Bills

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's off-track betting parlors would be able to add hundreds of new slot-like machines, under legislation that won final passage and awaits a decision from the governor.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Some big changes are expected at Connecticut nursing homes in the coming months.

From mandatory two-month supplies of personal protection equipment and full-time infection specialists to the ability for residents to have cameras in their rooms, lawmakers passed multiple bills during the regular legislative session that wrapped up on June 9.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers wrapped up this year's legislative session this week, but legislative leaders said they may return.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of a new law allowing the governor to directly nominate judges to fill vacancies — giving Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Republican-controlled Legislature a win in the first of a series of challenges to laws passed by the 2021 Legislature.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New Yorkers would avoid jail time for nonviolent parole violations, and children under age 12 could no longer be arrested as juveniles under bills that passed the state Legislature Thursday.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine lawmakers in both the House and Senate approved am initial bill on Wednesday that aims to open primaries to unenrolled and independent voters.

BOSTON (AP) — The Massachusetts Senate approved a bill Thursday extending many of the policies adopted when the pandemic hit last year — including mail-in voting — through Dec. 15 of this year.

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Delaware’s state Senate approved a bill Thursday requiring more people charged with crimes to pay cash bail in order to be released from custody pending trial.

The legislation, which cleared the Senate on a 19-2 vote and now goes to the House, establishes secured cash bail as the baseline to be used by judges in determining pretrial release conditions for people charged with 38 specific offenses.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Months after most Louisiana voters agreed to legalize sports betting, lawmakers Thursday gave final passage to rules that will allow wagering through sports book sites, mobile apps and kiosk locations in parishes where voters supported the activity.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's parish tax assessors should be able to give themselves hefty car allowances up to 15% of their annual six-figure salaries, lawmakers have agreed, giving final passage Thursday to the proposal.

Connecticut lawmakers may have closed out the regular legislative session on Wednesday night, but they're expected to return to the state Capitol soon to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, some remaining budget bills and possibly some other bills that didn't survive in the first round.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Senate voted 22-12 Thursday to join the House in advancing a bill to allow online voter registration.

The House voted 81-61 in favor of the bill a day earlier. Both votes were along party lines with minority Republicans in opposition.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A bill seeking justice for run-over cats in New Hampshire is heading to the governor’s desk, minus the name of the animal that inspired it.

State law already requires drivers who injure or kill dogs to notify police or the animals’ owners, or else face a $1,000 fine, but Rep.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A proposed coronavirus relief fund and policy bill for North Carolina’s K-12 schools also would delay by one year the implementation of new social studies standards that conservatives criticized strongly.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Elected state officials would be required to disclose personal financial information in annual reports and would be banned from becoming lobbyists until two years after leaving office under bills approved Wednesday in the House.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Legislature gave final passage Wednesday to a bill to protect homeless campers in public spaces.

The measure, which goes to Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, mandates that any city or county law must be reasonable if it regulates “sitting, lying, sleeping or keeping warm and dry outdoors on public property.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature appeared Wednesday to back off a wholesale end to the governor’s pandemic disaster emergency declaration, with lawmakers working to decide on which regulatory waivers to extend.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — About three dozen municipalities — Charlotte and Greensboro among them — would see scheduled fall elections moved to early next year in legislation approved unanimously by the House on Wednesday that anticipates delayed redistricting.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York election workers would have to start counting absentee ballots earlier under legislation that passed the state Senate Wednesday.

Lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Gianaris, say the state must prevent another election year like 2020, when delays, litigation and mistakes by election boards who faced a flood of absentee ballots led to days, weeks and in some instances months of confusion over election results in New York.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania House on Wednesday approved a bill that would require health care facilities to provide for the burial or cremation of fetal remains after a miscarriage or abortion.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Mail-in absentee ballots in North Carolina would have to be received by the day of the election, under a Republican-backed bill that cleared a divided Senate committee on Wednesday.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The end of profane license plates could be coming down the road soon in Maine.

The Maine Senate approved a bill on Tuesday designed to bar vanity plates that carry swear words and vulgarity.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Future federal laws that would ban or restrict the use of guns could not be enforced in Wisconsin under a Republican-backed bill the state Assembly approved Wednesday.

The measure is part of a national wave of similar proposals intended to resist new gun control measures.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — More information about the work histories of North Carolina state and local government employees would be subject to public disclosure in legislation that's resurfaced this week in the Senate.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Legislature has approved a measure expanding options for the development of affordable housing.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that the final version of Senate Bill 8 was passed by the Senate 25-5 on Tuesday.

In a rare show of bipartisan solidarity in the polarised US Capitol, the Senate came together on Tuesday to pass sweeping legislation designed to strengthen Washington's hand in its escalating geopolitical and economic competition with China.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's attorney general could sue gun manufacturers under certain scenarios under a bill that passed the state Senate and Assembly on Tuesday as lawmakers continued wrapping up this year's legislative session.

The House of Representatives was expected Tuesday night to pass a two-year, $46.7 billion state budget deal that lawmakers said will help guide Connecticut as it continues to emerge from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic that left more than 8,200 people dead and double-digit unemployment rates in some communities.

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A legislative committee in Wyoming has voted to pursue legislation that would significantly change the way statewide elections are run as early as next year, including a bill that would create a rank-choice system and another bill that would institute an open primary.

With the Connecticut House of Representatives poised to take up a long-awaited bill that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults, the Republican leader on Tuesday called for an investigation into how language was tucked into the legislation that could have intentionally benefitted at least one individual.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans in the Pennsylvania House pushed through a bill Tuesday that would ban abortions that are prompted by a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis, although the Democratic governor has vowed to veto it.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Resuming a long fight over local gun laws, Pennsylvania's House of Representatives on Tuesday approved veto-destined legislation that is designed to help gun owners and gun-rights organizations force cities to repeal firearms restrictions.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina General Assembly on Tuesday finalized another bill seeking to expand gun rights — this time in churches — and will send it to Gov. Roy Cooper, who vetoed a bill containing the same idea a year ago.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohioans would receive an across-the-board personal income tax cut of 5%, charter schools would be paid directly by the state — not individual districts — for the first time, and eligibility for low-income Ohioans seeking publicly funded day care would be expanded, under the Senate version of the state budget nearing completion this week.