Associated Press: “In the past five years, roughly a dozen states have enacted laws barring local governments from requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees. The number of states banning local minimum wages has grown to 15. And while oil-rich states such as Texas and Oklahoma are pursuing bills banning local restrictions on drilling, other states where agriculture is big business have been banning local limitations on the types of seeds sown for crops.”
Missouri Speaker Resigns After Sexting Intern
Missouri House Speaker John Diehl (R) “is resigning from both his leadership position and his legislative seat after acknowledging that he sent sexually charged text messages to a Capitol intern,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The Kansas City Star, which broke the story, said Diehl’s “survival, or ouster, as speaker was more practically a matter for the overwhelming Republican majority. Those lawmakers met in a party caucus late Wednesday, a meeting that ended with neither a vote of confidence nor a consensus that the 49-year-old should go. That dynamic seemed to shift overnight and through Thursday morning, culminating with Diehl’s resignation on Thursday afternoon.”
Missouri House Speaker Caught Sexting with Intern
Text messages obtained by the Kansas City Star “reveal a sexually charged relationship between House Speaker John Diehl and a college freshman in a Missouri Capitol internship program that shut down abruptly last month.”
“The conversations unveil a flirty rapport and suggest an intimacy between arguably the state’s most influential lawmaker and a young woman taking some pleasure in a secret association.”
“Diehl initially declined to comment. But about six hours after the story was posted online Wednesday morning, he issued a statement admitting the relationship.”
Cuomo Approval Slides to New Low
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist poll in New York finds that only 37% of registered voters think Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is doing a good or excellent job, while 59% think he’s doing a fair or poor job, in part due to concerns of corruption in state government.
Key findings: “Despite new ethics rules that Mr. Cuomo proposed and legislators passed in April, half of those polled said they don’t think he is changing Albany for the better. About 40% said he is making improvements, down from 47% last September. Forty-three percent said state government has become more corrupt over the past few years. Just 8% said it has become less corrupt.”
New York Senate Leader Steps Aside
New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R) “said he would resign his leadership post a week after being charged in a corruption scheme involving his son, and was replaced by a fellow senator from Long Island,” Reuters reports.
Naked Lawmaker Confronted Ex Before Shooting
Michigan State Sen. Virgil Smith (D) “told police his ex-wife stormed into his house and assaulted his girlfriend before he did ‘the most stupid thing in his life’ — opening fire at the ex-wife’s Mercedes Benz with an automatic rifle,” the Detroit News reports.
“He was naked when he met her at the front door, the senator’s ex-wife claims in a second police report, beat her with his fists, chased her outside and shot at her four or five times.”
Christie Spent $82K on Food at Football Games
Gov. Chris Christie’s “most notable spending spree occurred during the 2010 and 2011 NFL football seasons at MetLife Stadium, where the New York’s Giants and Jets play their home games. New Jersey’s governor traditionally enjoys free use of luxury boxes for games and other events at the government-owned venue, but food and beverages cost extra,” according to New Jersey Watchdog.
“On 58 occasions, Christie used a debit card to pay a total of $82,594 to Delaware North Sportservice, which operates the concessions at MetLife. The governor’s office did not provide any receipts, business reasons or names of individuals entertained, but defended the expense.”
Lawmaker Arrested in Sex-for-Rent Scheme
Vermont state Sen. Norman McAllister (R) “has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of sexual assault and three misdemeanors of prohibited acts, the charges arising from what police describe as a sex-for-rent scheme involving several unwilling tenants,” the Burlington Free Press reports.
Prosecutors allege McAllister, “over a period of several years sexually assaulted two women who were his tenants and employees, and that he attempted to solicit a third woman… The allegations, explained in sometimes graphic detail in court papers, shocked the governor and McAllister’s Statehouse colleagues, several of whom witnessed his arrest outside the Capitol on Thursday evening.”
Christie Achievement About to be Dismantled
Gov. Chris Christie’s “signature achievement as New Jersey governor may be going up in smoke,” Politico reports.
“The potential presidential candidate has said his ‘biggest governmental victory’ was a 2011 law meant to fix once and for all New Jersey’s notoriously bloated and insolvent public pension system by imposing deep cuts. But on Wednesday Christie’s administration argued before the state Supreme Court that the law was unconstitutional, in a complex maneuver to defend $1.57 billion in additional pension cuts that appear to have violated its terms. If the court upholds a February lower-court judgment against Christie, as seems likely, the cash-strapped state must scramble to find the money before July 1.”
Kamala Harris Aide Accused of Running Rogue Police Force
An aide to California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) and two others “are accused of operating a rogue police force that claimed to exist for more than 3,000 years and have jurisdiction in 33 states and Mexico,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Suspicions about the Masonic Fraternal Police Department — whose members trace their origins to the Knights Templar — were aroused when various police chiefs in Southern California received a letter in late January that announced new leadership for the group.”
Jindal Faces Massive Budget Hole in Louisiana
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) “is trying to close a $1.6 billion budget hole without touching as much as $415,000 per episode in tax breaks that may be due to Duck Dynasty,” the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.
“The A&E television reality show takes part in the nation’s most generous entertainment-tax credit program. Jindal is proposing no changes, arguing that reducing such breaks is tantamount to raising taxes.”
“Louisiana’s tattered finances are a consequence of years of short-term patches to a structural gap between expenses and revenue and the recent sag in oil prices in the energy-producing state.”
Pentagon Denies Plot to Take Over Texas
Defense officials dismissed as “wild speculation” an Internet-fueled claim that a massive summertime exercise called Jade Helm 15 for special operations commandos is a covert operation by President Obama to take over Texas, McClatchy reports.
That claim was given legitimacy by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) order last week for the Texas State Guard to monitor the exercises.
Most in New Jersey Think Christie Hasn’t Come Clean
A new Monmouth University poll in New Jersey finds just 9% believe the three people charged in the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal were the only individuals responsible for the decision to close the lanes.
Another 3-in-4 feel others were involved, including 33% who say the conspiracy was limited to just a few others, 22% who feel that involvement in Bridgegate was fairly widespread throughout the Christie administration, and 22% who are not sure how many other people may have been involved.
The poll also found that 69% of New Jerseyans feel Christie has not been completely honest about what he knew.
Evidence Shows Christie Knew of Bridge Lane Closures
After David Wildstein pled guilty to blocking traffic on the George Washington Bridge as political retribution, his lawyer said outside the courtroom that his client was still being questioned by government investigators and was “prepared to testify,” the New York Times reports.
He repeated that Gov. Chris Christie (R) “knew of the lane closures as they occurred” and that “evidence exists” that proves it.
However, Politico reports the U.S. attorney for New Jersey did not implicate Christie directly in the alleged crime, adding that “based on the evidence that is currently available to us, we are not going to charge anybody else in this scheme.”
Indictments Coming After Guilty Plea in Bridge Scandal
As former Chris Christie ally David Wildstein pleads guilty today in the George Washington Bridge closures, the New York Times reports the U.S. Attorney “is expected to announce other indictments in the case, but it was not clear who would be among those indictments.”
“The exact charges Mr. Wildstein would plead guilty to were not immediately clear. Typically, he would appear in court to answer a series of questions confirming the details he was acknowledging in his plea. That plea will be heavily watched for what Mr. Wildstein indicates about what role – if any — Mr. Christie had in the lane closings, which gridlocked the town of Fort Lee, N.J., over four days, stranding emergency vehicles, commuters and school buses.”
Abbott Orders Monitoring of Federal Troops
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has “ordered members of the Texas Military to monitor federal troops in an upcoming two-month training exercise planned for the Lone Star State,” the Houston Chronicle reports.
“Operation Jade Helm will bring the U.S. military’s most elite soldiers, including the Green Berets and Navy SEALS, to Texas for simulated special operations in a hostile territory. But plans for the exercise have roused fears in many Texans of a federal occupation.”
What Is the Best State?
Wonk Wire has a fantastic interactive map allowing you to rank the states on a variety of measures.
Christie Not Concerned About Bridge Investigation
Gov. Chris Chistie (R) said that he’s “not the least bit concerned” about the potential developments in the ongoing investigation over the George Washington bridge scandal, CBS News reports.
Said Christie: “That matter will take it’s natural course and be dictated by the folks who are investigating it, and I don’t have anything to do with that, so I certainly can’t allow it to affect me.”
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