Taxes & Budget news Subcribe to Taxes & Budget news |
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By Stephen C. Fehr, Stateline.org Staff Writer
Indiana is mulling changes to how it estimates monthly revenues, while several states are considering mergers and consolidations of government agencies, universities, school districts and more to save money.
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By Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org Staff Writer
The tax hikes that so many states levied to plug holes in their recession-ravaged budgets this year could endanger a few incumbent governors’ careers in 2010 when 37 gubernatorial contests are at stake.
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AL: Alabama rolls out new U.S. 280 toll road plan
By Ginny MacDonald and Michael Tomberlin, The Birmingham News
State transportation officials are ready to move forward with a $710 million makeover of U.S. 280 -- a new plan that doesn't rely entirely on elevated toll lanes that doomed a previous proposal to unsnarl the congested highway.
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AL: White Rock: EBSCO dumped hazardous waste
By Malcomb Daniels, The Birmingham News
At a press conference today, representatives of White Rock Quarries, a company that wants to put a limestone quarry in Vincent, said EBSCO Industries is trying to block the project to hide 15 years of illegally dumping hazardous waste from its nearby plant.
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AR: Fight health bill, ex-Clinton adviser urges
By L. Lamor Williams, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
The health-care overhaul bill being considered in the U.S. Senate is "the most serious threat to our lives and our liberties we Americans have faced since World War II," former Clinton adviser Dick Morris told about 250 Arkansans who rallied against the legislation. The group gathered Thursday on the Capitol steps in front of a "Hands Off Our Healthcare" tour bus.
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AR: Swine flu death toll 20 in state
By Staff Reports, Arkansas News Bureau
Two more Arkansans have died from swine flu, pushing the death toll from the H1N1 virus to 20 in the state, the state Health Department said today.
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AR: Board OKs beer, wine sales at Fayetteville Walmart stores
By John Lyon, Arkansas News Bureau
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Thursday approved beer and small-farm wine permits for a Walmart Neighborhood Market and a Walmart Supercenter in Fayetteville, the first grocery stores in the city to be approved for alcohol sales.
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AZ: FACTS fees to remain the same
By Staff Reports, Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff)
Fees for a locally run low-cost child care program -- with art, drumming, snacks and homework help -- are not proposed to increase after all, following a decision from the state not to implement a large licensing fee hike.
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AZ: Budget agreement fails in Senate
By Mary Jo Pitzl and Matthew Benson, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
Efforts to trim a few hundred million dollars from the state budget fell apart Thursday when the state Senate came up one vote shy of the needed majority.
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AZ: Gould, Verschoor won't support budget plan
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services, East Valley Tribune
Efforts to start plugging the $2 billion hole in the state budget came to a screeching halt Thursday when two Republican lawmakers refused to support the plan.
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CA: California's poverty rate 13.3 percent - maybe
By Dan Walters, The Sacramento Bee
California's poverty rate is almost exactly that of the nation as a whole, the Census Bureau says in its latest massive data release, while its median household income of $57,988 is higher than all but a dozen states.
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CA: California, Sacramento County to probe in-home care
By Susan Ferriss, The Sacramento Bee
California teamed with Sacramento County officials Thursday to launch a first-in-the-state multi-agency task force to investigate fraud in In-Home Supportive Services. The program could benefit from the state budget approved last July that included $10 million to bolster anti-fraud efforts in the rapidly growing in-home care program.
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CA: CalPERS board members endorse new lobbying rules
By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
Board members at California's huge state pension fund offered support Thursday for a plan to register as lobbyists the controversial middlemen hired by private investment funds to help get lucrative business from public pension plans.
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CA: California lawmakers, officials face 18% pay cut
By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times
California's Legislature went to state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown recently seeking relief from a future pay cut and on Thursday received an unwelcome surprise: An 18% reduction for lawmakers and other elected state officials can begin next month instead of a year from now.
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CA: Regents raise college tuition in California by 32 percent
By Tamar Lewin and Rebecca Cathcart, The New York Times
As the University of California's Board of Regents met Thursday at U.C.L.A. and approved a plan to raise undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — 32 percent next fall, hundreds of students from campuses across the state demonstrated outside, beating drums and chanting slogans against the increase.
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CA: A crown jewel of education struggles with cuts
By Tamar Lewin, The New York Times
BERKELEY, Calif. — As the University of California struggles to absorb its sharpest drop in state financing since the Great Depression, every professor, administrator and clerical worker has been put on furlough amounting to an average pay cut of 8 percent.
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CT: Carlyle to run Conn. roadside service stops
By Thomas Heath, The Washington Post
The Carlyle Group said Thursday that it has signed a deal with Connecticut to refurbish and run the state's 23 highway service stops in return for a share of the revenue over the next 35 years.
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CT: Starwood hotels to move headquarters to Stamford
By Staff Reports, The Day (New London)
STAMFORD, Conn. -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. says it will move its headquarters from White Plains, N.Y., to Stamford in January 2012, with the help of millions of dollars in incentives from the state of Connecticut.
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DE: Correction Department alerts Delaware to crowding crisis
By James Merriweather, The News Journal (New Castle-Wilmington)
Crowding at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution near New Castle, the state's only women's prison, could become a crisis even if there's a relatively small spike in crime, Corrections Commissioner Carl C. Danberg told state budget writers Thursday.
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DE: Delaware asked to invest in wind company
By Aaron Nathans, The News Journal (New Castle-Wilmington)
A startup company whose management includes former Lt. Gov. John Carney is seeking a state investment of $350,000 to establish an operation in Wilmington to manufacture support towers for wind turbines.
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FL: Need a job? Senate going to pay budget expert up to $170K a year
By Dara Kam, The Palm Beach Post
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander is setting up a new office to help him figure out if the state is spending money wisely.
Alexander and his House counterparts have grappled with the state's plummeting revenues and are facing a $2.7 billion projected spending gap in next year's budget.
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FL: Miami-Dade leaders to fight wage theft
By The Associated Press, Tallahassee Democrat
MIAMI -- Miami-Dade Commissioner Natasha Seijas announced a plan to combat the problem of wage theft -- an effort that could serve as a model for cities nationwide.
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GA: No new patients being admitted to Central State Hospital
By Travis Fain, The Macon Telegraph
Georgia's state-run psychiatric hospitals continue to have serious problems, and a recent Department of Justice visit to the largest facility — Central State Hospital in Milledgeville — led the hospital to stop taking new patients indefinitely.
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GA: Health reform in D.C. could influence gubernatorial race
By Aaron Gould Sheinin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The fractious debate over health care reform has mostly been a federal affair. But if the version favored by the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate becomes law, leaders in the states could play a huge role by choosing to opt out of the so-called "public option."
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GA: Grand Central Terminal for Atlanta?
By Ariel Hart, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A plan to build a major passenger terminal in downtown Atlanta might soon boast new life, in the form of an $80 million-plus jump start, state officials said at Transportation Board meetings Wednesday and Thursday.
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HI: School board approves bus fare increase
By Loren Moreno, The Honolulu Advertiser
Public school parents will pay more for their kids to ride the school bus come next year after the state Board of Education voted 8-2 tonight to raise one-way fares from 35 cents to 75 cents.
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IA: Iowa City stem cell company gets state grant
By Staff and Wire Reports, The Des Moines Register
Cellular Engineering Technologies of Iowa City received $50,000 from the state Thursday to develop a more efficient technology platform to make adult stem cells for use in medical research, drug development and clinical therapy.
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IA: Culver -- It's time for school reform
By Staci Hupp, The Des Moines Register
Gov. Chet Culver said today that Iowa will go after up to $175 million in federal money for schools, but there are strings attached: Schools in Iowa must change.
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ID: ITD hires new director
By Ben Botkin, The Times-News (Twin Falls)
The Idaho Transportation Department has a new director, just days after the former director sued the state agency over her firing.
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IL: State senator would consider leasing tollway
By Joseph Ryan, Daily Herald (Arlington Heights)
State Sen. Bill Brady, a Bloomington Republican, says he would consider selling the Illinois tollway to a private company if elected to the state's top post, putting him at odds with at least one challenger in the GOP primary for governor.
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IN: Indiana wants stimulus cash for schools
By Deanna Martin, Associated Press Writer, South Bend Tribune
Indiana hopes to win $250 million or more in competitive federal stimulus grants for schools — money the state superintendent says it deserves because of recent changes lawmakers made to education policies.
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LA: Strain -- State still waiting for funds
By Sarah Chacko, The Advocate (Baton Rouge)
The state agriculture department should have nearly all of $44.5 million in disaster recovery grants and loans in farmers' hands by Christmas, the head of the agency told legislators Thursday.
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LA: In New Orleans, elation over Katrina liability ruling
By Campbell Robertson, The New York Times
NEW ORLEANS — Since the first days after Hurricane Katrina, when the streets were still under water, many residents of New Orleans and its surroundings have maintained that the flood that wrecked their lives was the government's fault, and that the government should pay for it.
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MA: State ready to fill in Big Dig's missing links
By Peter DeMarco, The Boston Globe
It was touted as the Big Dig's greatest open-space gift to Boston: a spectacular ribbon of parks, paths, and pedestrian footbridges linking the Esplanade to both the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Boston Harbor. But when the Central Artery/Tunnel Project officially wrapped up two years ago, only half of what was promised had been built.
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MA: No agreement, no $147m upgrade
By Meghan E. Irons, The Boston Globe
Massachusetts has missed an opportunity to tap into as much as $147 million in grant money available under the federal stimulus package because of a deep disagreement between the Patrick administration and residents of Roxbury and Mattapan.
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MA: Charles Baker cooks up plan to cut pension abuse
By Hillary Chabot, Boston Herald
Job-hopping to inflate state pensions and out-the-door parachutes higher than $90,000 will be banned under a new proposal by Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker, as a Herald review shows the number of retirees raking in that much or more shot up 30 percent this year.
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MA: Jobless rate drops in Bay State
By The Associated Press, Cape Cod Times
The Massachusetts unemployment rate fell last month for the first time in nearly 2½ years as the job market was spurred by expansion in the science, health and business services sectors.
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MD: The mortgage crisis deepens
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Sun (Baltimore)
BALTIMORE -- The mortgage crisis has worsened to the point that about one in every 10 prime borrowers in Maryland and nationwide -- homeowners judged to be good credit risks -- were behind on payments in September.
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MD: State slashes budget by $362M
By Liam Farrell, The Capital (Annapolis)
The latest round of state budget cuts imposed yesterday will limit student financial aid, slice Medicaid payments to hospitals and even reduce commuter bus trips for state employees when the legislature is not in session.
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ME: Election money may be scant
By Kevin Miller, Bangor Daily News
The prospect that Maine's clean election fund could run dry before the November 2010 elections is causing some concerns among gubernatorial candidates hoping to tap into the program.
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MI: Bills aim to force pay cuts
By Dawson Bell, Detroit Free Press
Calling it "another option to consider" in addressing the financial crisis gripping Michigan's public schools, an Oakland County lawmaker wants to empower the state schools superintendent to make unilateral cuts to the pay and benefits for school employees under some circumstances.
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MN: Mortgage crisis hits prime borrowers
By Christopher Snowbeck, St. Paul Pioneer Press
More prime borrowers in Minnesota fell behind on mortgage payments during the third quarter, according to a report released Thursday, as delinquencies and bank foreclosures nationally hit record highs.
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MN: State says it needs more than stimulus
By The Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press
The state Department of Transportation said in its 20-year plan, released this week, that federal economic stimulus money does not solve immediate or long-term funding needs.
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MS: Lawmakers' trips hit amid revenue crunch
By Elizabeth Crisp, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson)
Senate leaders have eliminated all taxpayer-funded out-of-state travel for the rest of the fiscal year. Meanwhile, the House is considering a proposal to limit its members to one out-of-state trip each this fiscal year, said House Management Committee Chair J.P. Compretta, D-Bay St. Louis.
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MS: Miss. levee board sues EPA over flood project
By The Associated Press, The Sun Herald (Biloxi)
GREENVILLE, Miss. -- Environmental groups have intervened in a lawsuit filed by a Mississippi levee board over the Environmental Protection Agency's veto of a $220 million flood control project that dates back decades.
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NC: UNC tuition hike too small, some say
By Eric Ferreri, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Students at UNC-Chapel Hill will continue to pay far less for their educations than peers at most of the campus's competitors under a tuition plan approved Thursday. And that, some say, is a problem.
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NC: Doctor is brusque. Patient complains. Doctor fires back.
By Sarah Avery, The Charlotte Observer
Dr. Earl Sunderhaus, an Asheville eye doctor, has what might charitably be described as a brusque bedside manner. That much is not in dispute. But the N.C. Medical Board may decide Sunderhaus overstepped the bounds of decency when he recently told a patient she was irresponsible for being unemployed, on Medicaid, and relying on taxpayers to cover another pregnancy after giving birth less than a year earlier.
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NC: Prisoners allege sex abuse
By Mandy Locke, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Four female inmates have filed a federal class-action lawsuit accusing North Carolina prison officials of subjecting female prisoners to extensive sexual violence and harassment amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.
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NC: Stam sees a chance for eminent domain bill
By Benjamin Niolet and Rob Christensen, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The departure of state Sen. Tony Rand has a lot of people wondering how the Senate will operate without the powerful master of rules, legislative maneuvers and hardball politics. It even has state Rep. Paul Stam wondering whether he'll finally get a favorite bill passed in the Senate.
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NE: Senators will work around Heineman's schedule to wrap up session
By JoAnne Young, Lincoln Journal Star
Gov. Dave Heineman called 49 senators to Lincoln 2 1/2 weeks ago to find a solution to a budget crisis. He met with the Appropriations Committee and other key committee chairs Nov. 2, and held briefings with others, to outline his proposal to cut the two-year budget to fill a gap in revenue. Then, according to a few senators, he more or less disappeared.
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NE: UNL and witch settle lawsuit
By The Associated Press, Omaha World-Herald
A woman who sued the University of Nebraska last year, saying the school fired her because she is a witch, has agreed to settle the case for $40,000.
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NE: McGill named head of Urban Affairs Committee
By JoAnne Young, Lincoln Journal Star
Lincoln Sen. Amanda McGill was elected Thursday to chair the Legislature's Urban Affairs Committee.
She will succeed Omaha Sen. Mike Friend, who resigned this summer to become the first director of the state's Office of Violence Prevention.
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NJ: Dem leader -- Economy trumps gay marriage
By Staff Reports, The Star-Ledger (Newark)
Following a dust-up over gay marriage in which he said he was taken out of context, Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney said it would be irresponsible for Democrats to bring a bill to vote if they are not sure it will pass.
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NJ: Christie lays down his law for state
By Staff Reports, The Star-Ledger (Newark)
In his first major speech since Election Day, Gov.-elect Chris Christie told local officials yesterday they better step up and become part of the solution, or he would become their problem.
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NM: State mulls reducing Medicaid coverage
By Barry Massey, The Associated Press, Santa Fe New Mexican
Gov. Bill Richardson's administration is proposing to overhaul Medicaid and scale back health care services to some lower-income New Mexicans to cope with a projected budget shortfall of $300 million next year in the state's largest health care program.
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NV: State sells $131 million in bonds
By Staff Reports, Nevada Appeal (Carson City)
Nevada Treasurer Kate Marshall has announced the sale of $130.9 million in general obligation bonds at one of the lowest interest rates ever.
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NV: The Strip -- License approved for Aria
By, Las Vegas Review-Journal
There was never any doubt Thursday whether Nevada gaming regulators would approve a casino license for the centerpiece resort inside the $8.5 billion CityCenter development.
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NY: Governor -- 'There is no deal'
By Casey Seiler, Times Union (Albany)
The work goes on, but the legislators are gone. Members of the state Senate and Assembly left the Capitol on Thursday with plans to return on Monday -- if, that is, their leaders manage to hammer out a package to close the state's estimated $3.2 billion budget deficit.
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OH: Casino issue won big with absentee voters
By Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch
Voters who cast an absentee ballot in the Nov. 3 election generally were much more likely to support the statewide issue authorizing casinos than those who went to the polls Election Day, final unofficial results show.
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OH: Slot-like machines in a legal muddle
By James Nash, The Columbus Dispatch
Attorney General Richard Cordray's office insists that it cannot decide whether slot-like Sweepstakes machines are legal in Ohio because courts haven't ruled on the devices.
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OR: Tax measures represent next economic crossroads
By Peter Wong, Statesman Journal (Salem)
With Oregon's economy and tax collections apparently stabilizing, the next development affecting state services and aid to public schools will hinge on how Oregon voters decide the Legislature's budget-balancing tax measures Jan. 26.
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OR: OSU faculty face mandatory furloughs
By Cheryl Hatch, Corvallis Gazette-Times
Under the proposal, faculty members will have to take a minimum of three unpaid days and a maximum of 12, depending on their salaries and whether they're on nine-month or 12-month contracts.
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PA: State October jobless rate flat
By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In recent months Pennsylvania has been in step with the nation in terms of unemployment, staying about a point behind the national rate as both rates slowly ticked up.
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PA: State taking heat for 'chaotic' flu shots
By Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the last several weeks, as the H1N1 flu has swept through the nation and health officials scrambled to find scarce vaccine, questions have been raised about how Pennsylvania chose to handle the process of distributing the limited doses available.
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PA: Some don't report how stimulus funds spent
By Tom Fontaine, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Stung by criticism over data showing billions in federal stimulus money going to nonexistent congressional districts in Pennsylvania and other states, the government corrected its Web site created to track the money.
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PA: Rendell revises gaming claim
By Brad Bumsted, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Gov. Ed Rendell on Thursday backed off his claim the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office investigated the state gambling board's award of slot licenses in 2006 and found nothing.
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SC: Sanford relents on ethics report
By Staff and Wire Reports, The Post and Courier (Charleston)
Gov. Mark Sanford agreed Thursday to remove the last hurdle to a long-delayed House of Representatives impeachment investigation of his travel and campaign expenses.
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SC: Ethics panel votes to charge Sanford
By John O'Connor, The State (Columbia)
Gov. Mark Sanford agreed Thursday to remove the last hurdle to a long-delayed House of Representatives impeachment investigation of his travel and campaign expenses.
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SC: Role of black colleges in higher education touted
By Wayne Washington, The State (Columbia)
The presidents of six colleges and universities in South Carolina met Thursday morning with the chief executive officer of a private foundation that has given at least $2 million to a pair of historically black colleges and universities in this state.
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SD: DOT -- Highway tax hike unlikely
By Bob Mercer, Capital Journal (Pierre)
The Legislature will be presented a package of proposed tax increases for highway funding in the 2010 session, but state Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist said Thursday he doesn't foresee lawmakers coming up with any more money for road maintenance and projects.
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TN: UK goes smoke-free
By Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press, The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky's flagship public university gave the official heave-ho to tobacco on Thursday, touting the health benefits of a smoke-free policy covering all of its sprawling campus in the heart of burley tobacco country.
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TN: TVA price increases fuel higher tax payments
By Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Higher electricity prices may have squeezed recession-weary consumers in the past two years, but the higher TVA rates are helping to funnel more money into state and local government coffers.
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TN: Water quality penalty expected next year
By Cliff Hightower, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Chattanooga could be fined as early as next spring for not living up to the standards of its water quality permit, a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation official said Thursday.
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TX: Settlement delay costs HISD $82 million
By Ericka Mellon, The Houston Chronicle
Houston ISD schools have gone without at least $82 million for technology upgrades while the district is under federal investigation for questionable deals with computer equipment vendors.
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TX: Who's got the swine flu vaccine?
By Tony Plohetski and Nathan Adkisson, The Austin American-Statesman
State health officials said Thursday that they have funneled most doses — about 147,000 in Travis County — to private physicians, urgent care clinics and hospitals, where workers must decide whether patients meet the criteria to receive the scarce immunizations.
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US: Mayors sound alarm over drop in city revenues
By Conor Dougherty, The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Mayors from four U.S. cities said they are facing a once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis and that federal stimulus funds have, so far, been largely unhelpful in helping them balance budgets hit by steep drops in nearly every source of municipal revenue.
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US: Gateses give $290 million for education
By Sam Dillon, The New York Times
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday announced its biggest education donation in a decade, $290 million, in support of three school districts and five charter groups working to transform how teachers are evaluated and how they get tenure.
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US: Watchdog urges caution on claims of 640,000 stimulus jobs
By Michael Cooper, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The government watchdog overseeing the federal stimulus program testified Thursday that he could not vouch for the Obama administration's recent claims that the money had saved or created 640,000 jobs. He suggested that the administration should have treated the number with more skepticism.
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UT: Utah oil and gas leases should be reinstated, report says
By Amy Joi O'Donoghue, The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
A new analysis by an association representing oil and gas producers asserts the Department of the Interior thwarted the public process and "second-guessed" its own land managers when it yanked bids on oil and gas parcels sold at a controversial auction in Salt Lake City last December.
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VA: Hampton Alcoa plant lays off 250
By The Associated Press, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)
HAMPTON, Va. -- Alcoa Howmet is laying off 250 workers, or nearly a quarter of its work force, at its Hampton manufacturing plant.
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WA: State's budget hole expands to $2.6 billion
By Curt Woodward, The Associated Press, The Seattle Times
Tax increases probably can't be avoided as the state tries to patch a budget deficit that's ballooned to about $2.6 billion, top Democratic lawmakers said Thursday.
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WA: Ranks of uninsured swell in state
By John Stucke, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane)
Washington state is on pace to reach a dangerous milestone within 14 months, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said Thursday: 1 million uninsured residents.
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WA: State budget gap widens
By Brad Shannon, The Olympian
An additional $760 million in hoped-for state revenue evaporated in the latest economic forecast, and lawmakers began talking up the pros and cons of tax increases to help plug a budget shortfall now estimated at $2.7 billion.
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WA: Man gets $4 million after jail beating
By Staff Reports, The Olympian
A man who suffered permanent brain damage from a beating by his cellmate at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton has received a $4 million settlement from the Washington State Department of Corrections.
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WI: Troubled mortgages at record level in state
By Thomas Content, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
One of every nine homeowners in Wisconsin was behind on mortgage payments or in foreclosure at the end of September - a record level that industry observers said Thursday is likely to rise.
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WV: Vote block extends special session to fourth day
By Staff and Wire Reports, Charleston Daily Mail
House Republicans on Thursday blocked the Legislature from voting on two bills sought by the Manchin administration, throwing a special session into a fourth day. In a largely symbolic move, the Republicans prevented Democrats from suspending House rules Thursday to advance one bill that would have made changes to the state gasoline tax and another to encourage the use of energy sources other than coal by state utilities.
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WV: WVU Tech athletic department losing money, audit shows
By Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette
West Virginia University Institute of Technology's athletic department has a losing record when it comes to finances, running budget deficits of more than $1 million for each of the past two academic years, a legislative audit released Thursday concludes.
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WV: Foster-care agencies seek higher payments
By Alison Knezevich, Charleston Gazette
Private foster-care agencies in West Virginia hope state lawmakers will boost their daily payments, saying it will help them retain good foster parents and social workers who care for abused and neglected children.
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