Good morning, it’s Wednesday, June 17, 2026. In today’s edition, Illinois levies first-of-its-kind social media tax; housing advocates target private markets in real estate; Virginia to legalize recreational pot:
Top Stories
SOCIAL MEDIA: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has signed legislation making his state the first to charge social media companies a fee based on their number of users. Companies with between 100,000 and 500,000 users in Illinois will pay 10 cents per month, excluding the first 100,000 users. Companies with more than 1 million users will pay $165,000 plus 50 cents per user per month, excluding the first million. (Pluribus News)
HOUSING: New laws in Connecticut, Washington and Wisconsin, and a pending bill in New York, will require public marketing of homes up for sale. The laws target Compass, the nation’s largest real estate firm, which has its own private market for real estate listings. The laws require real estate brokers to offer listings to the public, not just on private markets. (Pluribus News)
MARIJUANA: Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has agreed to a deal to allow the sale of recreational marijuana. The deal will cap retail stores at 350, set packaging and advertising restrictions on products, and give more authority to the Cannabis Control Authority. Legal sales will begin July 1, 2027. (Pluribus News)
The deal will make Virginia the first Southern state to allow recreational pot. Spanberger had vetoed a previous version of legalization over public safety concerns.
PUBLIC SAFETY: Tennessee lawmakers have approved a bill that would allow for issuing traffic citations to autonomous vehicles. Tickets would be mailed to the vehicle’s registered owner. The autonomous driving company Waymo has been testing its vehicles on the streets of Nashville. (State Affairs)
MORE: The Rhode Island General Assembly has given final passage to legislation requiring businesses with liquor licenses to provide removable drink covers to customers on request. The bill is meant to provide protections for customers against drugged drinks. It allows establishments to charge customers for drink covers. (WPRI)
ENERGY: The Pennsylvania House has approved legislation requiring electric utilities to create virtual power plant programs to help lower costs. Virtual power plants digitally coordinate power from smaller sources, like thermostats and batteries, to add or reduce power supply at times of peak use. (State Affairs)
LGBTQ RIGHTS: A federal judge has blocked an Idaho law that would subject transgender people who use restrooms that match their gender identities to criminal charges. The law, signed by Gov. Brad Little (R) in March, would include criminal penalties of up to a year in jail for the first offense. (Associated Press)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is calling on lawmakers to repeal the death penalty. DeWine, who helped write the state’s death penalty law as a legislator, said the moral justification he used to vote for the bill “simply no longer exists.” (State Affairs)
In Politics & Business
OKLAHOMA: Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) and former state Sen. Mike Mazzei (R) will advance to an August 25 gubernatorial runoff. Both men received 26% of the vote, ahead of former Public Safety Secretary Chip Keating (R) at 18%. State Rep. Cyndi Munson (D) won the Democratic nomination with 75%. (Oklahoman)
GEORGIA: Billionaire businessman Rick Jackson (R) has won the Republican nomination for governor, pulling 53% of the vote against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R). Jackson will face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) in November. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
WASHINGTON, D.C.: With 64% of the vote in, council member Janeese Lewis George (D) leads the Democratic primary for mayor with 53% of the vote, ahead of at-large council member Kenyan McDuffie (D) at 37%. The Associated Press has not yet called the race, but Lewis George leads in seven of the city’s eight wards. (Washington Post)
ALABAMA: Former state GOP chairman John Wahl (R) won 57% of the vote against Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) in the race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Wahl had won President Trump’s endorsement. (Yellowhammer News) Deputy Attorney General Katherine Robertson (R) won the GOP nomination for attorney general with 57% of the vote. (Alabama Reflector)
MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Maura Healey (D) leads both her potential Republican rivals by wide margins. A new Suffolk University poll finds Healey leading medical tech executive Mike Minogue (R) 56%-31%, and ahead of former MBTA executive Brian Shortsleeve (R) 56%-29%. (Suffolk)
By The Numbers
16.6%: The error rate of New Mexico’s SNAP program, one of the highest in the country. Changes under the 2025 Republican reconciliation bill that put states on the hook for covering SNAP benefits depending on their error rates could cost New Mexico up to $173 million in additional annual spending. (Albuquerque Journal)
About $470,000: The amount Anthropic employees contributed to former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s (D) bid for California governor. About a third of that total came in on June 1, the day before the primary. (Sacramento Bee)
1.17 million: The annual rate of housing starts in the United States in May, the lowest level since April 2020. Starts dropped 15% in the South and 11% in the West, but rose 19% in the Northeast. (Stateline)
Off The Wall
Bars and liquor stores in Boston are racing to keep up with hard-partying World Cup fans. Some establishments are reporting sales two and three times as robust as on St. Patrick’s Day. Scotland fans have descended on the city, and they’re apparently partying pretty hard. (Boston Globe)
The Starkville Derby, started in 2023 in the small Mississippi college town, has become the world’s largest wiener dog racing event. This year’s event drew more than 80,000 people and raised money for the Oktibbeha County Humane Society. (Mississippi Today)
Quote of the Day
“I’m going to miss the process, as messy as that is.”
— Arizona Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R), who is retiring at the end of his current term. (State Affairs)