Good morning, it’s Wednesday, September 11, 2024. In today’s edition, California’s gas price fight; AGs want warnings on social media sites; New Hampshire, Delaware voters pick gubernatorial nominees:
Top Stories
GAS PRICES: California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) has set informational hearings for next week and a floor vote as early as Oct. 1 in a special session to address Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) call to impose new storage requirements on oil refineries.
Newsom wants to force those refineries to maintain sufficient reserves to smooth out price spikes when they experience outages or undergo maintenance. The oil industry opposes the bill — but so do Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), whose states rely on California for gas supplies and who worry about their own price spikes.
And while Rivas has set his schedule, nary a peep has come from Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D), who has refused to bring his members back into special session. Newsom has met with McGuire, but they have yet to reach a deal. Read more at Pluribus News.
SOCIAL MEDIA: A bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general have asked Congressional leadership to require social media sites to come with a warning from the U.S. Surgeon General. The attorneys general said social media sites had fueled a mental health crisis among younger Americans. (Pluribus News)
LGBTQ RIGHTS: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against an Arizona law banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports. The ruling applies only to two students who sued over the law, which remains in litigation. (Arizona Capitol Times)
HEALTH CARE: Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board voted to set an upper payment limit for drugs purchased by state and local government. The upper-payment limit will allow the board to focus on negotiations with pharmaceutical companies over specific drugs. (WYPR)
SPORTS: Ohio lawmakers have introduced legislation that would allow universities to directly negotiate name, image and likeness compensation deals with college athletes. The bill would allow athletes and schools to file civil suits if they believe they are being blocked from signing NIL deals. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
In Politics & Business
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) will face Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig (D) in the race to replace retiring Gov. Chris Sununu (R) this year, after Ayotte and Craig won their respective primaries on Tuesday. Ayotte took about two-thirds of the Republican vote, while Craig held off Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington (D) by a narrower 48%-42% margin. (Pluribus News)
New Hampshire has elected two women governors before, but this will be the state’s first all-woman general election.
DELAWARE: New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer (D) beat out Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long (D) to win the Democratic primary to replace retiring Gov. John Carney (D). Meyer took about 48% of the vote compared with Hall-Long’s 37%. He will face House Minority Leader Mike Ramone (R), who waltzed to the Republican nomination with about three-quarters of the vote. (Pluribus News)
WASHINGTON: Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) and former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (R) debated Tuesday, kicking off just after the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Reichert accused Ferguson of being soft on crime, while Ferguson attempted to tie Reichert to Trump. (Seattle Times)
MISSOURI: A proposed constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights will appear on November’s ballot after the state Supreme Court ordered its inclusion Tuesday. The court said Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) had missed his statutory deadline to remove the measure from the ballot. (Missouri Independent)
By The Numbers
About 1,000: The number of primary election ballots Kansas had to throw out because of postal delays, according to Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s (R) office. Schwab told Postmaster General Louis DeJoy he was “extremely concerned” about the delays that disenfranchised so many voters. (KCUR)
More than 735,000: The number of Californians served by water systems that fail to meet state requirements for safe and reliable drinking water. Most of those people live in Latino farm communities. (Associated Press)
Off The Wall
California lawmakers approved a bill late last month to ban octopus farming and the importation of farmed octopi. The bill won unanimous support in the Senate and bipartisan support in the Assembly. California would be the second state to ban octopus farming, after Washington. (Los Angeles Times)
Arizonan Jeremy Ware, 32, has earned his third Guinness World Record certificate for sinking the longest basketball shot while blindfolded. Ware made his shot from 60 feet. (UPI)
Quote of the Day
“I won’t be here next year, but you may be.”
— President Biden, welcoming the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team to the White House to celebrate their second straight NCAA title. (Connecticut Public Radio)