LEGISLATURE

Legislation to provide students in New Mexico with free school lunches regardless of income was signed by Gov. Michelle Grisham. Lawmakers set aside $22 million to pay for the program.

GOP lawmakers in states with abortion bans already in place are pushing to make them more restrictive, while blue state officials are trying to expand abortion access.

For exactly 50 years, Oregon’s farms and forests have been protected from urban sprawl by the nation’s first statewide law creating urban growth boundaries.

Kinnard Farms has reached a $215,000 settlement with the Wisconsin Department of Justice over allegations that the factory farm improperly spread manure.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed legislation to repeal the state's decade-old “right-to-work” law, which was passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature.

Michigan, long known as a mainstay of organized labor, on Friday became the first state in decades to repeal a union-restricting law known as “right-to-work” that was passed over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Legislature. The state's “right-to-work” law had allowed those in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues and fees. Its repeal is seen as a major victory for organized labor with union membership reaching an all-time low last year.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers' spending proposal was rejected by Republicans. The final decision will be sent to the Legislature's budget committee.

After gas prices spiked last summer, California lawmakers plan to vote on a bill that would discourage oil companies from price gouging. The bill would penalize companies.

Missouri has passed its second tax cut in the past six months, joining a slew of other states that have seen sweeping tax reductions for individuals and corporations.

The tax-cutting trend is going full force in states even as some are raising concerns about a slowing economy.

Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed into law a $7.4 billion state budget for the coming fiscal year, despite multiple policy disagreements with lawmakers.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wants state regulators to decide whether to impose the nation's first penalty on oil companies for price gouging.

Legislation to repeal Michigan's "right-to-work" law has been passed by the state's House. This has been a priority for Democrats since they took control of the state government.

Michigan's Democratic-led House approved legislation Wednesday that would repeal the state's “right-to-work” law that was passed more than a decade ago when Republicans controlled the Statehouse. Repealing the law, which prohibits public and private unions from requiring that nonunion employees pay union dues even if the union bargains on their behalf, has been a top priority for Democrats since they took full control of the state government this year. Supporters of the repeal, who poured into the gallery above the House chambers, cheered loudly as the legislation passed along party lines late Wednesday.

Nearly three dozen projects aimed at fighting invasive species in Michigan will share $3.6 million in grant funding through the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas proposed multiple laws to limit abortions at the state legislature's annual session. A statewide vote affirmed abortion rights seven months ago.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature are unlikely to include a 3.25% flat income tax, a plan which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vocally opposes, in the state budget this year.

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday unveiled his $53.1 billion budget proposal for the state's 2024 fiscal year, an approximate 5% spending increase over 2023.

A recent ruling would see tipped workers earning the same minimum wage as other workers by 2024.

The forecasted budget surplus in Minnesota landed at $17.5 billion. The forecast still accounts for over $100 million that the legislature has already spent.

The Indiana House of Representatives has passed a bill that would mandate photo ID or other vital information be submitted by individuals voting by mail.

Chuck Grassie, A Democrat from New Hampshire, was reelected to the state House. He was reelected in a special election which was triggered by a tie vote.

Oklahoma lawmakers will have an additional $2 billion to spend over what was reported last year, according to a panel led by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Oregon's Legislature is considering a bill that experts say would create the nation’s most comprehensive law against paramilitary activity.

Over 100 straight days of racial justice protests that turned downtown Portland into a battleground. Over the past decade, Oregon experienced the sixth-highest number of extremist incidents in the nation, despite being 27th in population, according to an Oregon Secretary of State report. Now, the state Legislature is considering a bill that, experts say, would create the nation’s most comprehensive law against paramilitary activity.

A plan currently navigating through the Minnesota Legislature would mandate that most employers provide paid sick leave to all of their employees.

The Wisconsin governor is set to release his 2023-2025 executive budget to the Legislature on Wednesday. Gov. Tony Evers wants to cut taxes and boost school funding.

The Vermont state House's Human Services Committee has advanced a bill that would make assisted suicide available to non-U.S. citizens.

For years, Nashville leaders have watched Tennessee's GOP-dominated Legislature repeatedly kneecap the liberal-leaning city's ability to set its own minimum wage, regulate plastic bag use and place higher scrutiny on police officers. In Mississippi, Black lawmakers are denouncing a plan by the state's majority-white and Republican-led Legislature to take over power from the capital city of Jackson. Over in Missouri, lawmakers are pursuing legislation to strip power from St. Louis' prosecutor — a plan supporters say will address violent crime but is criticized by Black leaders.

Michigan’s minimum and tipped wage legal battle could be moving onto the Michigan Supreme Court. This decision prevented from going into effect minimum wages raises to $13.03 and $11.73 for tipped wages. Defendants Mothering Justice, Michigan One Fair Wage, Michigan Time to Care and Restaurant Opportunities, along with two individuals, filed the appeal alleging the 2018 Legislature’s “adopt-and-amend” play was unconstitutional. I cannot believe that this drastic action is what the drafters of our constitution even contemplated, let alone intended.”Now the Michigan Supreme Court will decide if it will hear the case. The Michigan Supreme Court previously denied the case in 2019.

According to the attorney general's office in Washington, legislatures in the state can refuse to provide certain records to the public.

Wisconsin's governor wants it to be harder for the purchasing of land by the state or conservation groups to be blocked by the GOP-controlled legislature.

Indiana lawmakers are exploring various options for expanded contraceptive access following an abortion ban in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Democrats in the Maine Legislature are spearheading an effort to implement paid family leave proposals into statewide law, citing inaction at the federal level.

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Tuesday he would request that the state Legislature allow sales tax hikes at the county and municipal level.

The state of Michigan could issue inflation relief checks to all tax filers, should a newly announced plan get approved by the state Legislature.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will give his State of the State address at noon on Monday. Tax cuts are expected to be a priority during the address.

Wisconsin Republicans have begun circulating legislation to specify which crimes would be affected by a proposed constitutional amendment to tighten bail restrictions.

The Arkansas House on Wednesday passed a bill that would ban public schools from allowing transgender students into bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex.

The federal government and local courts made moves that will have ripple effects on minimum wage, student debt relief and, potentially, egg prices. As Rose reported last month, the price increase is a result of depleted supply due to a deadly run of avian flu last year. A Court of Appeals decision reversed action on a wage increase that was set to go into effect in February. The current state minimum wage is $10.10 and tipped wage is $3.84, and the Jan. 26 ruling keeps it that way. Email us at askaquestion@mlive.comMore on MLive:Wallet Watch: What to know about filing taxes this yearWallet Watch: Affordable Midwest home prices counter high mortgage ratesWallet Watch: How to get an electric vehicle tax credit

One in three people in Alcona County are over 65 and yet a senior center has become a catalyst for division in the small county along Lake Huron. Four members of the Alcona County Commission on Aging resigned in protest and staff threatened to walk. Squabbling over a senior centerMonths of infighting on the Alcona County Commission of Aging came to a head during the Jan. 24 meeting, a six-hour spectacle. The crowd booed, “Amened” and gave standing ovations as board members nitpicked the project and each other. The website notes both Bob and Lisa are “highly involved and are bringing a lot of attention to the state of corruption within the various Alcona County government entities.”This election cycle Lisa ran for Alcona County school board and Bob ran for county commission.

Prisha Mosley, who is detransitioning back to a woman, gives her take on Utah becoming the first state to ban transgender care for kids on "America Reports."

Now in control of the state government, Democrats plan to reintroduce bills to curb police brutality

The future of the nation's nearly $900 billion trucking industry could be shaped in California.

Utah's Republican governor, Spencer Cox, on Saturday, signed a bill banning minors from receiving gender-affirming surgery unless they've been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

The day after Governor Gretchen Whitmer pitched targeted tax breaks in her State of the State address, the Michigan legislature did just that, as about a billion dollars will be coming from the state back to you.

A Court of Appeals decision has reversed course for Michigan’s minimum and tipped wage increase. The current state minimum wage is $10.10 and tipped wage is $3.84, and the Thursday, Jan. 26, ruling keeps it that way. The petition sought to raise Michigan’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022 and raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to 80% of the standard minimum wage in 2022, 90% in 2023 and ultimately match it in 2024. The Michigan Supreme Court previously denied the case in 2019. Michigan restaurant industry divided on wage increasesMichigan minimum wage rises above $10 for first time‘Everybody is struggling:’ How inflation hit 5 Michiganders this year

Wiping the law from the books would send a strong message to Michiganders who have put it all on the line in the last couple of years for better working conditions

The New York legislature passed a constitutional amendment enshrining anti-discrimination rules for abortion and gender identity into law.

The South Dakota House has approved a $200 million housing infrastructure fund, with the spending package now going to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem for final approval.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has announced a series of proposed gun laws in a state already considered one of the strictest for firearms ownership.

South Dakota lawmakers rejected a proposal for a constitutional amendment banning ballot measures from reconsideration if they failed in the previous election cycle.

The Montana legislature is considering a proposal that would interpret the state’s constitutional right to privacy to mean that it does not protect the right to an abortion, a move that would echo others in several states to severely restrict or ban abortion. Sen. Keith Regier, the proposal's sponsor, argued during a committee hearing Tuesday that the phrase “individual privacy” in the state Constitution should also refer to unborn babies that are individuals who have rights that should not be infringed upon. State efforts to regulate abortion became more urgent after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June — in the Dobbs v. Jackson case — to leave abortion rights up to the states.

Republican Wisconsin lawmakers on Tuesday rejected calls from Gov. Tony Evers and other Democrats to ask voters whether the state should continue to ban abortions, opting instead to advance a ballot question on welfare eligibility. The advisory referendum on welfare proposed by top Republicans is nonbinding, meaning it wouldn't change state law, but supporters said they want the public's feedback on the issue. Democrats argued that Republicans were just trying to increase GOP turnout for a pivotal state Supreme Court race that will determine the ideological balance of the court and is also on the April ballot.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling for new gun control laws and greater accountability for firearm manufacturers while denouncing recent drive-by shootings against politicians in Albuquerque and what she called a national scourge of violence.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs wants to undo a massive expansion of a school voucher program championed last year by her GOP predecessor and other Republicans that lets students apply to use public money for private-school tuition and other education costs. In releasing its budget proposals Friday, the governor’s office said the expansion is siphoning money from underfunded public schools and would cost $1.5 billion dollars over the next decade. Hobbs staffers estimated the move would save the state $135 million next fiscal year.

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed his first bill of the 2023 legislative session Thursday, which focused on simplifying tax filing and more broadly providing tax relief.

When a group of unhinged extremists call themselves a "freedom" caucus you can be sure they believe in just the opposite.

The pay raise plan that gives Illinois lawmakers an 18% annual salary hike started in the governor's office.

Newly released documents from the House Jan. 6 committee show that the former Wisconsin Republican Party chairman testified that U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson spoke to him weeks before Joe Biden assumed the presidency about having the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature, rather than voters, choose Wisconsin’s presidential electors.

The former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson spoke to him weeks before Joe Biden assumed the presidency about having the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature, rather than voters, choose Wisconsin’s presidential electors, according to newly released documents from closed-door testimony to the House Jan. 6 committee. Johnson, in a statement Tuesday, said he had no recollection of the conversation with Andrew Hitt and accused the committee investigating the 2021 Capitol insurrection of attempting to “smear" him by selectively releasing text messages. Hitt, who resigned as state party chairman in July 2021, testified before the Jan. 6 committee on Feb. 22.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is pledging to make the largest investments in public education in Minnesota history as he begins his second term.

The election contests of 2022 may have been held and decided, but Ohio’s political maps remain far from settled.

Federal proposals that would have significantly boosted security funding for election offices and heightened penalties for threatening their staff failed to advance this year.

Since June, Andrus said they haven’t had to augment a server’s wage at the end of a shift. A 2018 ballot proposal would increase Michigan’s minimum wage to $13.03 and $11.73 for tipped employees in 2023. The restaurant industry has been debating the wage increase since the measure became entangled in a legal battle over the summer. “And letting the one that is burn.”As it stands now the wage increase could go into effect February 2023. Grand Rapids bakery Field & Fire is in favor of an increased minimum wage and doing away with the tipped minimum.

Guam’s Legislature has passed a bill prohibiting most abortions

The Republican leader of the Wisconsin Senate said Thursday that he opposes spending any state money to help Madison bring a passenger rail line that would connect the capital city to Milwaukee, joining the state's other top GOP legislative leader in opposition to the project. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told The Associated Press that he opposes state funding for the project but had not been briefed by Madison city leaders on what they were attempting. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was blunt last week when asked about it, saying only “No state funding.”

California could become the first state to fine big oil companies for making too much money.

Florida’s top lawmakers are considering changes to a law to clear the path for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president without giving up his post.

Election wins for abortion rights and Democrats could translate into abortion protections in some states.

Two Republicans who control the board in a rural southeastern Arizona county have decided to withdraw a lawsuit they filed early this week seeking to force their own elections director to hand-count all the ballots cast in-person on Election Day.

Abortion rights supporters won in the four states where access was on the ballot.

Voters in reliably red Kentucky rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any state constitutional protections for abortion while voters in battleground Michigan enshrined abortion rights in their state’s constitution.

Oregon voters are being asked to decide whether the state should be the first in the nation to amend its constitution to explicitly declare that affordable health care is a fundamental human right.

Local election officials across the United States are bracing for a wave of confrontations on Election Day in November.

Years before he became Mississippi governor, Tate Reeves served as the state's treasurer and had a hand in delaying funds for water system repairs in the capital city of Jackson.

Public school advocates who oppose a massive expansion of Arizona’s private school voucher system have filed enough signatures to block it from taking effect.

A federal judge in Phoenix has blocked enforcement of a new Arizona law restricting the filming of police.

Seventeen states that tie their vehicle emission standards to rules established in California must decide whether to follow that state’s strict new rules.

Hundreds of thousands of people have signed initiative petitions for ballot measures in several states that would expand voting access, ensure abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana.

The utility that oversees California’s last operating nuclear power plant is taking steps to seek federal approval for an extended lifespan, just hours after the Legislature opened a pathway for a run that could last through 2030.

New Mexico's governor has signed a new executive order that pledges $10 million to build a clinic that would provide abortions and other pregnancy care.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is proposing a $600 million annual tax cut, an election year proposal that Republican legislative leaders are rejecting as a “vote-buying ploy.

Primary elections are being held in six states on Tuesday.

New Mexico’s governor says direct spending by production companies on films, TV series and other media has never been higher in the state, topping $855 million in fiscal year 2022.

Physicians and researchers are urging New Mexico legislators to allow the use of psychedelic mushrooms in mental health therapy aimed at overcoming depression, anxiety, psychological trauma and alcoholism.

There are multiple new developments in the battle over abortion rights in Michigan.

Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court handed Republicans their newest weapon to weaken any Democratic governors in the battleground state.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Republican-led Michigan Legislature have reached a budget deal for the 2023 fiscal year.

Arizona’s Republican attorney general says that a pre-statehood law that bans all abortions is enforceable.

The Supreme Court's decision to end the constitutional right to abortion likely will lead to legal battles as already divided states grapple with the new landscape of abortion access.

North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s expensive effort to influence the GOP primary and reshape the Legislature with more people who support his spending and policy goals was a mixed bag.

Louisiana's Democratic governor says he'll call the state's Republican-dominated Legislature into special session to draw up new congressional districts.

An Arizona judge has declined a request by the state Republican Party to block most mail ballots for the 2022 election, preserving the voting method used by the overwhelming majority of voters.

The mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are again putting the focus on gun control measures such as waiting periods to buy firearms.

The New York Legislature has approved a milestone environmental measure designed to tap the brakes on the spread of cryptocurrency mining operations that burn fossil fuels.

New York’s political landscape for the next decade is being quickly retooled by a rural judge and out-of-state expert after a court ruled Democrats controlling New York's legislature bungled the job.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to repeal the state’s retirement tax -- here’s a look at how the tax works and why she wants to end it.

Kansas’ highest court has upheld a Republican redistricting law that improves the GOP's chances of flipping the state's only congressional seat held by a Democrat.

A court-appointed expert released a draft of new congressional maps for New York that are more favorable to Republicans than the original gerrymandered political maps drawn by Democrats.