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LANSING, Mich - Michigan House lawmakers want state taxpayers to fund about 800 pork projects.
Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, released a list of “legislatively directed spending items” — also known as pork projects — the amount requested, which organizations would benefit, and which legislator requested the spending.
If the 2026 budget were to contain all those requests, pork spending would be more than twice the size of the total for fiscal year 2024, which set a record. One difference, though, is that legislators’ requests would be immediately available to the public. Another is that no earmarks would go to any local government whose officials declared their jurisdiction to be a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, Hall told legislators.
April 18 was the deadline for legislators to request the set-asides. Typically, a legislator will request that an organization, such as a nonprofit or local township, receive a specified amount of taxpayer dollars.
The 2023-24 state budget set aside $1,842,961,700 for district-specific pork projects. Click here to read more.
SACRAMENTO, CALIF - Recently, a rather bizarre topic came up here in California. There was a bill introduced in the California Legislature not to have a felony designation for men who solicit minors 16 and 17 years old for sex. In other words, the interest is in favor of the solicitor, the person who is trying to buy sex from a young person 16 or 17.
Why anybody in the world would consider that’s not a terrible thing and it’s not a felonious act I don’t know. But I do know I live in California and anything’s explicable.
In fact, the people in the Legislature made it a civil rights issue: This is unfair to gay men that they shouldn’t be able to experiment, search for, solicit young boys—I think 16 and 17 is a young boy—for sex. And maybe they might be mistaken. They didn’t know how old. So, why should we punish them as we do heterosexuals who solicit young girls for sex? Click here to read more.
WASHINGTON — Mississippi's school system has emerged as the fastest improving in the nation, with students excelling in reading and math, despite the state being the poorest in the country and spending less per pupil than most other states.
According to the Urban Institute, when student demographics are considered, Mississippi ranks first in fourth-grade math and reading, and fourth in eighth-grade reading. Even without factoring in demographics like income, Mississippi's Black students rank third nationally, and its low-income students outperform those in every other state.
The state's success is largely attributed to the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, passed in 2013. This law introduced reading coaches to struggling schools, ensured regular reading assessments for young children, and involved parents if their child was falling behind. A key component of the act is the requirement for third graders to pass a reading test to advance to the next grade, unless they qualify for an exemption. This policy has motivated schools and families to intervene earlier, providing additional support for students held back and training teachers in effective reading methods. Click here to read more.
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. - One woman’s Google search led to the startling discovery that she was wrongly indicted on charges of dealing fentanyl in 2023. She faced the prospect of spending 35 years in prison thanks to what her attorney calls sloppy police work.
Gabriela Olds, a mother of four, was in the midst of job hunting last year in Texas when she searched for her name on Google to see what prospective employers may see about her online. She expected to see her LinkedIn profile and maybe other social media pages.
What she never expected to find was a 2023 press conference by Colorado’s Adams County District Attorney Brian Mason, who prominently displayed her old driver’s license photo among other criminal suspects. He was announcing the indictment of a Mexican cartel drug ring accused of selling fentanyl. Click here to read more.
Michigan’s largest gas companies have ramped up spending to nearly $1.8 billion a year for infrastructure upgrades, and a recent study suggests it’s going to double customer rates in the coming years.
“What’s most important is that Michiganders need to start thinking now about the future of gas and what can be done now to protect ratepayers from being saddled with these costs,” Amy Bandyk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan.
“The scale of these annual investments is striking: the utilities now spend more on gas infrastructure each year than Detroit’s entire annual capital budget ($650 million) and nearly 15 times more than what has been spent to date addressing the Flint water crisis ($116 million as of 2024),” according to the report. Click here to read more.
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