(The Center Square) - California lawmakers are seeking to ban identity-verification service CLEAR at California airports in the name of “equity.” CLEAR, available for $189 per year or no additional cost with some credit cards, verifies individuals’ identities so they can skip the identification part of the airport security line and go straight to Transportation Security Administration security screening. The government’s PreCheck program, which costs $78 for five years and...
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allocating more than $156 million to Missouri for forgivable and low-interest loans and other projects to increase solar energy capacity. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s $7 billion “Solar For All” program awarded 60 applicants with funds to create new or expand existing low-income and disadvantaged communities with solar energy capacity. The EPA received requests for more than $38 billion during last year’s...
(The Center Square) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a measure to allow families to spend taxpayer money on private school tuition, which school choice proponents lauded, though critics worry it will cut resources from strapped school systems. Senate Bill 233, the "Georgia Promise Scholarship Act," which lawmakers passed after killing the proposal last year. Under the measure, students who attend a public school that ranks in the bottom 25% in terms of academic performance are...
(The Center Square) – An emergency bill to allow the Seattle Fire Department to conduct demolition of unsafe vacant buildings in Seattle would cost the city up to $500,000 this year before potential reimbursements. The emergency legislation was proposed by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell on Thursday. The Seattle Public Safety Committee was briefed on the proposed bill on Tuesday. Harrell’s emergency legislation comes as a result of the number of fires in vacant...
(The Center Square) – Sturgeon season in Wisconsin will continue. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will not add the lake sturgeon to the endangered species list. “After conducting a thorough species status assessment using the best available science, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined lake sturgeon do not require listing under the Endangered Species Act,” Fish and Wildlife said in a statement on Monday. A federal judge in...
(The Center Square) - Oregon will seek federal semiconductor research and development funds to create a National Semiconductor Technology Center affiliated technical center. “With our existing workforce hub in Washington County and a robust semiconductor manufacturing and exporting industry, Oregon has set a strong foundation as a decades-long national center of research and development,” Governor Tina Kotek said in a statement. “With support from industry...
(The Center Square) — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday that the Florida Wildlife Corridor program and red tide research will receive a financial boost. The corridor program will receive $100 million through Senate Bill 1638, while the red tide program that combines the efforts of the Department of Environmental Protection, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Mote Marine Laboratory will continue after the signing of House Bill 1565. ...
(The Center Square) – The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an administrative stay to temporarily block Harris County’s “Uplift Harris” guaranteed income pilot program from going into effect, granting a request filed earlier in the day by Attorney General Ken Paxton. This is after two lower courts, the 165th District Court and the 14th Court of Appeals, denied his request for a temporary injunction, ruling in favor of Harris County in a lawsuit Paxton filed to stop it from...
(The Center Square) – Retail giant Walmart has agreed to pay nearly $190,000 following an investigation into possible violations of gig and app-based worker laws. The Seattle Office of Labor Standards alleged that Walmart failed to provide premium pay and a notice of rights to gig workers in violation of the temporary Gig Worker Premium Pay Ordinance. The company also allegedly failed to establish an accessible paid sick and safe time system for gig workers to...
(The Center Square) – Hurt feelings may be lingering for some Republicans following the GOP party convention in Spokane last weekend, but the state party chair tells The Center Square that the media coverage of the event was unfair. Multiple news organizations reported the three-day gathering of candidates and delegates as “chaotic” with “rules being broken” to support certain candidates. But Jim Walsh, chair of the Washington State Republican Party, says that was...
(The Center Square) – Federal prosecutors on Monday began laying out what they say is election fraud in 2016 by former President Donald Trump. Trump, 77, is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a felony. Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their opening statements to the jury of five women and seven men. Prosecutors said Trump corrupted the 2016 election, The Hill reported on Monday. "This case is about a criminal conspiracy...
(The Center Square) – The Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission voted to approve the acquisition of Springwood Ranch in an effort to save declining salmon populations and secure water supplies. The Friday decision, made possible by $24 million that the state set aside in the capital budget, followed a presentation from the Washington Department of Wish & Wildlife on the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan and its Water Storage Goal. Mike Livingston, WDFW Region 3...