(The Center Square) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a series of public safety bills on Wednesday, including a measure to require Georgia counties to comply with federal immigration laws. Kemp, a Republican, signed Senate Bill 63, which expands the list of "serious offenses" for which bail is required, and SB 421, which stiffens the penalties for "swatting" and drive-by shootings. The move to tackle swatting follows several instances involving Georgia officials around the...
(The Center Square) – Voters will once again decide on a constitutional amendment to increase minimum funding for Kansas City’s police department after the Missouri Supreme Court set aside a previous result from the 2022 election. Last September, the state’s highest court heard arguments from Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas stating the exact cost of the ballot measure wasn’t provided to voters. On Tuesday, Justice Paul Wilson wrote in a 42-page opinion the ballot’s summary...
(The Center Square) – Newly released survey data shows that Americans are less confident about the economy. Gallup’s recently released economic confidence rating dropped from March to April as inflation remains elevated. Just after the polling was conducted from April 1-22, the federal government released underperforming Gross Domestic Product data. “This is the first time in five months that confidence has not seen a marginal improvement, and the first decline in...
(The Center Square) – A member of the King County Council hopes to get to the bottom of how taxpayer funds are being spent in cases where tenants refuse to pay their rent. Councilmember Reagan Dunn on Tuesday introduced a motion that would place restrictions on the Housing Justice Project’s use of King County funds and request an audit of the organization’s operations related to rental assistance and legal services. “The bottom line here is we need to get more...
(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker said there’s enough Illinois taxpayer revenue for his proposed $52.7 billion budget. Republican budget negotiators question that with a month before the deadline. Pritzker said tax revenues are on track and that the big question is how the General Assembly prioritizes spending. He said he proposed a balanced budget. "It’s a tight year but it’s not like we’re running a massive deficit and we need to panic on how we’re going...
(The Center Square) - The New Mexico Environment Department is giving the United Parcel Service $473,222 in taxpayer funds to replace 16 delivery vehicles with low-pollution compressed natural gas delivery vehicles. “New Mexico has helped school districts and nonprofit organizations reduce their climate-warming emissions from their vehicle fleets,” Environment Secretary James Kenney said in a statement. “Now, UPS is following suit by retiring diesel-fueled vehicles and replacing...
(The Center Square) - Two men from Oregon received a federal prison sentence for their roles in separate fatal fentanyl overdose deaths on Tuesday. Beaverton resident Billy Ray Trueblood, 33, received a 41-month federal prison sentence, plus four years of supervised release for distributing fentanyl that killed a man; and Monmouth resident Javen James Pedro, 71, got 75 months in federal prison, plus six years of supervised release, for distributing fentanyl that killed a teenager...
(The Center Square) – As University of Washington students walk through the campus's main thoroughfare to go to class, a sliver of grassy land has been taken up by a few pro-Palestinian protesters demanding an end to Israel's war on Gaza. This small group of UW students are joining other demonstrators on college campuses across the country in a wave of protests against Israel. Demonstrators are demanding their universities divest from the Jewish state. Approximately 1,000...
(The Center Square) – For the first time since taking office in January, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown stood before constituents to deliver her inaugural State of the City Address. Her message centered around the importance of approving a $40 million annual tax levy coming before voters in August. Brown, a veteran politician who served as a state representative, senator and director of the Washington State Department of Commerce, took over as mayor following a contentious campaign...
(The Center Square) – It turns out Republicans in Washington state are open to some policy approaches in dealing with climate change. This legislative session saw Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, help secure $4.9 million in the supplemental capital budget for the Cowlitz County Public Utility District to develop a renewable landfill gas-to-electricity project in partnership with Cowlitz County Public Works Department. The project will turn methane from the...
(The Center Square) – A new report is sounding the alarm on Arizona’s housing market. The report from the Common Sense Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, says that Arizona is losing its competitiveness that it once had. In addition, the report says that there is a “housing deficit of over 129,000 units” and found that the cost of a home in the Phoenix metropolitan area has gone up by 60% since 2020. “Arizona’s housing market is standing on a cliff,”...
(The Center Square) - Eight newspapers across the United States filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for using their copyrighted content without payment to train the highly profitable generative artificial intelligence systems. In their suit, the papers demand an end to copyright infringement, damages, and lost profits. “The Publishers have spent billions of dollars sending real people to real places to report on real events in the real world and distribute that reporting...