Good morning, it’s Monday, April 24, 2023. In today’s edition, legal pot coming to Del.; Tenn. Gov to call special session on guns; Newsom deploys Guard to fight fentanyl:
Top Stories
MARIJUANA: Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) has allowed a measure legalizing recreational marijuana to become law without his signature. (Pluribus News, Delaware Public Media) The Minnesota House will vote Monday on a 300-page bill to legalize marijuana for recreational use. A previous version passed the Democratic-controlled House in 2021 before dying in the state Senate. (Twin Cities Pioneer Press)
GUN POLITICS: Michigan Democrats say they will advance bills to ban the sale of large-capacity magazines and to allow lawsuits against gun manufacturers. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has already signed three gun safety bills into law this year. (Bridge MI) Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) will call lawmakers into special session to consider gun safety legislation after a deadly shooting at a Christian school in Nashville. (Associated Press)
MORE: The Nevada Assembly approved legislation raising the age of possession of semiautomatic weapons from 18 to 21. (Las Vegas Review-Journal) The Oregon legislature is debating bills to require permits and safety training for firearm purchases and a 72-hour waiting period before someone can obtain a firearm. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
LGBTQ RIGHTS: The Minnesota Senate approved three bills to ban so-called conversion therapy and protecting those who travel to the state for gender-affirming care or abortion services. (MPR News, Associated Press) Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) has signed legislation allowing someone to apply to change their name without public notice. (Crosscut)
LABOR: The national push for legislation allowing more minors to work longer hours is backed by the Foundation for Government Accountability and its lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project. The group has hired 115 lobbyists across 22 states. It is funded in part by conservative donors like the Uihleins and a nonprofit connected to judicial activist Leonard Leo. (Washington Post)
DRUGS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday announced an agreement between the California Highway Patrol, the National Guard, the San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco District Attorney’s office to combat fentanyl markets in the city. (ABC 7)
EDUCATION: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) vetoed legislation that would have set aside $10 million for a school choice program. Burgum said the bill did not go far enough to expand “nontraditional” K-12 education options and would hurt rural schools. (Fargo Forum) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) replaced the director of the Department of Early Childhood Education over the use of a teacher training book Ivey said included “woke concepts” about inclusion and racism. (Associated Press)
AGRICULTURE: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) has signed legislation banning foreign governments and businesses from buying more than 160 acres of agricultural land. The bill arose after concerns about a Chinese-owned company building a corn mill in Grand Forks. (Fargo Forum)
In Politics & Business
NORTH CAROLINA: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) formally entered the race to replace term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Saturday. Robinson will face Treasurer Dale Falwell (R) and ex-U.S. Rep. Mark Walker (R) in the GOP primary. The winner will likely face Attorney General Josh Stein (D) in the general election. (Raleigh News & Observer, Associated Press)
ALASKA: The state Supreme Court has ruled that the Alaska Redistricting Board created a partisan gerrymander when it attempted to add extra seats in Eagle River, a conservative community. The board can try to redraw state legislative lines again ahead of the 2024 elections. (Alaska Current, Anchorage Daily News)
GEORGIA: Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has refused a speaking slot at the annual state Republican Party convention this summer. Kemp, who has feuded with the increasingly far-right party, is building his own infrastructure to help candidates in 2024 and 2026. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
PEOPLE: Ken Potts, one of two last remaining survivors of the attack on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, has died at 102. Potts worked as a crane operator; he pulled survivors out of the water as the ship sank. (Associated Press)
By The Numbers
1.5 million: The number of zero-emission vehicles California aimed to sell by 2025. The state blew past that target, set in 2012, about two years early. (Pluribus News)
17.8%: The national vacancy rate in downtown office buildings in the first quarter of the year, according to the real estate firm CBRE. That’s up from 12.2% in the last quarter before the onset of the pandemic. Vacancy rates are much higher in San Francisco (29.4%), Houston (23.6%), Philadelphia (21.7%) and Washington, D.C. (20.3%). (Associated Press)
4,042,679: The amount, in metric tons, of cargo that flew through Memphis Airport in 2022, making it the second-largest cargo airport in the world, after Hong Kong. Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport moved up a notch to third place. Airports in Louisville, Miami and Los Angeles also made the top ten. (Airports Council International)
48: The number of hours the average New Jersey resident spends in traffic congestion every year, the highest in the nation, according to the Reason Foundation. Drivers in New York (43.2) and Massachusetts (40.4) spend more than a full working week in traffic. (Boston Herald)
Drivers in Wyoming, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota spend less than 10 hours a year in congestion. Must be nice.
Off The Wall
South Carolina’s House Judiciary Committee will hear a bill that would ban any food product from carrying a “Certified SC Grown” designation if it contains messenger ribonucleic acid — mRNA. The only problem? Literally every cell in every living organism has mRNA, and has for billions of years. Here’s a quick explainer from Texas A&M University.
Failed Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas has sued campaign consultant Chimaobi Enyia, alleging the strategist bilked his campaign out of $700,000 for work that was never performed. The suit alleges Enyia claimed he had an army of activists removing anti-Vallas signs from Black neighborhoods, when no such group existed. (Chicago Tribune)
Michigan legislators are intent on cleaning up the state’s “zombie” laws — provisions on the books that are no longer in force. Among the possible crimes they want to repeal: Seducing an unmarried woman, being intoxicated on a train and taking the Lord’s name in vain. (Bridge MI)
Quote of the Day
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get signs on Highway 5. Memorial signs in law forever — and that’s a mighty long time.”
— Minnesota state Rep. Lucy Rehm (D), celebrating the unanimous passage of a measure renaming a stretch of highway the “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway” on the seventh anniversary of the singer’s death. (MPR News)