Good morning, it’s Monday, July 14, 2025. Happy Bastille Day! In today’s edition, lawmakers advance online safety bills; California targets loud ads on streaming services; Dems (and one Republican) hit the 2028 trail:
Top Stories
ONLINE SAFETY: Lawmakers are making steady advances requiring tech companies to create new safety mechanisms for children in online spaces. Minnesota and New York backed laws requiring surgeon general-style warning labels on social media. Louisiana, Texas and Utah approved bills requiring app stores to verify user ages. And Nebraska and Vermont have become the third and fourth states to adopt so-called Kids Code laws. (Pluribus News)
MORE: The California Senate has approved legislation prohibiting online streaming services from raising the volume of commercials played on their platform. The legislation would require streaming services to comply with the same rules as television companies, which under federal law must limit commercial volumes to the volume of programming they accompany. (CalMatters)
CONSUMER PROTECTION: Businesses in Maine will be required to provide clear information about subscription renewals under new legislation signed by Gov. Janet Mills (D). The law will require businesses that allow online signups to also offer online cancelation options. The law is modeled on Federal Trade Commission rules adopted last year, but placed on hold by a federal court. (Maine Public Radio)
ABORTION: Texas lawmakers meeting for special session next week appear poised to resurrect legislation banning the distribution, prescription and provision of abortion medication in the state. The bill passed the state Senate during regular session but died in the state House. (Dallas Morning News)
EDUCATION: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has signed legislation expanding free preschool and full-day kindergarten to the few remaining school districts that did not already offer those programs. The new law mandates full-day kindergarten by 2030. (New Jersey Monitor)
ECONOMY: Maryland will begin offering $20,000 buyouts, plus $300 for every year of service, to full-time employees of the executive branch in an effort to cut $121 million in ongoing personnel expenses. Gov. Wes Moore (D) has already eliminated 150 vacant positions and imposed a hiring freeze to deal with a budget deficit. (Maryland Matters)
In Politics & Business
2028: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) is the latest Democrat to trek to all-important South Carolina, where he will hold two days of events with Black voters this week. (Associated Press) Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) addressed South Dakota Democrats on Saturday. (South Dakota Searchlight) Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) addressed The Family Leader’s annual summit in Iowa. (Des Moines Register)
ALASKA: Supporters of legalizing psilocybin mushrooms have submitted a proposed ballot measure to decriminalize “magic mushrooms” and other psychedelics. The measure, modeled on a 2022 Colorado law, would need at least 34,099 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. (Alaska Beacon)
TEXAS: A state district court judge has agreed to seal records in the divorce proceeding between Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and state Sen. Angela Paxton (R). The request to seal proceedings came from Angela Paxton. (Texas Tribune)
OKLAHOMA: The race to elect a new chairman of the state Democratic Party was upended when party activists began receiving robocalls allegedly from state Rep. John Waldron (D) making inflammatory comments about his opponent. But it wasn’t Waldron, it was an AI-generated message. The news outlet that initially published a story on the message retracted it, and Waldron eventually won the race. (Oklahoman)
Oklahoma does not have legislation on the books banning AI deepfakes in political contests.
By The Numbers
$28 million: The amount special interest groups spent on lobbyists in Connecticut the first quarter of the year, according to reports from the Office of State Ethics. Health care businesses spent more than any other industry, led by $1.45 million in spending by the Connecticut Hospital Association. (Chris Powell)
1.4 million: The number of New York City residents set to lose health insurance under President Trump’s reconciliation law, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. New York State expects to lose more than $13 billion in federal funding under the bill. (State of Politics)
$1 billion: The amount of losses California’s tourism economy expects this year, thanks to economic uncertainty and federal policies. California tourism officials expect a 20% drop in visitors from Canada. (State Affairs)
Off The Wall
A small creek on Alaska’s Little Kiska Island has been renamed, 80 years after World War II soldiers named it Nazi Creek. The Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously to change its name to Kaxchim Chiganaa, meaning “gizzard creek” in the language of the indigenous Unangax people. (Alaska Beacon)
A 54-lb. rock, the largest-ever piece of Mars found on earth, will go up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York this week. The meteorite was found in 2023 in the Sahara Desert in Niger; it’s expected to go for between $2 million and $4 million. (Associated Press)
Quote of the Day
“We used to call it ‘The Island of Misfit Toys.’”
— Claudia Cappio, former director of the California Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing and Community Development, on the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. That agency will soon be split into two separate agencies, one focused on housing and one on everything else, under a plan offered by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) earlier this year. (Associated Press)