State and Local News That Matters
A rush of federal money will boost Pennsylvania’s ability to address abandoned mining land, but the commonwealth will not be able to rely on federal dollars for most of the funding.
The Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee met on Tuesday to discuss the impact of the anthracite coal industry in northeastern Pennsylvania – both its environmental costs and its economic potential.
Ohio plans to spend more than $2 million worth of federal COVID-19 relief funds on more than two dozen local drug task forces around the state, Gov. Mike DeWine announced.
The money, DeWine said, would be used to disrupt drug trafficking and promote substance use awareness, prevention and recovery.
The Georgia Ports Authority approved $60 million for upgrades to its Colonel’s Island Terminal in Brunswick, the country’s second busiest port for total roll-on, roll-off cargo.
A GPA spokeswoman told The Center Square that the authority is pulling the funding for the infrastructure and upgrade projects from port revenues. The money will go toward additional buildings, property development and civil infrastructure to expand Ro/Ro capacity.
New England governors are pressing the federal government for a supplement aid package supporting home heating assistance to residents this winter.
Led by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, the governors penned a letter to congressional leaders expressing their desire to see approval of President Joe Biden’s request for the emergency supplemental funding package that would assist residents with home heating assistance.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed back against a reporter who he said was trying to politicize the state’s hurricane preparedness efforts.
The governor has been giving multiple briefings daily. At one briefing Tuesday, a reporter asked about remarks made by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Deanne Criswell earlier in the day.
A physician assistant at a University of Michigan hospital in west Michigan claims she was told she was evil and was responsible for the suicide of transgender people by the health system’s director of diversity and was later fired because she refused to acknowledge the preferred pronouns of patients.
The First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization, spelled out Valerie Kloosterman’s grievances against the University of Michigan Health-West hospital system in a Sept. 27 letter that demands Kloosterman be rehired. First Liberty claims that Kloosterman’s religious rights were violated.
A lawsuit is brewing over Milwaukee’s 2022 get-out-the-vote effort.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin on Wednesday filed an open records lawsuit against Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and the city’s Elections Commission.
Despite a slight uptick in the past day, gas prices in Tennessee are still lower than they were a month ago.
According to data from AAA, the average price per gallon was $3.193 per gallon, up slightly from the day before, which was $3.186. That’s still 7.42% cheaper than the average price in the Volunteer State was a month earlier at $3.449 per gallon.
Gas prices are on the rise again just as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve hits a low point that many say is a problem.
Gas prices hit record highs in the middle of June, surpassing a national average of $5 per gallon before starting a steady downward trend for several consecutive weeks.
A group of Ohio economists disagree over moves by the state and the country as a whole toward electric vehicles and whether government investment in electric vehicle infrastructure is cost-effective.
Nearly half of the 19 economists at Ohio colleges and universities surveyed by Scioto Analysis said the state’s current $200 annual fee for registering electric vehicles is progressive, while a little more than half believed spending tax dollars on EV infrastructure is likely to be more cost-effective than providing the same amount in tax credits.
Republican legislators in the General Assembly have embraced a harm-reduction approach to deal with drug overdose deaths.
The Senate Judiciary Committee last week advanced a House bill to legalize fentanyl test strips by removing them from the definition of “drug paraphernalia.” The strips can detect fentanyl in other drugs such as heroin, which can help users avoid accidental overdoses.
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has a guess as to how he ended up on the subpoena list for the January 6 committee. Namely: Politics.
Vos on Monday said he intends to fight the subpoena from the Democratic panel in Washington that has spent the past year looking into the riots at the U.S. Capitol.
A new report on crime in Connecticut shows that violent and property crimes are down in the state.
Connecticut’s annual crime statistic report for 2021 was released Monday. The report compiles data from law enforcement agencies in the state, Gov. Ned Lamont said.
The city of Atlanta launched its guaranteed income pilot program earlier this year in the wake of the COVID pandemic that gives $500 a month to 300 Atlanta residents.
According to the city, the guaranteed income program “is meant to supplement rather than replace the existing social safety net and can be a critical tool for improving racial and gender equity.”
Motions were filed Monday in the Michigan Court of Appeals to allow abortion opponents to intervene as appellants in the legal battle enforcing the state’s 1931 law outlawing abortion.
The Alliance for Defending Freedom, a Texas-based legal group representing Michigan Right to Life and the Michigan Catholic Conference, asked the court to allow it to defend the 1931 law in the ongoing Planned Parenthood of Michigan v. Attorney General of the State of Michigan.
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A nonprofit legal group filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Education to block its move to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for some borrowers.
“Congress did not authorize the executive branch to unilaterally cancel student debt,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Caleb Kruckenberg said. “It’s flagrantly illegal for the executive branch to create a $500 billion program by press release, and without statutory authority or even the basic notice and comment procedure for new regulations.”
President Joe Biden sparked controversy for pushing through Congress increased federal funding for 87,000 new IRS employees to audit Americans, but Republican leadership has pledged to overturn that expansion if they win the majority.
House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., pledged at a Pennsylvania event to “repeal” the IRS expansion.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued new warnings Monday ahead of Hurricane Ian, expected to make landfall this week. It was upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane Monday morning and is projected to strengthen to a major hurricane.
As of 11 am Monday, the storm was located roughly 375 miles south of Key West. It’s moving about 15 miles an hour north with maximum winds of 80 miles an hour. As it moves into the Gulf, it’s expected to strengthen into a major hurricane as early as Tuesday, DeSantis said.
An octogenarian was shot in the shoulder while canvassing in Ionia County 50 days before the Nov. 8 election.
Right to Life Michigan reported an 83-year-old volunteer from Lake Odessa was shot on Tuesday last week while going door-to-door to talk about Proposal 3, a Nov. 8 ballot question asking voters if they want to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.
Georgia taxpayers could be on the hook for $400,000 worth of new election equipment for Coffee County after individuals illegally accessed voting equipment.
The state is sending the county 100 ballot marking devices, 100 printers, 21 poll pads, 10 precinct scanners, and new flashcards and thumb drives. County election officials will receive the equipment in time for installation and testing before voting starts.
Pittsburgh Public Schools is looking to partner with a nonprofit headed by high-level former Obama administration officials to implement a program created by former First Lady Michelle Obama to get students involved in political activities, including voter registration drives.
A critic of the partnership said schools should focus on improving lagging performance, not indoctrinating students.
After taxpayers lost $250 million in what federal officials deemed “the largest pandemic fraud” in the nation, the government agencies involved are blaming each other.
The Department of Justice charged 47 people with the fraud, alleging they exploited federal money left unguarded by lax COVID rules meant to feed hungry kids.
After spending millions of dollars on campaign ads to paint Tim Michels as radical on abortion, Gov. Tony Evers is calling Michels dishonest for being open to exemptions to Wisconsin’s strict abortion law.
Michels on Friday told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Dan O’Donnell that he would sign a law allowing women who are the victims of rape or incest to get an abortion in the state.
Ridership on Tennessee’s one line of Amtrak service has dropped considerably since pre-pandemic numbers as the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations prepares a study on passenger service in the state.
The line of Tennessee service runs daily on a route between Chicago and New Orleans that stops in both Memphis and Newbern-Dyersburg.
Ohio new business startups broke a downward trend in August, but not enough to return to levels from a year ago.
The state registered 15,815 new business filings in August, slightly higher than July, which represented a six-month low and four consecutive month of declines, Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced.
A group of Ohio economists disagree over moves by the state and the country as a whole toward electric vehicles and whether government investment in electric vehicle infrastructure is cost-effective.
Nearly half of the 19 economists at Ohio colleges and universities surveyed by Scioto Analysis said the state’s current $200 annual fee for registering electric vehicles is progressive, while a little more than half believed spending tax dollars on EV infrastructure is likely to be more cost-effective than providing the same amount in tax credits.
A complaint filed to the Michigan Board of Elections claims Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated the federal Help America Vote Act by outsourcing the managing of voter rolls to the Electronic Registration Information Center.
The conservative Thomas More Society filed the complaint on behalf of nonprofit Pure Integrity Michigan Elections.
With Congressional elections about a month and a half away, Virginians who want to cast their ballots early can begin doing so.
Registered voters can cast their early ballots in person at the general registrar’s office for the jurisdiction in which they are registered, according to a news release from the Virginia Department of Elections. Some jurisdictions also offer satellite locations for early voting in addition to offering them at the general registrar’s office.
The feds are sending millions more to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a more than $18.4 million grant to reconstruct taxiways at the world’s busiest airport.
More than $30 million in additional grants have been awarded to support workforce development and entrepreneurship education and training in Florida.
Nearly $30 million has been allocated to support workforce development in the Space Coast region as part of a multi-agency initiative to support competitive industries.