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Good morning, it’s Monday, July 29, 2024. In today’s edition, transportation money flows to the states; California court upholds gig worker law; potential Dem running mates scramble to campaign:
Top Stories
TRANSPORTATION: State governments spent about $214 billion on transportation projects in Fiscal Year 2023 as federal money from the bipartisan infrastructure bill finally begins flowing out of Washington, D.C. As of March 31, states had earmarked $128 billion for more than 70,000 projects, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
“There is at least one federal-aid highway and bridge project in nearly every U.S. county,” ARTBA communications chief Beth McGinn told us. Funding from the infrastructure law is going to mega-projects, too, including $5 billion in grants aimed at restoring or rebuilding 13 bridges in 16 states.
But time is of the essence: Rising project costs are colliding with declining gas tax revenues, meaning the billions states will spend on new projects won’t go as far as they once might have. Washington, California, Florida and Maryland lawmakers have all made plans to re-work transportation funding packages to address looming shortfalls. Read more at Pluribus News.
GIG ECONOMY: The California Supreme Court has upheld a 2020 law that allows Uber, Lyft and other gig-economy firms to treat drivers as independent contractors. The law, approved by voters after the companies spent hundreds of millions on a ballot measure campaign, gives drivers a minimum wage and access to some benefits. (Pluribus News)
HOMELESSNESS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has ordered state agencies to begin sweeping homeless encampments off public property. Newsom had written an amicus brief in support of Grants Pass, Ore., the town where a public camping ban went to the U.S. Supreme Court this term. An estimated 180,000 people experiencing homelessness live in California. (Sacramento Bee)
GUN POLITICS: Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) has signed legislation overhauling firearm laws, including requirements that all firearms carry serial numbers and new penalties for the possession, creation or transfer of untraceable guns. The law also expands “red flag” laws to allow school administrators to petition courts to take someone’s firearms if they pose a danger. (Boston Globe)
ANIMAL RIGHTS: The Massachusetts House has unanimously approved legislation that would bar circuses from using elephants, tigers and other animals in their acts. Ten other states ban big cats and exotic creatures from performing in traveling circuses. (Boston Globe)
LGBTQ RIGHTS/ABORTION: The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a new law limiting gender-affirming care for minors and increasing abortion restrictions, ruling that it does not violate constitutional requirements that bills stick to a single subject. The court said both gender-affirming care and abortion are medical care, so they qualify as the same subject. (Nebraska Examiner)
In Politics & Business
WASHINGTON: A new Public Policy Polling survey conducted for the Northwest Progressive Institute finds Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) leading the all-party primary with 39%, followed by former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (R) at 28% and former school board member Semi Bird (R) at 10%. State Sen. Mark Mullet (D) takes 5%. In a top-two matchup, Ferguson leads Reicher 49%-43%. (NPI)
Washington voters head to the polls next Tuesday, August 6.
MISSOURI: Former President Donald Trump endorsed all three major Republican candidates for governor on Saturday — Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe (R), Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) and state Sen. Bill Eigel (R). All three candidates touted Trump’s endorsement, but none bothered to mention that he backed the other two as well. (Missouri Independent)
MICHIGAN: A panel of three federal judges has approved a new map of Michigan Senate district lines in the Detroit area, after the state redistricting commission redrew district boundaries that will help more Black candidates win election. The new maps don’t force any incumbents to run against each other. (Detroit Free Press)
MORE: William Null, one of 14 men charged with plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), says he will run for governor in 2026. Nine of the 14 people charged were convicted or accepted plea deals; Null was among the five who were acquitted. (Detroit News)
VEEPSTAKES: Democrats hoping to become Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate are auditioning across the country. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) headlined an Iowa Democratic Party fundraiser on Saturday. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) was in New Hampshire last week and travels to Pennsylvania today. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is stumping for Harris in his home state. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) reversed himself on legislation related to union organizing in a sign that he wants in the mix, too. (Des Moines Register, Detroit Free Press, CBS News, Daily Beast)
By The Numbers
99.4%: The share of new Colorado laws that passed the legislature this year with bipartisan support. Of the 519 bills that won Gov. Jared Polis’s (D) signature this year, 516 had bipartisan support; just three bills passed on party-line votes. (Colorado Sun)
562 square miles: The size of the Park Fire burning in Northern California, a total area larger than Los Angeles. (Associated Press)
See some incredible satellite footage of the Park Fire right here.
Off The Wall
Construction workers rehabilitating the Oregon Capitol building are installing 160 base isolators, flexible discs that act like a car’s suspension. The base isolators will help protect the building in the event of an earthquake, keeping the building steady while the earth around it moves up to two feet in any direction. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Scientists studying basking sharks have released the first-ever footage of one of the animals being hit by a boat — an incident that happened just hours after they attached a Fitbit-like monitoring device to a female adult. Basking sharks feed on plankton near the surface, putting them at risk when boats motor by. (Oregonian)
Quote of the Day
“I don’t know how any person with commonsense or common knowledge or any kind of logic can determine something that says boneless can have a bone in it.”
— Ohio Sen. Bill DeMora (D), after the state Supreme Court ruled that a customer who ordered boneless chicken wings at a Cincinnati-area restaurant should have expected a piece of bone in their wings. (Statehouse News Bureau)