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By Stateline.org Staff
TODAY’S TAKE: If and when President Obama signs legislation revamping the nation’s health care system, several Republican-led states appear likely to fight a key provision of the new law in court. Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter on Wednesday (March 17) became the first governor to sign a bill setting up a legal showdown, while Virginia’s attorney general vowed to do the same.
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By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer
State prisons have been a dynamic growth industry over the past four decades, with the number of inmates exploding by more than 700 percent. No longer. A survey released Wednesday (March 17) by the Pew Center on the States, the parent organization of Stateline.org, finds that the total number of prisoners in state custody declined last year for the first time since 1972.
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AL: Riley -- 'No hurry' on General Fund proration
By Sebastian Kitchen, Montgomery Advertiser
Gov. Bob Riley said declaring proration in the budget that is used to fund prisons, public safety and Medicaid would not change anything except he would then be able to access the rainy day account.
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AR: AG rejects recall, term limits proposals
By Staff Reports, Arkansas News Bureau
Ballot proposals that would allow Arkansans to recall elected officials and set term limits for city and county elected officers were rejected by state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel today.
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AR: Chief deputy AG to resign
By Staff Reports, Arkansas News Bureau
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's chief deputy will resign next month to return to the private sector, McDaniel's office announced today.
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AZ: Attorney withdraws from Thomas inquiry
By Michael Kiefer, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
The Arizona Supreme Court will have to appoint a new attorney to investigate allegations of unethical behavior by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas following the withdrawal of its first choice.
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AZ: Campus-gun bill advances
By Jim Walsh, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
A proposal to allow faculty members to carry heat on college campuses has the gun lobby and police drawing down on each other, with each predicting dire consequences.
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CA: California may sue prison guards union over its unpaid union leave tab
By Jon Ortiz, Columnist, The Sacramento Bee
Last month this column reported that the state was prepared to sue the California Correctional Peace Officers Association for nearly $4 million it owes for something called "union-paid leave." Here's the latest: CCPOA didn't meet the March 1 deadline to pay at least half the bill. Instead, the correctional officers' union cut two checks totaling $122,496.27.
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CO: Colorado foreclosures up in February
By Staff Reports, The Denver Post
Both real estate foreclosure filings and sales in Colorado rose in February year over year, largely because a moratorium on foreclosures no longer is in place this year, according to a report Wednesday by the Colorado Division of Housing.
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CT: Union blasts agency for prison attacks
By Luther Turmelle, New Haven Register
CHESHIRE, Conn. -- A leader of the union representing 700 Department of Correction officers is criticizing agency officials for failing to order a lockdown of the Manson Youth Correctional Institution more quickly in the aftermath of a pair of assaults on correction officers on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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FL: Proposed laws target adults who give alcohol to minors
By Cristina Silva, The Miami Herald
Adults who knowingly provide alcohol to minors could soon be in a lot more trouble. The Senate's Regulated Industries Committee unanimously passed two laws aimed at curbing underage drinking before a crowd flecked in emerald green Wednesday.
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GA: Senate votes to toughen massage parlor rules
By Ernie Suggs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would tighten the rules about how the state's hundreds of massage parlors and spas operate — especially those in Middle Georgia that double as sex parlors — passed the Senate Wednesday.
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IL: Blagojevich denied trial delay
By Douglas Belkin, The Wall Street Journal
CHICAGO — A federal judge denied a request by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to push back his trial date, saying he has had plenty of time to prepare.
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MA: Antibullying bill may lose punch
By Jenna Russell, The Boston Globe
Proponents of an antibullying bill set to be debated in the state House of Representatives today say last-minute changes, made in the House Ways and Means Committee, have removed the heart of the legislation, stripping it of its most vital protections.
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MD: Court fight looms for fire, police pensions
By Julie Scharper, The Sun (Baltimore)
Baltimore's fire and police unions and the city are headed toward a legal battle over plans to alter the troubled public safety pension system, which threatens to deepen the already cash-strapped city's financial crisis.
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ME: Report -- Domestic violence in court
By David Hench, Kennebec Journal
People charged with domestic violence frequently get their charges reduced. Different judges give strikingly different sentences for the same domestic crimes. And victims often are told to go to court then sent home because their cases are postponed.
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MI: Scam artist dupes state for $9.1 million tax break
By Chris Christoff, Dawson Bell and Katherine Yung, Detroit Free Press
Convicted embezzler and scam artist Richard Short was back in a Flint jail Wednesday -- a day after taking a stage with an unwitting Gov. Jennifer Granholm to celebrate a $9.1-million state tax break for his new company.
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MI: Ambassador Bridge owner loses appeal
By Jim Lynch, The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Sections of a welcome area in southwest Detroit built by owners of the Ambassador Bridge as part of the Gateway Project may have to be removed or altered after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against the bridge company on Wednesday.
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MS: MDOC no longer will segregate inmates with HIV
By Chris Joyner, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson)
Dozens of HIV-positive inmates in Mississippi will be moved from a segregated unit and allowed to participate in job training and other rehabilitation programs - following a decision by the Mississippi Department of Corrections to drop its 23-year-old policy.
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OH: Governor's office -- e-mails back us up
By Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch
Newly obtained e-mails show the top lawyer to Gov. Ted Strickland talked to the State Highway Patrol's lead investigator prior to a meeting at which the lawyers questioned the patrol's jurisdiction to investigate a criminal case.
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OH: Law aims to curb teen violence
By Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch
Arms wrapped around each other's waists for support, Cheryl Rucker and Elizabeth Deal stood at the front of a Statehouse meeting room and reflected on the bittersweet circumstances that brought them together.
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OK: Oklahoma ethics panel's actions are challenged
By Michael McNutt, The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City)
Reprimands issued by the state Ethics Commission's against candidates or state employees found violating campaign or ethics rules are unconstitutional, an attorney who handles ethics cases told a House committee Wednesday.
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OK: Moving day
By Rhett Morgan, Tulsa World
STIGLER, Okla. — For more than five years, a Ten Commandments monument on Haskell County government land generated litigation and far-reaching discussion. The marker's relocation on Wednesday, however, unearthed little more than dirt. Amid a contingent made largely of about a half-dozen media members, workers completed the move of the 8-foot-by-3-foot granite slab from the Haskell County courthouse lawn to a spot about a block east.
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OR: Attorney general campaigns for open government
By William McCall, The Associated Press, Statesman Journal (Salem)
A journalist able to avoid being shut out of a public meeting by looking up the law on a cell phone is a small victory for Oregon Attorney General John Kroger in a battle about government transparency.
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PA: Court says parents can block 'sexting' cases
By Tamar Lewin, The New York Times
In the first federal appeals court opinion dealing with "sexting" — the transmission of sexually explicit photographs by cellphone — a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that parents could block the prosecution of their children on child pornography charges for appearing in photographs found on some classmates' cellphones.
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PA: Court denies request to halt probe of Orie
By Jeremy Boren, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday denied requests from state Sen. Jane Orie and Senate Republicans to stop an Allegheny County grand jury investigation of her political campaign activities.
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SC: Judge nixes executioner's suit
By Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press, The Post and Courier (Charleston)
A federal judge has ruled against a former South Carolina prisons employee who said he was forced to perform executions or face a demotion, effectively ending the man's lawsuit against the state corrections agency.
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TN: State medical examiner arrested
By Chris Echegaray, The Tennessean (Nashville)
The Tennessee state medical examiner's career is in jeopardy and some of his biggest cases under scrutiny after Mississippi investigators uncovered a package of marijuana addressed to him and more of the drug in his hotel room.
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TX: Texas senators invite president to visit border
By Stewart M. Powell, The Houston Chronicle
WASHINGTON — Texas' U.S. senators pressed the White House Wednesday to take more seriously the threat that Mexican drug cartels' murder and mayhem could spill across the border and claim the lives of Texans.
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TX: Denison man named ombudsman for TYC
By Christy Hoppe, The Dallas Morning News
A Denison man with 35 years of law enforcement experience was named ombudsman Wednesday for the Texas Youth Commission, a job vacant for four months after Gov. Rick Perry's previous appointee was indicted.
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TX: Can Rick Green be stopped?
By Morgan Smith, The Texas Tribune
Ever since Rick Green's narrow March 2 win in the GOP primary for the Place 3 seat on the Texas Supreme Court set off a collective grumble from the legal establishment, there's been a movement afoot to shore up support for his runoff opponent, Fort Worth family court judge Debra Lehrmann. Now the fruits of those efforts have ripened.
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TX: RN rehab
By Rachel Kraft, The Texas Tribune
For years, Leanne Malone balanced drug addiction and nursing, caring for her Port Arthur patients while on methamphetamines. When she was arrested, she thought her career might be over. But Texas gives some nurses with substance abuse problems second chances, and Malone was one of them.
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US: Animal abuse as clue to additional cruelties
By Ian Urbina, The New York Times
Responding to growing evidence that people who abuse animals often go on to attack humans, states are increasing the penalties for animal cruelty and developing better methods for tracking convicted offenders.
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UT: GOP clarifies its ovation for Kevin Garn
By Arthur Raymond, The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
Utah House Republicans held a closed-door meeting Wednesday evening to discuss the handling of former Rep. Kevin Garn's admission last week, in the final moments of the 2010 legislative session, to a decades-old nude hot-tubbing incident with a 15-year-old girl.
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UT: Courts prepare to tighten their belt in face of budget cuts
By Stephen Hunt, The Salt Lake Tribune
To implement a $2.4 million reduction in the state court's budget, hearings may no longer be held in some rural courthouses, front-counter duties for juvenile and adult matters could be consolidated -- and court support staff likely would be eliminated across the board.
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VT: Senate OKs releasing Vermont prisoners early
By Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington Free Press
The number of people Vermont locks up in prisons had been mostly in decline for about two years — until July 2008, when a 12-year-old girl died, allegedly at the hands of a convicted sex offender.
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VT: Vermont Supreme Court hears Rooney appeal
By The Associated Press, Burlington Free Press
SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- A man convicted in the rape and murder of a University of Vermont student took his case to the state's highest court Wednesday, his lawyer arguing that DNA analysis that helped convict him was suspect and that he deserves a new trial.
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WY: Wyoming seeks $660,000 from Sinclair for spill
By Mead Gruver, The Associated Press, Casper Star-Tribune
Wyoming is seeking a settlement of $660,000 against Sinclair Wyoming Refining Company -- a penalty that would be among the state's biggest in recent years -- for failing to take measures to prevent a huge spills last year.
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The empire strikes out
By Stephen C. Fehr, Stateline.org Staff Writer
 New York Governor David Paterson replaced a governor caught up in a scandal. Now Paterson is accused of wrongdoing himself and has declined to run for election. Facing a myriad of challenges, including a $9 billion budget shortfall, Paterson is finding it difficult to be effective in his final months in office.
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