Good morning, it’s Monday, December 15, 2025. In today’s edition, Florida bill targets HOAs; ex-Sen. Jones to run for Alabama governor; Utah repeals collective bargaining ban:
Top Stories
HOUSING: Florida Rep. Juan Carlos Porras (R) has introduced legislation allowing homeowners to propose referenda to dissolve homeowners associations. The bill would allow a vote to dissolve the associations if 20% of homeowners sign a petition to abolish them. About 45% of Florida homes are covered by HOAs, the highest in the nation. (Pluribus News)
LABOR: Utah lawmakers have voted to repeal a ban on public sector collective bargaining less than a year after its initial passage. Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed the repeal measure amid opposition from both teacher’s unions and more conservative police and firefighters unions. (Associated Press)
AID IN DYING: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has signed legislation allowing some adults with terminal illnesses to end their lives with medical help. The bill applies to those with less than six months to live and allows them to obtain life-ending medication from a doctor. (ABC 7)
IMMIGRATION: A group of 19 states has sued the Trump administration to block a proposed $100,000 fee for new applications for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers. Led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and Massachusetts Attorney General Joy Campbell (D), the states argue the fee creates an illegal barrier for employers. (Bloomberg)
ABORTION: Attorneys for Florida and Texas filed another lawsuit last week seeking to restrict access to mifepristone, the abortion-inducing medication. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Wichita Falls, alleges the Comstock Act of 1873 prohibits aboriton pills from being sent through the mail. (Alabama Reflector)
PUBLIC SAFETY: The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee will consider bipartisan legislation Monday to create a new crime of political violence. The bill would add a separate charge from an underlying crime if the violence is based on a victim’s political identity. (New Jersey Globe)
REDISTRICTING: Legal challenges to Wisconsin’s congressional district maps are unlikely to be resolved before the 2026 midterm elections, after two panels of judges considered timelines for separate lawsuits on Friday. The panels both set arguments too late to have an impact on next year’s midterms. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
In Politics & Business
ALABAMA: Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D) will run for governor, he said Friday. Jones made his announcement on the eighth anniversary of his upset win over former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R), in a 2017 special election. Jones is likely to face U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R), who ousted him in 2020, in November. (Associated Press)
MINNESOTA: Army veteran Kendall Qualls (R) won a straw poll among the Minnesota Republican Party’s central committee, beatuing out House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R), MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell (R) and others. The vote is a potential preview of the endorsement process set for the state GOP convention in May. (Minnesota Reformer)
FLORIDA: Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration diverted more than $35 million in taxpayer funds to a political campaign to defeat ballot measures supporting abortion rights and legal marijuana, according to an investigation. The state money, intended to assist needy state residents, instead paid for political consultants and television advertising. (Tampa Bay Times)
NEW JERSEY: Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D) will nominate career prosecutor Jennifer Davenport to serve as attorney general. Davenport served as first assistant attorney general from 2018 to 2020. (New Jersey Globe)
By The Numbers
$1.5 billion: The budget deficit Maryland faces in Fiscal Year 2027. Gov. Wes Moore (D) has pledged not to raise taxes to cover the gap. (Maryland Matters)
Approximately 3.4 million: The number of letters intended for Pennsylvania residents that were not delivered between Nov. 3 and Dec. 3, according to state officials. A government-contracted vendor failed to send the letters, mostly from the Departments of Transportation and Human Services. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
$257,872,131: The amount Connecticut residents have spent on recreational marijuana through November. The average price per gram of dried marijuana fell to $7.94 in November, an all-time low. (Marijuana Herald)
Off The Wall
Western states are off to their lowest level of snow cover since at least 2001, when the National Integrated Drought Information System began keeping track. Snow covered 90,646 square miles of the West, about one-third of average levels for early December. (Deseret News)
The final set of pennies minted at the Philadelphia Mint have sold at auction for a combined total of $17 million. The last pennies all bear a special omega symbol to identify them. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
An ancient lake in Death Valley has come back to life amid record rainfall in California. Lake Manly, once 100 miles long during the last ice age, is only a few inches deep and likely to disappear soon. But it’s good for business at the Death Valley Inn, which sold out for a few days in February 2024, the last time water filled the basin. (Los Angeles Times)
Quote of the Day
“Sometimes our feelings can get hurt; sometimes our egos can get hurt. But the kind of acrimony within the caucus and the chamber was somewhat subsiding, probably in November. Now, obviously, this week probably tore off some scabs and so forth, but we’ll be fine.”
— Indiana Sen. Eric Bassler (R), on last week’s redistricting fight. (State Affairs)