Good morning, it’s Wednesday, November 20, 2024. In today’s edition, states apply for broadband cash; AGs back KOSA bill; California voters reject minimum wage hike:
Top Stories
TECHNOLOGY: The Biden administration has approved Texas’s state broadband plan, the final Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment plan implemented under the bipartisan infrastructure law. The BEAD program will allocate $42.5 billion — including $3.3 billion to Texas alone, the highest amount of any state — to connect residents with high-speed internet. (Pluribus News)
SOCIAL MEDIA: A bipartisan group of 32 attorneys general has urged Congress to approve the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA. The bill won Senate approval earlier this year, but it faces stiffer opposition in the U.S. House amid millions in lobbying from Google and Meta. (The Verge)
EDUCATION: Texas’s State Board of Education has given initial approval to new elementary school curriculum that includes lessons from the Bible in reading and language arts lessons. The optional curriculum will face a final vote later this week; school districts will get financial incentives to adopt it. (Texas Tribune)
MORE: The North Carolina House voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s (R) veto of legislation that would provide $463 million to clear a backlog of students waiting for Opportunity Scholarship funding. About 50,000 students remain on a waitlist after the legislature expanded the program to universal eligibility. (Raleigh News & Observer)
TRANSPORTATION: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has signed legislation creating fines for the possession or installation of devices that flip a vehicle’s license plates on the road. Owning or making flipping devices, used to evade traffic cameras, would lead to a $2,000 fine. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
CRYPTO: Eighteen Republican attorneys general have sued the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging it overstepped its authority in regulating cryptocurrencies. The suit challenges whether the SEC has authority to regulate cryptocurrencies at all. (Deseret News)
In Politics & Business
CALIFORNIA: Voters have rejected Proposition 32, a measure to raise the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour. With 96% of the vote in, voters rejected the measure by a margin of just over 1.5%, or about 244,000 votes. (Associated Press)
It’s the first time this century that a minimum wage increase has failed at the ballot box.
ARIZONA: Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) is leaving the door open to a primary challenge against Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) in 2026. Fontes said he is seeking re-election — for now — but that he will seriously consider other options. (Arizona Republic)
MICHIGAN: Phones and other devices issued by the Michigan Senate will block the use of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other AI-powered chatbots after the Senate Information Services office said the programs posed security and privacy risks. The office said it would replace those chatbots with Microsoft’s Copilot next year. (Detroit News)
LEADERSHIP: Alabama Senate President Greg Reed (R) will leave office to join Gov. Kay Ivey’s (R) administration. The Republican caucus will meet Dec. 3 to pick Reed’s replacement. (Associated Press) North Carolina Republicans have selected Rep. Destin Hall (R) as the next House Speaker. Rep. Brenden Jones (R) will serve as majority leader. (Raleigh News & Observer)
By The Numbers
11: The number of legislative races in Maine that required recounts, likely the highest number in the country. Just two recounts have been completed; the other nine are expected to be finished by Monday. (Maine Public Radio)
$77 million: The projected budget surplus Rhode Island will have at the end of the fiscal year, according to state budget officer Joe Codega. That’s less than the $292 million surplus from last year, but it’s still in the black. (WPRI)
$190,000: The size of the contract Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s (D) administration signed with the consulting firm Accenture to offer risk assessments for the coming Trump administration. Maryland relies disproportionately on government workers whose jobs might be at risk. (Baltimore Sun)
Off The Wall
California voters elected Vince Fong (R) to the state Assembly earlier this month, over the objections of Vince Fong. Fong, a longtime legislator from the San Joaquin Valley, won a seat in Congress earlier this year but remained on the ballot for his Assembly seat. He endorsed the Republican running against him, but Fong still won both contests by wide margins. (Associated Press)
Sophia Park, 17, has become the youngest person in California history to pass the state Bar exam. California’s Bar is the toughest in the nation; just 54% of test-takers passed the July exam. Sophia took over the title of California’s youngest-ever lawyer from her brother, Peter, who passed last year. (New York Times)
A North Dakota man excavating a gravel pit on his property has unearthed a fossil of an Endoceras, a giant squid with a shell that lived about 400 million years ago. It’s the first ancient cephalopod found in North Dakota, which was under water during the Ordovician period. (Fargo Forum)
Quote of the Day
“We stopped the congestion tax once, we’ll stop it again. Game on.”
— U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), a candidate for governor of New Jersey, on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) revived congestion charge for vehicles entering lower Manhattan. Expect opposition to congestion pricing to be a major component of the race to replace outgoing New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D). (New Jersey Globe)