Good morning, it’s Tuesday, April 9, 2024. In today’s edition, California bill targets TicketMaster; Tennessee to require parental consent on social media; Braun leads Indiana GOP governor field:
Top Stories
TICKETING: California Appropriations Committee chair Buffy Wicks (D) introduced legislation Monday to bar exclusive deals between a ticketing company and an entertainment facility, the latest in an effort to improve ticket-buying for customers after Taylor Swift’s tour. Wicks’s bill bars limits on transfers or resales of tickets on secondary markets. (Pluribus News)
Wicks said 80% of the primary concert and event ticketing market is controlled by one company, Ticketmaster.
SOCIAL MEDIA: The Tennessee Senate unanimously approved legislation Monday to require minors to obtain parental consent to create a social media account. The bill gives the state Attorney General authority to investigate and sue social media platforms that do not comply. (Associated Press)
ABORTION: The Iowa Legislature’s administrative rules review committee has approved a framework for a ban on abortions after six weeks. The state Supreme Court will hear arguments this weeks on whether the six-week ban can be enforced while legal challenges play out. (Des Moines Register)
MORE: The Arizona Supreme Court will announce today whether abortions will be legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, or whether all abortions are banned under an 1864 law. An appeals court ruled in December that the 15-week ban supersedes the older law. (Arizona Republic)
LGBTQ RIGHTS: The Louisiana House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure approved legislation barring transgender people from bathroom, locker room and sleeping facilities that conform to their gender identities. (Baton Rouge Advocate)
EDUCATION: The Louisiana Senate unanimously approved legislation barring students from using phones during the school day. The bill requires any phones on campus to be turned off and properly stowed during school hours. (Louisiana Illuminator)
IMMIGRATION: The Louisiana Senate approved legislation empowering state and local law enforcement to arrest and jail undocumented immigrants. The bill, modeled on a Texas law that’s on hold as litigation proceeds, would impose up to a year in prison and a $4,000 fine for the first offense. (Associated Press)
INFRASTRUCTURE: Maryland lawmakers approved legislation to aid employees at the Port of Baltimore impacted by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse by using the rainy day fund to help those not covered by unemployment insurance. The bill will allow Gov. Wes Moore (D) to use the fund to help small businesses keep employees on their payrolls. (Associated Press)
In Politics & Business
DEMOCRATS: The States Project, the Democratic super PAC that focuses on state races, will spend heavily to try to win back control of the Wisconsin Assembly, it said Monday. The group will also spend big in North Carolina in an effort to break the GOP supermajority. (New York Times)
INDIANA: U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R) leads the Republican field running for governor with 33%, according to a new survey conducted by ARW Strategies for IndyPoliitcs. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch (R) and businessman Eric Doden (R) take 11%, former Commerce Secretary Brad Chambers (R) takes 10% and former Attorney General Curtis Hill (R) takes 5%, with 30% undecided. (Statehouse File)
MONTANA: Abortion rights backers will begin gathering signatures to qualify a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing access to the procedure after Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen approved the ballot language. They need 60,000 valid signatures by mid-June to qualify. (Daily Montanan)
PEOPLE: Vermont Sen. Dick Mazza (D), the longest-serving member in the chamber, resigned Monday, citing health concerns. Mazza first won election to the state House in 1972. (VT Digger) Wisconsin Sen. Rob Cowles (R), the longest-serving member in his state, will not seek re-election in a newly drawn district favorable to Democrats. He first won election to the Assembly in 1982. (Associated Press)
By The Numbers
$288.5 billion: The estimated money states have stockpiled in rainy day accounts and surplus cash. That’s so much money that some states are generating enough interest to cover budget deficits; Tennessee covered a $330 million shortfall with the $771 million in interest it earned last year. (Pluribus News)
1.8%: The decrease in the number of drug overdose deaths recorded in Delaware in 2023, compared to 2022. It’s the first year-over-year decline in a decade. Still, overdoses killed four times more Delawareans in 2023 than did traffic accidents. (Delaware Public Media)
$500,000: The bonus University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley will collect after his team beat the Purdue Boilermakers in the national championship game last night. Hurley will collect a total of at least $1.8 million in bonuses, with another $200,000 to come if his team meets academic requirements. (USA Today)
Off The Wall
West Virginia confirmed five tornadoes during severe storms that hit the state last week. That’s more than double the two tornadoes West Virginia records in an average year. No one was hurt in the twisters. (Associated Press)
California Democratic legislators vote against bills less than 1% of the time, according to a major new analysis of legislative voting. Bills will die if they don’t win an outright majority, so legislators routinely decline to vote at all to kill bills they don’t like. Assemblyman Mike Fong (D) has taken 6,000 votes in the legislature — and none of those votes were no votes. (CalMatters)
Quote of the Day
“This is like planting a tree. You plant the tree, and you don’t go harvest it next week. You kind of have it in your pocket.”
— Brian Maguire, a Democratic candidate for the Oregon House, explaining his past contributions to Republicans. (Willamette Week)