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States weigh child abuse reporting vs. clergy’s duty of confidentiality
From the time Washington state Sen. Noel Frame was 5 years old until she was 10, she was sexually abused by a teenage cousin. The abuse only stopped when she told a teacher, who reported it to the authorities and to her parents. Now, Frame, 43, wants to require members of the clergy in Washington […]
Debate about holding back third graders roils state legislatures
Should third graders who don’t read well enough to pass a standardized test repeat their grade? That question is roiling states, with some choosing to keep the practice, some to modify it and others to scrap it. Most states require students to take standardized tests that measure progress in reading and math in the third […]
We’re not kitten: States could move to ban declawing of cats
Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have filed legislation this year to outlaw the declawing of cats, which many animal advocates and some veterinarians say is a cruel deforming of felines’ bodies and impedes their natural instincts to climb and scratch. Maryland last year joined New York, which prohibited declawing in 2019, as the […]
As book banning becomes more popular, some experts predict some libraries will just close
Amid the national uproar about whether to allow students access to a wide variety of books, the superintendent of a Virginia school district this week proposed a sweeping solution: Get rid of school libraries altogether. Mark Taylor, who leads the district in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, suggested at a recent school board meeting that eliminating libraries […]
States seek to ease child care crunch
States are spending more money and creating new incentives to ease the severe child care crisis, with most federal pandemic aid set to dry up in September. The child care shortage costs the United States $122 billion in lost earnings, productivity and revenue each year, according to ReadyNation, a consortium of business leaders under the umbrella of […]
States scramble to replace ripped off SNAP benefits
Last September, when Baltimore resident Tzu Yang went grocery shopping for his intellectually disabled daughter with a food benefits card that he thought was worth about $300, he discovered at the checkout that the card had no value left. The same thing happened in October, November and December. The benefits meant for Hawlie Yang, age […]
As gas tax revenues decline, states turning to electric vehicle taxes to make up the difference
The increasing popularity of hybrid and electric vehicles is shrinking revenue from gas taxes, prompting more states to consider charging fees based on miles driven to help pay for roads and bridges. This year at least eight states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington — considered bills that would modify existing programs […]
Romance scams bedevil law enforcement
Jeanne Aikens was a widow in her late 60s when she found a new love. Or so she thought. Aikens had nursed her husband through Parkinson’s disease until his death a few years earlier, and she was ready to start dating again. Aikens, a nursing manager at Boston Children’s Hospital, met a man called “Logan” […]
Thieves hit on a new fraud: Synthetic identity theft
In fall 2020, 43-year-old Adam Arena and a dozen suspected co-conspirators were indicted in New York on charges of trying to swindle banks out of more than $1 million through a scheme known as “synthetic identity fraud.” They combined real Social Security numbers with mismatched or phony names to create new identities, according to investigators. […]
State lawmakers are just like you: They hate auto-renew contracts, too
Like millions of Americans, Colorado state Rep. Cathy Kipp started a diet during the pandemic. She used a heavily advertised program called “Noom,” which came with a discounted deal for the first eight months. She stopped following the program after about six months. But like millions of others, she forgot to cancel after the initial […]