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Los Angeles impounded more than 500 vehicles from homeless living in their cars
(The Center Square) - Over a two-year period, the city of Los Angeles impounded 555 vehicles that homeless people were living in according to a city report. The city gave housing to 186. The city encountered 2,503 vehicle dwellings and impounded about 1 out of every 4.5 vehicles that were inhabited by homeless people. The city also issued 1,026 parking citations and 149 environmental citations for those vehicle dwellings. The data is from May 2022 through May 2024 in a report included in the agenda...
Judge: Nashville police cannot release Covenant shooters' writings
(The Center Square) – The writings of Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale will not be released by the Metro Nashville Police after a ruling from Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l'Ashea Myles. Excerpts from the writings have been published in a series of articles from the Tennessee Star after the outlet received those documents from a confidential source. The Star had been suing for the release of the records, along with The Tennessean, Sen. Todd Gardenhire, the Tennessee Firearms Association and several other journalists. ...
Op-Ed: There's a way to decrease demand for commercial sex
Last week, North Carolina became the third state in the country to make the purchase of sex a felony. Anti-human trafficking advocates across the state have been actively educating legislators since January 2023 about the need to change solicitation of prostitution from a misdemeanor to a felony. Signed by Gov. Roy Cooper on June 28, House Bill 971 is a valuable tool in the demand reduction arsenal. Demand reduction is a strategy to prevent sex trafficking by reducing the number of potential sex buyers. ...
Political ad spending projected to be $133M in 2024 cycle
(The Center Square) – Political spending in West Virginia on the upcoming election is now expected to be significantly lower at $133 million, a drop of nearly $73 million from AdImpact’s previous projections. The Political Projections Report altered the projected spending in both West Virginia and Arizona based on Senate races in each state. “Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema’s decisions not to seek reelection in West Virginia and Arizona were...
Poll: Wisconsin voters divided on Trump conviction, appropriate sentencing
(The Center Square) – Wisconsinites hold a wide variety of opinions on former President Donald Trump’s conviction, a recent Marquette Law School poll shows. Despite Democrats making up only 29% of respondents, 55% of registered Wisconsin voters think Trump is guilty, while 36% believe the jury decided wrongly and 9% are unsure. Half of voters believed prosecuting Trump was the right thing to do, versus 42% who did not and 8% undecided. However, opinions still fell largely among party lines, with Independents split. ...
Trump’s lead grows after debate
(The Center Square) – Former President Donald Trump appears to have extended his lead over President Joe Biden after last week’s debate, which was widely regarded as a disastrous night for the Biden campaign. The New York Times/Siena College poll was conducted and released after Biden’s debate and showed Trump with an even bigger lead over his opponent, further intensifying Democrats’ fears that Biden may not be up to the task of defeating Trump. ...
Presidential election spending in Georgia projected to hit $244M
(The Center Square) – Political advertising in Georgia for the 2024 presidential election is predicted to reach $244 million, third-highest in the nation. The Political Projections Report, released Monday by advertising tracking company AdImpact, forecasts $373 million in total election cycle spending. The would rank 10th highest. Georgia is one of seven consensus battleground states. The others are North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona. ...
California joins 26 states in requiring students take personal finance class
(The Center Square) – Over half of U.S. states now require high school students to receive a financial literacy course before they graduate after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill passed by the California Legislature. With the passage of California’s law requiring schools to offer a course in personal finance by the 2027-28 school year and requiring the class of 2031 to receive at least one class, a total of 26 states now require students to take a course on how to manage money, according...
Report: Growth moderates, expectations rising for last half of year in plains, mountains
(The Center Square) – Economic growth moderated in the plains and mountain states in June, but expectations for the remainder of 2024 are rising, according to a report from the Federal Reserve of Kansas City. “District services activity stayed positive in June, and expectations for the future continued to grow,” Chad Wilkerson, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said in a statement. “Employment declined slightly and selling prices decreased this month.” ...
Chicago alderman pushes harsher penalties for crimes committed wearing facemasks
(The Center Square) – With violent crime like robberies sharply on the rise over the past year, a Chicago city council member is sponsoring an ordinance that would mean enhanced penalties for individuals convicted of crimes while wearing masks. Just four years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic, masks were required by local officials. Illinois’ indoor mask mandate was lifted in February 2022. Overall, violent crimes were up by nearly 8%...
Nevada U.S. Senate candidates have differing views on inflation, the economy
(The Center Square) – Polling nationwide indicates that elevated inflation and the U.S. economy are right up there with the border crisis and immigration policies as the top issues on voters' minds heading into the November elections. The Center Square Voters Voice Poll in March 2024 of more than 2,500 likely voters identified inflation/price increases (named by 45% of respondents as a top three issue), illegal immigration (44%) and the economy/jobs (24%) as being at the top of voters' minds. ...
Kentucky utilities to further study nuclear power possibilities
(The Center Square) – Two Kentucky energy providers say they plan to use federal funding to continue studying whether there are sites in the state that could be suitable for nuclear power generation. In a news release, PPL Corp., which owns Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, said its subsidiaries will work with representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy and X-Energy, a nuclear design engineering firm, in the assessment. ...
Study shows more than 340,000 acres of Indiana farmland gone
(The Center Square) – Indiana lost nearly 2% of its farmland over 12 years. That’s according to a legislative-directed study by state agricultural officials. The inventory conducted by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture determined the acreage of parcels devoted to farming fell by a net total of 345,682 acres to slightly less than 18 million acres. With 640 acres in a square mile, that works out to slightly more than 540 square miles lost from 2010 to 2022. ...
IRS data: Washington state lost 18K people, $1.66B in taxable income in 2021
(The Center Square) – Washington state saw a net loss of 18,798 taxpayers and their families between calendar years 2021 and 2022, according to Internal Revenue Service migration data released last week. That represents a loss of nearly $1.66 billion of taxable income, although Washington does not have a state income tax. The Evergreen State’s net loss of taxpayers in that time period was the ninth worst in the nation. ...
Biden’s Title IX rewrite threatened by new legal landscape
(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden’s attempt to re-interpret Title IX and thereby implement a sweeping LGBTQ agenda at schools around the country may be put on hold after a few key court rulings. The Biden administration’s overhaul of Title IX is set to take effect Aug. 1, but a flurry of court decisions in recent weeks may be enough for critics to stop the changes before they fully take effect. ...
'Higher Prices:' Cost of July 4 cookout hits record high
(The Center Square) – As families across America prepare to celebrate the 4th of July, they are facing stubbornly high prices at the grocery store. According to a Farm Bureau survey, hosting an Independence Day cookout for 10 guests will cost $71.22 this year. The grocery bill has spiked by 5% from last year and has soared by nearly 30% in just five years, according to the bureau. ...
Minneapolis one of the worst cities in the nation for housing shortages
(The Center Square) – According to a recent study by Zillow, Minneapolis has the eighth worst housing shortage in the country. Despite a pandemic construction boom, the home buying site says the U.S. is short 4.5 million homes as of 2022. That year, 8.09 million households lived with nonrelatives, while 3.55 million units were for sale or rent, leaving 4.5 million unaccounted for. In Minneapolis, 12% of non-homeowning residents would...
IRS: 36,000 taxpayers earning $3.7 billion moved to Arizona in 2022
(The Center Square) – Arizona continues to benefit economically from more people moving to the state. Arizona gained a net of 36,841 people, adding $3.7 billion in gross income from those newcomers from tax years 2021 to 2022, based on new Internal Revenue Service data. Data from the IRS is typically delayed and compares filings done between states. The biggest loser in the equation? The Golden State, as Arizona gained...
Tennessee courts will look to put filings online
(The Center Square) – Tennessee’s Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure decided to start a committee looking into rules to make court briefs available online moving forward. Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Dwight Tarwater will chair the committee, which will include commission Chairman Gino Bulso, Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Tom Greenholtz, former Solicitor General Andree Blumstein and attorney Tim Mickel. Tarwater said he was assigned to look...
Voter accuracy program going statewide in Ohio
(The Center Square) – A pilot program targeting the accuracy of voter rolls in Ohio is now going statewide. Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently announced a new voter data integrity program that began in six counties and is now going statewide. The program uses county-specific digital dashboards to help identify voter registration discrepancies. “These data entry discrepancies are not commonly indicative of fraud or irregularities, but they must be...
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The Center Square reports on state- and local-level government and economic news. A taxpayer sensibility distinguishes our work from other coverage of state and local issues.
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