now outnumber migrant deaths at the Mexican border.
Underwire bras may still be setting off the metal detectors at a Kansas jail, but the standoff over the issue has ended — at least for attorneys. A new security protocol caused some uproar after female attorneys complained they had to remove their bras to clear screening.
The federal government gave Oklahoma until Sept. 18, 2020, to roll out state IDs that comply with federal law. Oklahoma is one of four states that have not yet complied with the Real ID mandate.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, is touting a “shared stewardship” program to use state resources to assist the federal government in managing such activities as timber sales, forest thinning, fire breaks, tree cutting and prescribed burns on federal lands.
Florida regulators moved forward with a new law aimed at building more underground power lines and making Florida's electric system better able to withstand punishing hurricanes. Consumers are likely to see new storm protection charges.
A brain injury rehabilitation clinic and crash victims are challenging Michigan's no-fault auto insurance law, which limits payments for medical care and reimbursement for care by family members.
Maryland health officials are now requiring doctors and others to report information about cases of vaping-relating lung injuries to get a better handle on the mysterious illnesses. The state has recorded 23 cases, but reporting had been voluntary, according to the Maryland Department of Health.
Two companies launched mobile sports betting platforms throughout Indiana, making the Hoosier State the eighth in the country to offer legal online sports wagering.
An Alaska Superior Court judge ordered Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and other state employees to temporarily halt any effort to implement an administrative order that seeks to establish new opt-in procedures for state workers joining unions. The judge said the state’s actions are “causing and will continue to cause irreparable harm” to the Alaska State Employees Association.
