PUBLIC SAFETY BEAT: Missouri punishes crack dealers more severely than those who sell the powder version of the same drug… Police are stretched thin in one of the nation's most dangerous cities… The Colorado probation agency comes under scrutiny, and other public safety news.
TODAY'S TAKE: New Englanders have been talking taxes this week, and coming to different conclusions. In Rhode Island, Governor Don Carcieri on Wednesday (June 9) signed into law an overhaul that reduces income taxes for most residents, but changes deductions and tax breaks to keep revenues stable. Contrast that with Maine, where a legislatively approved plan that also would have reduced income taxes fell flat at the polls on Tuesday (June 8).
Democrats won legislative victories campaigning against tax cuts, but may not have the power or inclination to repeal them.
The national drivers’ group wants tolling agencies to treat E-ZPass users the same, regardless of where they bought their transponders.
TODAY'S TAKE: Maine's Republican Governor Paul LePage wants public employees to work longer and pay more for their retirement benefits, igniting protests in Augusta resembling those recently seen in the Midwest.
TODAY'S TAKE: Voters in five states chose their major-party candidates for governor on Tuesday (June 8), while the Republican contenders in a sixth - South Carolina - are headed for a runoff. Among the prominent headlines: Nevada's Jim Gibbons became the first sitting governor in state history to be rejected in a primary, and former Iowa governor Terry Branstad is one step closer to a return.
This week’s extraordinary journalism about state government, tagged to #StateReads on Twitter.
AUGUSTA, Maine - The Medicaid program in Maine is short of money, and conservative Governor Paul LePage has a blunt proposal for solving the problem - drop people from the rolls.
Newly elected Republicans - and some Democrats - have made rethinking regulations a top priority. That has environmentalists and consumer advocates nervous.
