Good morning, it’s Friday, November 22, 2024. In today’s edition, how states use AI to trim regulations; Oregon to launch cap and trade plan; Kemp to lead Republican governors:
Top Stories
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: States are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to root out red tape and cut redundant or outdated regulations. South Carolina Rep. Jeff Bradley (R) has partnered with Google to review the state Code of Regulations, while Ohio brought on consulting giant Deloitte to parse its own revised code.
Reducing regulation is a favorite pastime of lawmakers. AI has supercharged that process. Deloitte has a dedicated AI tool, RegExplorer, that helped Ohio remove some 2.2 million words and rescind about 900 rules from its revised code. Other states are likely to come calling in short order. Read more at Pluribus News.
SOCIAL MEDIA: New York Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D) has introduced first-in-the-nation legislation that would require minors to obtain parental permission to open chat functions on gaming and social media platforms. The measure is meant to protect youth from sexual exploitation. (Pluribus News)
MORE: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has issued an executive order establishing a task force meant to counter the “addictive” use of social media. The task force will provide resources to parents and educators to help ween kids off their devices. (Virginia Mercury)
ENVIRONMENT: Oregon will kick off its Climate Protection Program in January, aiming to reduce 90% of carbon emissions from diesel, gasoline and natural gas by 2050. The program will use a cap and trade plan to limit emissions, similar to a program in use in neighboring Washington. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
MORE: New York lawmakers will introduce legislation next year to ban PFAS “forever” chemicals. A bipartisan group of lawmakers said they would consider proposals to prohibit the manufacture and use of PFAS chemicals in New York. (State of Politics)
WORKFORCE: The Illinois Senate has approved legislation barring organizations from paying subminimum wages to workers with disabilities. The bill would create a transition grant program to provide financial support to organizations that employ those with disabilities as the subminimum wage is phased out. (Capitol News Illinois)
TAXES: Louisiana lawmakers have reached a deal on Gov. Jeff Landry’s (R) tax proposals, with final votes expected today. The plan calls for a 3% flat tax on incomes, tripling the standard deduction for individual filers and a 5% sales tax rate for five years, an increase of half a percentage point. (Baton Rouge Advocate)
In Politics & Business
REPUBLICANS: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) will lead the Republican Governors Association next year, and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) will serve as vice chair. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) will serve as the RGA’s policy chair. (Daily Montanan)
GEORGIA: Attorney General Chris Carr (R) will run to replace term-limited Gov. Kemp in 2026, the first major candidate to announce a bid. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) are also considering runs. (Associated Press)
TEXAS: Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) administration has offered a parcel of rural land in Starr County, in the Rio Grande Valley, to President-elect Trump to use as a staging area for his proposed mass deportations. Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham (R) made the offer in a letter to Trump last week. (Associated Press)
PEOPLE: Former Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell (R), the last Republican to win a statewide race in the blue bastion, has died after a brief illness. Rell assumed office after her predecessor, John Rowland (R), resigned in the face of scandal. (Hartford Courant) Our condolences to Rell’s family and friends.
By The Numbers
21: The number of seats, out of 40, that women will hold in the Alaska House of Representatives. It’s the first time the chamber will be majority-female. (Alaska Public Media)
$248 million: The sales and excise taxes Colorado collected from recreational marijuana sales in the 2023-2024 budget year. That’s off 41% from the market’s peak in 2020-2021. (Colorado Sun)
Off The Wall
The MS Aurora, a 70-year old cruise ship that appeared in “From Russia With Love” and inspired TV’s “The Love Boat,” sits abandoned in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Several former owners who tried to save the boat said they were heartbroken by their failure to get it sailing again. (Los Angeles Times)
The Macon-Bibb County Commission has approved plans to celebrate New Year’s Eve by imploding a vacant hotel at the stroke of midnight. The demolition will cost $2.6 million, a year after the city bought the building. “We acquired this property to blow it up,” Mayor Lester Miller said. (Associated Press)
Quote of the Day
“When we were working on this we weren’t thinking of ourselves, we were thinking hundreds of years in the future for the generations that haven’t even come yet.”
— Timothy Nuvangyaoma, chairman of the Hopi, after Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed what is poised to become the largest Native American water rights settlement in history. The deal will grant the Hopi, the Navajo Nation and the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe access to water rights and land. (Arizona Republic)