Good morning, it’s Tuesday, September 24, 2024. In today’s edition, governors creating climate workforce; California to ban phones in schools; Texas GOP embraces Phelan challenger:
Top Stories
WORKFORCE: Governors who make up the U.S. Climate Alliance are pledging to train a million new workers in climate-related fields by 2035. New apprenticeship programs are aimed at creating opportunities for good-paying jobs in emerging industries including wind and solar power and electric vehicles.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), co-chair of the U.S. Climate Alliance, said her state would spend $2.3 million to train 500 workers for offshore jobs. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed legislation creating a $30 million trust to fund renewable energy apprenticeships and training programs. Read more at Pluribus News.
EDUCATION: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed legislation requiring school districts to create rules limiting or banning smartphones from campus during the school day by 2026. Schools will have to update their policies every five years. (Associated Press)
MORE: The first bill introduced in Virginia’s 2025 General Assembly session would require students to pass a civics test before graduating from high school. The bill’s sponsor, Del. Lee Ware (R), is a former high school history teacher concerned with how much students know about their government. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
ENVIRONMENT: California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against Exxon Mobil accusing the oil giant of deceiving the public about the possibility of plastic recycling. The lawsuit seeks to force Exxon Mobil to end deceptive practices and pay financial penalties. (Los Angeles Times)
TAXES: Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) wants to hold a special session in November to cut taxes. A top Landry aide said the administration is working on proposals to collapse multi-tiered individual and corporate tax rates into a flat tax, and to eliminate the corporate franchise tax. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
In Politics & Business
NEBRASKA: State Sen. Mike McDonnell said Monday he would not vote to award Nebraska’s electoral votes in a winner-take-all system, dealing a blow to former President Donald Trump’s hopes of capturing an additional vote from an Omaha-based district. McDonnell’s refusal means Republicans won’t have the 33 votes they need to overcome a filibuster. (Nebraska Examiner)
The backstory: McDonnell is a Republican, though Nebraska’s legislature is technically nonpartisan. He wants to run for mayor of Democratic-leaning Omaha in 2025.
NORTH CAROLINA: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) rejected multiple offers to use information technology specialists to investigate the lewd comments made on a pornographic website that Robinson denies making. Those refusals likely led to the campaign staff exodus he suffered this weekend. (WRAL)
TEXAS: Republicans who oppose House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) are coalescing behind state Rep. David Cook (R) as an alternative, including four other candidates who dropped their bids for speaker. Cook won support of 48 members of the Republican conference — enough to deny Phelan the endorsement of the House Republican Conference. (Texas Tribune)
And/but: A candidate for speaker needs 52 Republican votes to win the party’s endorsement on the floor. And once the vote goes to the full House, Democrats get to weigh in too. No shortage of drama in Austin.
PEOPLE: Lillie Lester, the first woman to serve as sergeant-at-arms in an American state legislature, has died at 102. Lester served the Michigan legislature in the 1960s and 1970s. (Detroit Free Press)
By The Numbers
582: The number of state legislators in America who are mothers of children under 18. That’s just 7.9% of all state legislators in America — up from 5.3% in 2022, but well under the proportion of Americans with kids at home. (Pluribus News)
11.6%: The decline in the homicide rate reported across more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies between 2022 and 2023, according to FBI statistics released Monday. It’s the steepest one-year decline in homicide rates since the Bureau began keeping track in 1960. (Pluribus News)
Most other categories of crime have fallen as well. The big exception: Car thefts, which remain well above pre-pandemic norms.
40%: The share of Americans who are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The overall obesity rate in America has not changed for about a decade. (Associated Press)
Off The Wall
Staffers at Aspen Middle School found one impatient customer waiting for a meal in the school cafeteria Monday morning: A young black bear cub that had apparently broken into the building. The bear was safely sedated and transported to another place where it could find some food. (Colorado Sun)
The end of the Blue Light Special: The last full-scale Kmart in America, in Bridgehampton, N.Y., will close on Oct. 20. That will leave only one small Kmart store operating in Miami, the last of its kind on the mainland — though the company still operates some stores in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Associated Press)
Quote of the Day
“It’s older voters who are a little less sold on this proposal than younger voters.”
— Rich Parr, senior research director at MassINC, on a new survey showing a ballot measure to legalize therapeutic uses of psychedelics narrowly trailing in Massachusetts by a 42%-44% margin. (WBUR)