Nation
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Washington, DC, USA. State governments so far are using almost all of their stimulus transportation dollars to build and improve roads and highways, while devoting only about 6 percent to public transit systems, according to a 50-state study released this week by a group seeking to improve urban planning.
Smart Growth America criticized the $6.6 billion that states have allocated for building new roads while providing relatively little for public transit projects that could create 31 percent ... |
07-04-09
Word count: 626
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Washington, DC, USA. The financial crisis has led to an unprecedented number of states trying to close budget gaps as a new fiscal year starts today (July 1). Ten states tried Tuesday to close billions of dollars in budget shortfalls and approve new spending plans to avoid reducing government services or cutting off payments.
Only one — Indiana — was successful as lawmakers sent a $27.8 billion spending plan to Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), who signed it Tuesday night. The state had been prepar... |
07-01-09
Word count: 1408
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Washington, DC, VA, USA. With states facing a $121 billion shortfall in the next fiscal year, a growing number of them have turned to squeezing their workforce for savings, and effects are being felt, both great and small.
In Hawaii, some criminal trials will likely have to be rescheduled because public defenders are being furloughed — or forced to take unpaid days off — three Fridays a month. In New Jersey, about 5,000 parolees went unmonitored for a day in May and June as their parole o... |
07-01-09
Word count: 1166
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Washington, DC, USA. Unlike the federal government, states have to balance their budgets. Nearing the Wednesday (July 1) start of a new fiscal year, several states still are struggling to cover substantial budget gaps that will leave governors and legislators no choice but to cut spending and or raise taxes and fees.
If legislatures don’t approve budgets on time, some states could be forced to shut down all but essential government services. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood (D) is weig... |
06-30-09
Word count: 1296
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Washington, DC, USA. From the minute President Obama declared that the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package would save or create 3.5 million jobs, state officials have been confused about how to count those jobs. Now, four months later, the White House has offered states guidance. The advice includes a description of the programs subject to the job-reporting requirements.
“All we’re asking them (states) to do is a simple headcount” of jobs saved or created, Rob Nabors, deputy ... |
06-27-09
Word count: 538
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Washington, DC, USA. While the Tennessee Legislature was slashing programs and laying off 700 state employees to close a budget gap last week, Gov. Phil Bredesen was touring a manufacturing company in the Swiss village of Birr.
From Switzerland, it was on to Germany and Poland for Bredesen, a two-term Democrat. The coincidence of the state’s top elected official bouncing around Europe as state lawmakers were struggling with agonizing budget choices back home may appear irresponsible at firs... |
06-22-09
Word count: 1531
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Washington, DC, USA. States racing to cobble together new budgets for their July 1 deadline could find themselves sinking back into red ink sooner than expected, as Americans’ income and the taxes they pay on it shrink. Personal income taxes paid to the states 26 percent, or $28.8 billion, in the first four months of 2009, compared with the same period last year, reports the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
Arizona saw the steepest decline, a whopping 54.9 percent, followed by... |
06-21-09
Word count: 851
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Washington, DC, USA. A brawl between Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) and her own party’s leaders shows the tensions engendered by scarce resources during this recession.
The recession started in Arizona three months earlier than in the rest of the country, in part because the subprime mortgage crisis hit western states and Florida more severely than others. A steep decline in tax revenue has left the Grand Canyon state with a $3 billion budget hole.
Brewer wants to combine a temporary 1-cent ... |
06-20-09
Word count: 558
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Washington, DC, USA. Twenty years after local officials in Miami opened the nation’s first drug court — a specialized “treatment court” aimed at rehabilitating low-level drug offenders instead of locking them up — state lawmakers in Illinois and Nevada are applying the same idea to a different population: war veterans who have had run-ins with the law.
The two states this year became the first to authorize the statewide creation of special “veterans’ courts,” which, like exist... |
06-18-09
Word count: 1270
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Washington, DC, VA, USA. A recession is no time for governors and state legislators to win a popularity contest with voters.
There’s not much upside to slashing programs and services and raising taxes, no matter which party you are in or how many votes you got in the last election.
So it’s no surprise to see that a new poll shows that New York voters scorn Gov. David Paterson (D). Only two in 10 New York residents said they have a favorable view of Paterson, and seven in 10 said he did... |
06-17-09
Word count: 1117
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Washington, DC, USA. As Americans struggled with the worst fiscal crisis in a generation, states will remember the first half of 2009 for staggering budget deficits, record unemployment and the largest infusion of federal dollars into their treasuries since the Great Depression.
To date, lawmakers in about half the states have closed shop for the legislative year. But as tax revenues continue to come in lower than the expected projections, it is a good bet that many of the same state legislat... |
06-16-09
Word count: 2186
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Fairfax, VA, USA. The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has launched a national public awareness campaign that educates passengers about TSA's upcoming “Secure Flight” program, a collaborative effort with the airlines that enhances watch list matching through a phased-in approach.
The government says that additional data elements may be requested, such as date of birth and gender to better differentiate legitimate passengers from those individuals on the government watch li... |
06-15-09
Word count: 780
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 | ...BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.
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06-14-09
Word count: 790
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Washington, DC, VA, USA. In California, epicenter of the fiscal earthquake shaking state governments across the country, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is once again engaging in political brinksmanship to try to prod his Legislature to resolve a $24 billion gap between spending and revenues.
If lawmakers fail to act before the July 1 start of a new budget year, Schwarzenegger says he will not go along with a short-term loan to keep the state afloat. During a meeting with the Los Angeles Times edi... |
06-13-09
Word count: 609
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Los Angeles, CA, USA. An in-depth study examines the correlation between happiness and democracy — and whether economic concerns outweigh political reforms in their impact on subjective well-being.
Overall well-being initially plummeted in countries directly affected by the fall of the Iron Curtain, driven by a decline in satisfaction with work and family life.
The changes in well-being fluctuated with personal circumstances and appeared to be less dependent on political views than previou... |
06-10-09
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Washington, DC, USA. State finance officials are uttering a new acronym in this year of TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) and ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). It’s BAB, short for Build America Bonds, or taxable municipal debt issued by state and local governments that is partially subsidized by the federal government.
The two-month-old program, part of the $787 billion federal economic stimulus plan, is catching on among financially distressed state and local governments lo... |
06-09-09
Word count: 939
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 | ...Washington, DC, USA. Even if the national recession ends this year as many predict, state budgets will likely be in the red for the next two years, with budget gaps topping $230 billion as tax collections of sales, personal and corporate income lag, two new reports show. More than half the states reported that revenues from every major tax source, through April, were below last year’s collections, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) said in a new report.
Some revenue ... |
06-05-09
Word count: 851
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 | ...Washington, DC, USA. Stricter identification requirements at the borders between the United States and both Canada and Mexico go into effect on 1 June 2009. The new rules require official passports or other new high-tech documents to cross the northern and southern U. S. borders. The changes are the direct result of the 9/11 Commission recommendations.
Before 9/11 attack, a driver's license and an oral declaration of citizenship were sufficient to cross the Canadian and Mexican border... |
05-31-09
Word count: 781
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| ...Washington, DC, USA. One of the best state political tales this year comes from Idaho, where a snit between Republican Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and his own party’s House members led to the governor vetoing 35 budget bills to try to force state lawmakers to increase gasoline taxes to pay for road repairs.
The House refused to budge, but both sides saved some face by approving a $57 million-a-year package of fee and revenue increases.
This is far short of the $174 mil... |
05-31-09
Word count: 1251
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 | ...Washington, DC, USA. President Obama in a May 20 memo reaffirmed his opposition to federal “pre-emption” of state law, drawing a distinction between himself and the Bush administration, which regularly superseded state laws on health, safety, and the environment. At the same time, however, Obama is backing a federal hate crimes bill that could pre-empt state hate crimes policies.
The bill has cleared the U.S. House of Representatives and is awaiting Senate action. It would extend fe... |
05-28-09
Word count: 774
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The TS-Si News Service is a collaboration of TS-Si staff, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Contents do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates