Free Republic

Along with New Year’s resolutions, Jan. 1 marks the day many new state laws go into effect. In our annual tradition, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has compiled a list of some of the most interesting ones. In 2012, all but four states met in regular session and enacted more than 29,000 bills and resolutions. Not all new laws go into effect on the first of the year—it depends on the state’s constitution and whether the statute itself specifies when the law will officially begin. Among the wide variety of new laws NCSL has identified, several have made...

Rick Perry's keynote speech at today's National Conference of State Legislatures Summit details his views on governments, growth, fiscal responsibility, and what we can learn from current events, the S&P Downgrade, and this administration's policies. Calling for fiscal discipline, a change from federal overreaching to broadened state and local government, and and a determination to build a strong country for a better tomorrow, Rick Perry lays it out and shows you who he is, what he does, and how he does it. "Our fiscal house is on shifting sand", says Rick Perry. "Some say we are seeing America in decline,...

With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts. Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk. "I still can't believe they took our yogurt," said Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, a few days after the raid. "There's a medical marijuana shop a couple miles...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – From legalizing marijuana and then taxing it, to increasing death certificate fees and charging gentlemen's club patrons an extra $5 at the door, cash-strapped U.S. states and cities are rooting around for revenue in some unconventional places. But even those able to scrounge up funds from untapped sources will likely still need federal help or traditional tax increases to recover from a 17-month recession that has dried up revenue, drained spending capabilities and nearly obliterated the usual last resort of borrowing. Sin seems most ripe for the taxing in a list of proposed revenue moves compiled by...

November 29, 2007Federal Gridlock on Immigration Reform Leads States to Action:  States enacted triple the numbers of laws in 2007 over 2006 DENVER - In the absence of federal immigration reform, state legislatures have passed an unprecedented amount of legislation related to immigrants in a range of policy arenas.As of November 16, 2007, roughly 1562 pieces of legislation related to immigrants and immigration had been introduced among the 50 state legislatures. Of these bills, 244 became law in 46 states. 11 bills have been vetoed by governors. Two measures are still pending governors’ review.State legislators have introduced roughly two...

BELTON - There appears to be no easy way to address the challenges that inflation has brought to the Texas Department of Transportation. “We’ve seen 60 percent inflation over the last five years for transportation projects,” said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman. To look to the federal government for assistance would appear foolhardy at this point as the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent by 2009. The fund was created in 1956 to ensure a dependable source of financing for U.S. interstates and highways. “The Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to go into the red very...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Legislatures around the country are passing state laws to get tough on illegal immigration, but legal experts say many of those laws will turn out to be unconstitutional. More than 550 bills relating to illegal immigration were introduced in statehouses this year, and at least 77 were enacted, according to a survey presented last week at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, NCSL analyst Ann Morse told lawmakers at the conference that a 1986 federal law forbids states from enacting stricter criminal or civil penalties for illegal immigration than those adopted by...

A special task force of the National Conference of State Legislatures today released the results of a 10-month study that identified specific areas of the act that need to be changed if states are to guarantee that young people will learn at their full potential. Key recommendations of the report include: -Remove obstacles that stifle state innovations and undermine state programs that were proving to work before passage of the act. Federal waivers should be granted and publicized for innovative programs; -Fully fund the act and provide states the financial flexibility to meet its goals. The federal government funds less...